(Yicai Global) June 9 -- Restaurants in Shanghai have started to reopen after a two-month-long lockdown, and while most still only offer take-out services, some have been given permission to allow dine-ins, albeit with a restricted number of customers. Despite this, some restaurants are doing better than before the Covid-19 outbreaks.

Hotpot chain operator Xiabuxiabu Catering Management China Holdings has logged more business at some of its restaurants than before the lockdown, even though only 50 percent of seats are allowed to be filled, Yicai Global has learned.

Nine of its high-end Coucou hot-pot restaurants had a between 30 percent and 50 percent higher turnover than usual. Overall performance has recovered to 60 percent of normal levels, it added. All of the firm’s 70 Shanghai restaurants, apart from the one in the Disney resort, were operating again as of yesterday.

Restaurants permitted to have eat-in customers are restricted to 50 percent or 75 percent capacity and must adhere to strict Covid-19 safety protocols, according to local government regulations. Customers need to test negative within 72 hours of dining. Employees must also take regular tests and wear masks, gloves and face shields while working. The restaurants should be thoroughly disinfected.

So many customers are trying to eat out at Haidilao International Holding’s restaurants that the hotpot chain has had to ask customers to book in advance, manager Wu Yong said. Reservations on the first day of re-opening on June 1 were more than double what they used to be before the lockdown.

Bubble tea chain Nayuki Holdings has reopened close to 40 of its outlets in Shanghai, six of which are allowing dine-ins. Daily orders at some stores are now more than they were before the recent outbreaks, with turnover climbing over 30 percent on average.

Most of the restaurants at upscale shopping mall Taikoo Li Qiantan in Pudong New Area are operating at the new limit of 50 percent capacity. “Our sales revenue is back to half of what it was before the outbreaks,” a source at a seafood restaurant told Yicai Global.

Editor: Kim Taylor