Eat Out to Help Out near me – app reveals restaurants offering the discount in your area
EAT Out to Help Out has now launched and there’s a new app that shows which places are offering the discount near you.
As part of the scheme, diners can get 50 per cent off meals and non-alcoholic drinks, up to £10 a head, throughout August.
Eat Out to Help Out starts from today (August 3) and will run until August 31, with the discount applying on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak revealed the new eat out initiative in his mini-Budget earlier this month.
But as businesses don’t have to sign up, you may be wondering if your favourite chain is taking part.
To help diners out, two tech entrepreneurs in Manchester have created a new app which flags up places with the Eat Out to Help Out discount.
How will the Eat Out to Help Out scheme work?
THE government will cover half of the cost of a meal out, up to £10 a head, including children's meals.
The discount means that a meal out for one that costs £20 will be reduced to £10, but a £25 meal for one will be slashed to £15 because of the £10 cap per person.
There is no limit to the number of times you can use the discount, so in theory you can get half price meals on every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in August.
Businesses will need to before being able to offer the discount, as well as be Food Standards Agency approved.
Instead of issuing discount vouchers - which the government felt increased the risk of fraud - restaurants, cafes and pubs will be able to claim back the cash.
The refund will then been transferred into restaurants, cafes and pubs' bank accounts within five working days.
Customers will only receive the discount if they eat out at a registered business.
When you sign up to the app, you'll be asked to choose your region and enter your postcode so it can track down nearby places.
On the home screen, you'll then see a section called "near me" - click on this, and a list of all available Eat Out to Help Out eateries will appear.
When The Sun used the app today, it brought up several big-name brands that are already confirmed to be taking part in the scheme, including Wagamama and Wetherspoon pubs.
The app is separate to the official government Eat Out to Help Out postcode checker.
Which restaurants, cafes and pubs will take part in Eat Out to Help Out?
THE following restaurants, cafes and pubs have already confirmed they'll be taking part in Eat Out to Help Out.
However, it won't just be big brands who've signed up.
Thousands of local pubs and independent restaurant chains will also offer the scheme - so make sure you check the restaurant finder to see what's available near you.
Business still have time to register as it closes on August 31.
For now, the following places are confirmed to be offering Eat Out to Help Out:
- Wetherspoon
- McDonald's
- Costa Coffee
- Burger King
- Frankie and Benny's
- Harverster
- Toby Carvery
- Wagamama
- Oakman Inns
- Stonegate pubs
- Three Cheers Pub company
The app has so far listed around 3,000 restaurants, pubs and cafes - but it plans on adding thousands more over the next few days.
Restaurants can ask to be added, or they can add themselves.
In addition, the team behind the app are also manually adding businesses that are confirmed to be taking part.
Restaurants can choose to customise their profile to include menus and posts about new offers.
The app has been designed by tech entrepreneurs Michael Lawes and Jordan Ryan Madeley from Sancus, and the pair say thousands of customers have already signed up.
Michael said: "We decided to build something that made it easy to find all
the information at your fingertips.
"We think it’s a great scheme but the government seems to be relying on posters in participating restaurants - and we want to digitally empower it."
The is free to download now on the App Store or Google Play.
You'll be asked to register with your email address to use it, as well as personal details such as your name and age.
As of last week, 32,000 businesses had signed up to Eat Out to Help Out.
The government postcode checker has a full list of businesses.
Most read in Money
The Sun has rounded up all the pubs and restaurant chains taking part so far.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
Plus, here are the Eat Out to Help Out posters to look out for in restaurants to get 50 per cent off.
Here are the 13 Eat Out to Help Out rules you need to know.