At last restaurants are starting to show signs of recovery?

Ive finally moved on from the worst crisis risking the existence of so much of the restaurant business since the beginning of the pandemic

New figures on profitability suggest such an outcome.

Analysis by accountants Hacker Young shows that the UK's 100 largest restaurant groups made a combined profit of 241.8 million pounds in the six months to March - a 12 times a £19.9 million surplus they made in the first six months and the prior year combined.

It's a long way from boom times.

While this profits constitute a relatively thin margin of 3%, it is much healthier than the barely sustainable 0.5%.

The restaurant game has always been a precarious business, prone to fickle changes in public taste, intense competition, fluctuating costs and a shortage of skilled workers.

But it was especially bad in recent years as energy, food and personnel bills soared and Covid struggled for years with closures and other trade restraints.

The test comes in fall, the time of year for new openings before Christmas.