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UK restaurants and fast-food chains are resorting to unusually steep discounts and special offers as they try to lure cautious consumers who have shunned splashing out on a meal in favour of building savings.

The deals — including a second main course for just £1 at PizzaExpress and a £5 burger at Frankie & Benny’s — have been described by analysts as a “last resort” as the sector struggles to emerge from a prolonged slump since the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis that followed.

Like-for-like sales at UK restaurants fell in all but two months last year, according to data tracker NIQ and accounting firm RSM UK. Meanwhile, the cost of eating at a restaurant or café was more than a third higher in December than in the same month in 2019, data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Britons are dining out less frequently partly because it “feels so much more expensive”, said Simon Stenning, founder of advisory firm FutureFoodservice.

While it is common to have offers in January, typically a sluggish month for restaurants after the Christmas holidays, Stenning said there was “more and harder discounting” amid an intense “fight for footfall” this month.

That was echoed by other analysts including Saxon Moseley, a partner at RSM UK, who said some establishments had resumed offering “two-for-one” discounts that they had stopped because they damaged their profitability.

“In recent years, restaurants have tried other things like loyalty schemes . . . but annoyingly we are now starting to see more discounting,” he said. “This is very much a last resort because it’s so damaging to margins.”

Other deals include two courses for £15 on Côte Brasserie’s ‘Happiest Menu’, while the The Ivy, part of Richard Caring’s empire, is selling two courses for £19.17, a reference to the year when the restaurant chain was first launched in London.

“Household budgets remain under real pressure, especially in January,” said Paula MacKenzie, chief executive of PizzaExpress, adding the chain’s January offer was “designed to deliver outstanding value . . . without ever compromising on quality”.

Some restaurants have tied deals to their loyalty schemes. ASK Italian has a “buy one get one free” offer for anyone who downloads its rewards app, while Franco Manca is offering customers £1 off pizza for every kilometre recorded in a “pizza-shaped” run or walk on a fitness tracker such as Strava.

The rise in discounting comes as margins are already under pressure following increases in UK minimum wage rates and national insurance contributions last year.

Restaurants were left out of a relief package designed to help pubs facing a big jump in business rates following the Budget in November, leaving them facing an average 54 per cent rise in their rates bills over the next three years, according to UKHospitality.

Nick Pye, managing partner at Mangrove Consulting, said: “The problem is that, with the rising cost of everything, you either pay more for the same or you pay the same and get less [so] consumers are struggling to see value in a lot of mainstream eateries.”

UK consumer confidence is historically low, while the saving rate, the proportion of disposable income that households save rather than spend, is above 2019 levels.

Greggs boss Roisin Currie this month blamed a slowdown in sales growth at the sausage roll maker on the fact that Britons were “saving rather than spending”.

But restaurant executives are hoping that the special offers will pay off by luring customers out of their homes, giving the businesses an opportunity to tempt patrons to spend extra on drinks and other add-ons.

Popeyes, the fried chicken chain, has sold more than 100,000 of its new £2.49 ‘Chicken Crunchers’ since launching a revamped savers’ range this month in response to “a sense of caution” among customers.

Tom Crowley, Popeyes’ UK boss, said: “Given the volumes we’ve seen in January, we think we’re on to something.” But he insisted the chain will not resort to widespread discounting and would instead focus on maintaining quality.

Some analysts warned that pressure to lower prices even as restaurants face higher costs could lead to a reduction in quality and damp the uniqueness of a night out.

“People won’t be happy to spend more on an average experience,” said Stenning at FutureFoodservice. “You can’t have people thinking they can do it better at home.”