Restaurants cheap in America? Surely you're kidding, unless you include McDonald's as "restaurant". In my experience, the restaurants in California are twice or more more expensive than France or Italy (especially if you include all costs -tax, mandatory 20% tip) and on average worse quality, so it's not like they compensate for the price with better quality.
Even McDonald's and other fast food is extremely expensive compared to the cost of other goods in society. I would love a deep-dive on why eating out is so expensive in the US.
My point of reference is traveling through Germany recently and realizing that I could have a sit-down meal in an amazing cafe in Munich for less than a meal at Panera (which is like McDonald's for sandwiches except they charge more because they use more wood in the decor and more words in the food descriptions). And the waiter in Germany doesn't suggest a 25% tip, unlike the self-serve computer terminals at Panera.
