Bar and restaurant trade up for first time in seven years

Overall, visits to cafés and eateries rose by 1%, to 98 million, whilst spending rose by 1.3% to over €36 billion, with each customer typically shelling out an extra €4.88 on each trip.

Fast food outlets, pizza restaurants and tapas bars account for the most growth – 86% of the total.

In 2017 as a whole, restaurant and bar sales went up by 2.5%, partly due to increased visits and partly because of customers spending more.

The NPD Group's managing director Vicente Montesinos says: “Custom is recovering and people are going out to eat and drink once again – sales have broken the €36bn barrier for the first time since 2011.”

But the catering industry is not out of the woods yet, Montesinos warns.

“The market has not recovered to the size it was before the financial crisis, neither have customer numbers returned to the per-capita figure seen back then,” he reveals.

“Between 2005 and 2007, the average person ate out or went to a bar 180 times a year; nowadays, that figure is 158, so there's still plenty of room for improvement.”