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.

Yaniv Barashi, the manager of Novellino Bistro in Golders Green, reported that customer numbers had more than doubled since Monday. “We can see that people are more keen to come out”.

Diners included a number of new faces who wanted to sample the restaurant’s cuisine at discounted prices.

Mr Barashi welcomed the “cash injection” that would be crucial to the restaurant if trade returned “to pre-August conditions” after the scheme ends.

“Hopefully people will get more confident and that won’t happen.”

Ethan Israeli, who works at Bagels Bar in Hendon, said a doubling of eat-in customers because of the scheme had increased workload but would help the business financially.

Other participating restaurants and cafés include Tish in Belsize Park, White Fish, White House Express and Mr Baker in Hendon and Hummus Bar in Golders Green.

Rabbi Elie Schoemann, director of licensing at the KLBD, hoped establishments under its supervision would get a “kick-start” from their involvement.