With sit-down dining now off the menu in much of England, restaurant owners say they're facing a difficult Christmas.
Tier 3 restrictions mean Kuldeep Mattegunta and Mustaq Tappewale won't be able to launch their new restaurant on Wednesday as planned.
Under tier 3 rules, pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes can only serve takeaways. From Wednesday, London, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire, will join other parts of the country already under the highest level of restrictions."So many pubs, restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels, having invested so much to make their venues safe, are only just clinging on by the skin of their teeth, but will be forced to take another huge hit," said the group's chief executive Kate Nicholls.
"The run up to Christmas is always important for our industry - more so than some - and obviously now that's been written off," he said. "It's very frustrating. You feel like you're making steps forward and then you take 10 steps back. Staff just want to be at work."Greater Manchester was put into tier 3 on 23 October, but the region has had restrictions on groups meeting indoors since July, and that's taken a huge toll on hospitality businesses.
Mr Wood also owns a restaurant in Cheltenham called WoodKraft, which is currently in tier 2, but he says government-imposed curfews have presented another challenge. He offers a 10-course tasting menu over four hours, so he can only fit in one sitting each evening. And, social distancing rules mean he can only offer customers tables of two.