Half a dozen times a year a Greek businessman comes for lunch at Pied à Terre, a restaurant in central London, and orders a £1,000 bottle of wine with his meal.

The Charlotte Street establishment also attracts occasional “irrational guests”, such as the table of three who recently walked in on a Saturday night and spent £6,000.

Welcome to London’s longest-standing Michelin-starred restaurant, a temple of gastronomy that will shortly secure a star (or maybe two) for the 30th year in a row.

Yet despite its long and illustrious track record of serving “meticulously constructed modern French dishes”, the outlook is far from assured.

Unfortunately, such customers at its Greek diner are the exception rather than the norm. Staff shortages mean that David Moore, the proprietor, has had to cut its opening times.

“I can’t find a kitchen porter and we’re trying to recruit two chefs,” he said. In July he was so short of staff that he had to cancel lunch.

Thanks to inflation, he estimates his costs have risen by 18 per cent: his business rates are £60,000 and refuse collection costs £18,000. “I seriously doubt that inflation is running at 9 to 10 per cent,” he said. “It definitely feels more like double that to us.”

As though soaring costs and staff shortages were not enough, outfits like Pied à Terre have also been hit by other things beyond their control. “Train strikes are disastrous for central restaurants like ours. Every time you get one it totally kills that week.”

So is he making money? “We didn’t in August, but hope to in September. “We’ve been just about break-even for the past six months. Coming into Christmas you would hope things would look up, but then Covid’s back. I’ve lost 30 customers to Covid this week.”

Pied à Terre’s travails are by no means unusual in London. Research from OpenTable, the provider of software that handles restaurant reservations and payments, suggests that while the number of diners booking through its system across the UK as a whole rose by 18 per cent in September, but in London it fell by 14 per cent.

One of the big issues is the large number of commuters who for at least part of the week are continuing to work from home, despite the ending of Covid restrictions. This is particularly the case in the City, where the hybrid working culture means customers are increasingly eschewing establishments near their offices and using local restaurants and pubs in the suburbs or outside London.

According to data from CGA, by Nielsen IQ and Alix Partners, the City has lost 14 per cent of its licensed premises over the past two years.

Karl Chessell, a director of CGA, said: “The City of London’s hospitality market was hit harder than most city centres by Covid-19, with lockdowns and restrictions limiting commuting and tourism initially.

“However, shifts in working patterns are going to be permanent for many, and this has led to a sustained impact on the centre of the capital. Many venues have closed their doors over this period, and it is uncertain if they will open again.”

The latest Coffer CGA Business Tracker sales data for August also shows contrasting fortunes between London and the rest of the UK. Likefor-like sales in the capital were down by 2 per cent, but they were up by 3.5 per cent outside the M25.

Figures from Tortilla, a Mexican chain, show a similar pattern, with sites outside London performing better in the first half. Underlying earnings in its sites outside London were £20,000 higher than those inside the capital.

Although it said that London’s recovery “continues unabated”, with sales trending at 98 per cent of pre-Covid levels in central London, it said that it had lost £250,000 of sales over the summer because of train strikes and the heatwave, and the pent-up consumer demand for foreign holidays also had an impact.

Sales overall have continued to grow strongly for the chain, but it said that “inflationary cost pressures remain the biggest challenge across the industry”, causing a £1.8 million hit on margins.

All of which resulted in Liberum, the broker that floated Tortilla a year ago, cutting its pre-tax profit forecasts by 83 per cent this year and 75 per cent for next year. Some chains have responded by refocusing expansion on the regions. David Page, 70, chairman of Fulham Shore, says the company is opening Franco Manca pizza restaurants in Cardiff and Chichester and Real Greek outlets in Gloucester, Edinburgh and Solihull. “We’re not planning any in London. That says it all really.”

Robin Gill, 42, the restaurateur behind London establishments including Sorella and Bermondsey Larder, said that moving out of London was not the answer as it was only in London and big cities that you could attract business seven days a week.

“I can see why lots of businesses are looking out of London or to the suburbs simply because of rising utility and rent costs. Everyone is frantically looking at ways to save outgoings. My business model has always been to shy away from the out-of-control rents of central London — Soho, Piccadilly and Covent Garden — and opt for neighbourhoods where we can be the best there but for much lower outgoings.”

The breadth and scale of the problems facing restaurants had led to hopes that the chancellor’s minibudget might provide succour for small businesses in the form of reduced VAT and perhaps a revamp of business rates.

But James Robson, 47, co-founder of Fallow, a restaurant in St James’s, said that the government had “all but abandoned small independent businesses that are the life blood and diversity of our high streets” by “scrapping the minister for small business, refusing to engage in any meaningful debate on outdated high street business rates and not stimulating sales for our sector at all”.

He added: “The expired temporary restaurant VAT reduction of 12.5 per cent needs to return to give the majority of independents a small chance of survival the coming 12 months.”

Dean Banks, 34, a Masterchef finalist who runs Haar, a restaurant in St Andrews, and The Pompadour in Edinburgh, reckons one benefit of operating outside London over the past couple of years is the nature of the relationship he has built with his customers.

“We have loyal following of customers who have become friends and support what we do, coming back time after time. In London it’s all a little bit more anonymous.”