London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 19, 2025

Sunak's discount dining scheme boosts restaurants

Sunak's discount dining scheme boosts restaurants

The Eat Out to Help Out initiative has already made a significant difference to booking levels in its first week

Restaurants and pubs enjoyed a much-needed uplift in visitors this week as the prospect of a half price meal encouraged people out of their homes.

More than 73,000 restaurants have signed up to the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme which launched this week and gives customers a 50pc discount on their food bill when they dine in from Monday to Wednesday throughout August.



The Government funded initiative, which is capped at £10 per head, has already made a significant difference to booking levels at many restaurants.

“Demand has been incredible, we could probably have sold the table three times over,” Will Beckett, co-founder of steak chain Hawksmoor, says. “We’ve got around 15,500 bookings for the 13 days across August [when the scheme is running], so we’re really pleased with it.”



The boss of one major pub chain says he expects to see a double digit increase in bookings as a result of the scheme.

Mark Selby, co-founder of Wahaca, says restaurant covers during Monday to Wednesday, typically quiet days for the sector, are now 50 to 100pc higher than usual.

“I wasn't sure how many people were going to take it up and so far there's been a really positive pick up,” he says.

“For a lot of people, who haven’t eaten out since lockdown restrictions were eased, this has given them a reason to go out and given them some confidence.”



Such is the success of the scheme that some operators have chosen to foot at least some of the bill themselves. Supermarket Morrisons is extending the initiative at its cafes throughout the entire week and will subsidise the discount from Thursday to Sunday, while Whitbread has removed the £10 cap from its restaurants so diners will get a full 50pc discount, regardless of how much they spend.

Even higher end restaurants have stepped in with their own improvements. At Hawksmoor, where most bills generally exceed £50 per head, diners can now get a steak, chips and sauce of their choice for £10 from Monday to Wednesday throughout August. Beckett says by passing on the VAT reduction and an additional discount, a meal which would normally cost around £30 will now be a third of the price.

Sceptics say that the rush to take advantage of the discount at the beginning of the week could lead to even more subdued sales at the weekend.

Restaurants generally need to operate at around 80pc capacity just to break even, but social distancing requirements and weak consumer confidence mean outlets are currently running at anywhere between 20 and 80pc.

Andrei Lussmann, founder and director of Lussmanns, a group of fish restaurants backed by investor Luke Johnson, says that while the scheme might mean weaker demand at weekends, its biggest impact will be to drive consumer confidence.

“Thursdays have definitely taken a hit, so it might well be that you have a really bad day on Thursday and then weekends are not quite as busy as they have been,” Lussman says.

“That's not to say that it's not a good scheme. Anything that engages and ignites some interest and motivates people to come out and eat has got to be a good thing.”

The real impact of the initiative is yet to be felt, but some operators are worried about what bookings will look like from September once the scheme ends and the temperature starts to cool, making outdoor seating a less attractive option.

“I am worried, don't get me wrong,” Wahaca’s Selby admits. “Before this, sales weren't in the best of places.”

Figures from data experts Springboard show that visitors to UK retail destinations rose by 7.8pc between Monday and Wednesday lunchtime compared with a week earlier. However, the increase is skewed by a weak comparison, Springboard said, with heavy rain on Monday last week meaning more people stayed at home.

Meanwhile, footfall remains significantly lower than pre-Covid levels, with visitors down by almost a third compared with the same period a year earlier.

Restaurateurs admit that while the Chancellor’s discount scheme is unlikely to translate to an increase in profits in most cases, the bigger achievement is to make people comfortable about visiting restaurants again and prove they are safe and clean places to go.

“The best we can hope for is that this scheme gives people the confidence to come out and feel safe in a restaurant while having a great experience,” Selby adds.

“If that can be the legacy of this, then it's been a great success."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Windows’ Own ‘Siri’ Has Arrived: You Can Now Talk to Your Computer
Thailand and Singapore Investigate Cambodian-Based Prince Group as U.S. and U.K. Sanctions Unfold
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
×