London kosher restaurants participating in the government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme experienced an increase in trade as it launched this week.
The scheme, announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak last month, is designed to support the flagging restaurant sector by offering a 50 per cent discount on food and soft drinks up to a maximum of £10 per head from Monday to Wednesday during August. The discount will be made up by the Treasury.
But as Philip Pell, owner of Kaifeng in Hendon, pointed out: “Three days a week for four weeks isn’t going, in any way, to replace the loss we have incurred in the last few months”.
Yet it was a “great opportunity” to get customers back into the habit of dining out, even if many remained wary.
