(Yicai Global) Jan. 4 -- Many restaurants in China were overflowing during the New Year holiday weekend as more people dine out now that the recent flare-up of Covid-19 caused by a relaxation of pandemic prevention measures has passed, and industry insiders expect business to only get better as the week-long Chinese New Year holiday approaches at month end.

A restaurant in Hangzhou was buzzing by 5 p.m. China time on Dec. 31. "People are still very enthusiastic about dining out on New Year's Eve, and the restaurant's private rooms were fully booked long ago," a source at the restaurant told Yicai Global.

"From the first day of the long weekend, dine-in customers needed to wait for a table," said Sha Jingjing, store manager at restaurant chain operator Xiabu Xiabu Catering Management’s Chaoyang Joy City restaurant in Beijing. "From 10 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. that day, we served more than 1,000 people."

Revenue and footfall at Xiabu Xiabu’s outlets in Beijing, Tianjin and northern Hebei province surged more than 10-fold from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2 compared with before the Covid controls were eased. Earnings and customer flow at its stores in southern Guangdong province, northern Shanxi province, central Henan province and southwestern Yunnan province jumped more than five times, while that in Shanghai and the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang tripled.

"Revenue and footfall increased nearly 40 percent over the New Year break compared with the same period in 2019, and table turnover was almost six times," Zhang Hui, operations manager at a Xiabu Xiabu restaurant in Hebei province, told Yicai Global. "Staff were too busy to eat, but they were still very happy, as it has not been easy for restaurant employees to survive the past three years."

China’s restaurant scene should return to normal by March, He Guangqi, founder and chairman of Beijing-based Xiabu Xiabu, said recently.

Business rebounded significantly at hot pot chain Haidilao’s outlets in popular tourist attractions, key business districts and certain communities during the New Year weekend from December and there was a peak in spending on New Year’s Eve.

"The party atmosphere of hot pot, where everyone gathers around a steaming bowl of hot soup and cooks their meal in it, made Haidilao the go-to place for many people on the last day of the year,” a company insider said.

The number of customers at its Zhouyue outlet in Shenzhen doubled on New Year’s Eve from the previous weekend, he said. And people were queuing for a table from 12 p.m. to 2.30 a.m. at its Beijing Xidan outlet on New Year’s Day.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor