Loosen your belt a couple of notches.
The number of restaurants citywide skyrocketed by 42 percent — from 5,610 to a gut-busting 7,966 — between 1999 and 2009, a Post analysis of Census data released last month reveals.
The biggest spikes in eateries occurred in neighborhoods that have been slowly gentrified into hipster havens over the decade.
The Lower East Side saw the largest growth in numbers, with restaurants nearly doubling to 233 sit-down establishments.
Williamsburg came in second, jumping to 130 eateries.
Park Slope was third, rising in number to 108.
“New York is a food-obsessed town,” said Ed Levine, founder of the food blog Serious Eats.
Among the findings from the County Business Patterns survey — the most detailed business data released by Census number crunchers:
* The top 10 city ZIP codes for total number of restaurants in 2009 were all in Manhattan.
* Leading the ZIP code pack was the Little Italy-SoHo area, with 331 joints. The East Village and Hell’s Kitchen-Midtown West areas came in second and third, respectively.
* Nearly all of the city’s 176 ZIP codes showed an increase in restaurants over the decade. Only 18 ZIP codes showed a dip. The Upper East Side registered the largest drop, with a loss of 66 establishments.