This is the latest data from OpenTable on 'seated diners' in UK restaurants. The chart shows the % change each day vs last year.

This is the pattern since restaurants were allowed to open again.

You can see the success of 'Eat Out to Help Out': those 3-day spikes on the right are mon-wed the last 3 weeks.

Last Monday was the most successful yet, with 'seated diners' up 70.24% vs the same Monday last year

Here's the OpenTable data showing the number of 'Seated Diners' vs the same days last year, for August alone.

I've marked the 'Eat Out to Help Out' days in blue.

You can see so far every single EOTHO day has been up vs last year. Every other day has been down vs last year.

Here's the OpenTable data of 'Seated Diners' in the UK, vs last year, for the last 2 months.

This time I've removed *all* 'mon-wed' data - ie, it excludes the direct effect of 'Eat Out to Help Out'.

Still down, but creeping toward last year's level over the last 4 weeks.

Here's the opposite: *only Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays*, of % change year-on-year 'Seated Diners' in the UK from OpenTable data.

You can see that 'seated diners' have rocketed mon, tue, wed. Monday is the biggest peak each week. 'Eat Out to Help Out' has grown each week.

There are lots of caveats of course Eg:

- A drop of 30% on a Friday probably means losing a lot more people than a gain of 30% on a Wednesday
- Data only includes a sample of restaurants, & excludes restaurants who've chosen not to reopen
- Not all restaurants use OpenTable

It's tough to know whether EOTHO is 'cannibalising' other days. Eg, would Fri/Sat now be *above* last year if people hadn't shifted their patterns to eat out mon/tue/wed?

Also tough to know the exact effect: Do people spend less on mon/tue/wed, and what are the abolute #s.

But still:

It's good to see 'Eat Out to Help Out' has had a big positive effect.

It's good to see the trend on non-EOTHO days is consistently up, to the point yesterday (Friday) was less than 10% down vs same day last year.

I'd expect 31st August - Bank Holiday Monday - will be massive. That's currently set to be the last day of 'Eat Out to Help Out'.

I hope it's continued, but expect they may let it end before bringing something similar back in another form if numbers dip again.

Full data from OpenTable is here: https://www.opentable.com/state-of-industry

Great that they put this data out, as it's useful for all of us, benefits restaurants, as well as benefiting them.