New figures out today (August 25) show that restaurants have claimed more than 64 million discounted meals as Eat Out to Help Out enters its fourth week.

The overall figure is set to be more as not all registered businesses have claimed back yet.

This continues the upward trend in the scheme’s popularity, with 10.5 million meals claimed for in the first week, growing to a total of 35 million meals in the second.

Data from OpenTable shows that during Eat Out to Help Out’s third week the number of customers at UK restaurants was 61% higher than the same days last year on average for Monday to Wednesday. The average level across Monday to Wednesday in the first and second week were 12% and 41% respectively.

The data also shows that the number of customers at UK restaurants was up 17% compared to the same week in 2019.

A total of 87,000 claims have been made by many of the signed-up businesses and there have been over 34 million searches on Eat Out to Help Out’s restaurant finder from 13 million unique users.

There are now 84,000 sign-ups from restaurants for the scheme, which closes on 31 August.

David Page, Chairman of Fulham Shore (Franco Manca/The Real Greek), said: “Eat Out to Help Out immediately increased our restaurant customer numbers by over 50%, thus enabling us to get all our staff back to work. In fact, we are now creating new jobs by hiring and training more people as fast as we can!“

The scheme applies to all food and non-alcoholic drinks with participating establishments deducting 50% from the bill, up to a maximum discount per person of £10. It could save a family of four up to £40 per meal.

Businesses have become Covid Secure through, for example, protective screens, contactless payments, social distancing, one way walking systems, online bookings and reduced capacity.