I don't know about past 6 months, but in the past 6-18 months fast food and casual dining around where I live has gone up !
I will say, we were pleasantly surprised when we ate Carino's the other day. Good food, good portion size (we both had leftovers), dinner salad for $1 I thought was reasonable (if you were sharing an entree, the second salad is $4). Better food and service than Olive Garden and maybe a couple of dollars more.