The restaurant and travel industries showed the most improvement in a survey of five different industries by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, an indicator that the economy may finally be coming out of a devastating recession.

The ACSI report measures satisfaction with the quality of food products and services provided by restaurants, airlines, hotels, fast food outlets, and delivery services.

In the restaurant category, Olive Garden lead with a 4 percent to a score of 84, followed closely by Red Lobster, up 4 percent to 83. Outback and Chili's increased 4 percent to 80, and 5 percent to 78, respectively.

Papa John's lead the fast food category, with a jump of 7 percent to a score of 80. That chain's followed by Pizza Hut with an increase of 5 percent, and Little Caesar at a 4 percent increase. KFC and Burger King also showed improvements, up 9 percent to a score of 75 and 7 percent to 74, respectively. Domino's remained flat at 77, despite its rollout of a "new and improved" pizza. McDonald's dropped 4 percent to an all-time low of 67.

Analyists say the rise among pizza restaurants and fast-casual restaurants show a demand toward family-friendly restaurants and those with value-added menus. So while restaurants seem to be coming out of an economic recession, the effects of that recession have made seemingly lasting impacts on customer wants and needs.