Restaurants and bars of the city clocked the best numbers in nearly two months this weekend.

Small eateries to fancy diners, everyone did brisk business.

A waiting time was back at Park Street restaurants for both lunch and dinner.

“The jazz session for Saturday lunch was packed. For the first time in one-and-a-half months, we had people waiting,” said Anand Puri, owner of Trincas.

Mainland China in South City Mall also had people waiting for lunch on Sunday.

“The first signs of upsurge are being witnessed now,” said Anjan Chatterjee, chief of Speciality Restaurants, which owns around a dozen outlets in the city, including Mainland China.

“A mass movement happened in Calcutta. When young people like our children are staying put on the road, it is natural for people not to want to go out to eat,” he said.

The eateries dotting the shopping hubs did brisk business.

A stall selling rolls in Gariahat was one of them. “We had curtailed on the daily procurement of flour, chicken and other ingredients. The sale on Saturday led us to go back to the old volume of purchase,” said a man at the counter.

At New Market, many people with shopping bags were seen on Sunday going in and coming out of Aminia, the flagship store of the popular Mughlai chain of eateries.

Sudesh Poddar, the president of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Eastern India and the owner of Manthan, Songhai and MS Bar and Lounge, said the food and beverage sector reported a “30 to 35 per cent growth” this weekend, compared to the past two.

“Many people who have come out to shop are going to a restaurant after they are done buying stuff. This used to be the trend before. But the past 40 days were different,” he said.

Piyush Kankaria, co-chapter head of the Calcutta chapter of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), said: “The general public sentiment is much better now. Largely because the government has agreed to most demands of the protesting doctors. People see it as the victory of the movement. They are pacified now.”

“Durga Puja is the biggest festival here. As it comes close, the festive spirit has to set in,” he said.

An official of South City Mall said for the past month-and-a-half, the restaurants inside malls did not do well. “Because the few people who came to buy stuff were not in the mood to eat. They needed something. They bought it and went back,” he said.

“That mood is now changing. People who have come to buy clothes are visiting a restaurant at the same mall,” he said.