This month†* the Chancellor is encouraging us all to Eat Out To Help Out with 50% off‡ meals§ in participating restaurants¶.
† August only
* Monday-Wednesday only
‡ to a maximum of £10
§ alcohol not included
¶ eat-in only
Even if you've not yet taken advantage you could still fit in twelve more half-price lunches if you really tried. But only if you go to the right restaurants.
A special website has been provided, tax.service.gov.uk/eat-out-to-help-out, which allows you to search for up to 100 participating venues within five miles of a given postcode.The government are a lot better at providing bespoke websites these days, and this one's quick and simple to use. It's a shame they didn't go the extra step and provide a map, but thankfully Rob Fry has produced just such a thing which allows you to see where all the EO2HO venues are.
Participating restaurants are well spread across the country because people go out for meals wherever they are. But as a resident of inner London I confess I was expecting more nearby. Only four places have signed up within half a mile of my home, three of which are pubs. Worse, one of those pubs is still closed, so I guess the landlord submitted their details in the hope that head office might relent and reopen by the end of the month.
Extend the radius to one mile and my number of options increases to 31, because this encompasses Roman Road and the cluster of dining opportunities close to Mile End station. My 31 nearest EO2HO options include 8 pubs, 2 bars, 1 hotel, 4 cafes, 3 coffee shops, 3 chicken shops, 4 pizzerias and 4 other sit-down restaurants. Also on the list is the home address of the woman who runs the Hub cafe in Victoria Park, because she entered her details incorrectly, and what appears to be the works canteen for a building company. This may not have been what the Chancellor had in mind.
Extend the radius to 1¼ miles and whoosh, my list shoots up to the maximum of 100 places. This is mainly because the extra quarter mile manages to take in Westfield (and they're extremely keen to get diners back). Elsewhere it's possible to hit the 100 barrier much quicker than that. From Buckingham Palace the listing only goes up to 0.46 miles before filling up, from Liverpool Street station 0.32 miles and from the Piccadilly Theatre in Soho just 0.16 miles. By contrast, where my dad lives in rural Norfolk there are only 15 participating restaurants up to the five mile limit.
Anyway, it might be fun to have a play to see how hospitality-friendly your immediate locality is. And if you do decide to take part and save the economy with a half-price meal, here's a further link to the Prime Minister's new anti-obesity strategy, just in case.
