Restaurant Dining

[Ready]

I dined in a restaurant last week for the first time in a year. It was a really nice experience and something I’ve truly missed. Restaurants just started serving indoors again recently in California. Capacity is limited to 50% right now so the restaurants I’ve been to have not been crowded. I do see some smaller restaurants ignoring the rules and packing every table. I won’t eat at those places. I’ve had both Pfizer shots so I feel comfortable eating in restaurants that adhere to the 50% rule.

What has been your experience with restaurant dining?

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I dined in a restaurant last week for the first time in a year. It was a really nice experience and something I’ve truly missed. Restaurants just started serving indoors again recently in California. Capacity is limited to 50% right now so the restaurants I’ve been to have not been crowded. I do see some smaller restaurants ignoring the rules and packing every table. I won’t eat at those places. I’ve had both Pfizer shots so I feel comfortable eating in restaurants that adhere to the 50% rule.

What has been your experience with restaurant dining?

No issues out here in flyover country. The more "progressive" restaurants are still limiting capacity, but others are filling 'em to the brim. Until we got fully vaccinated, we avoided the busier ones. Nonetheless, we live in a fairly low density area so unless you go out on Friday/Saturday night or Sunday "after church", it's rare to see any restaurants filled to capacity.

 

[disneysteve]

Here in NJ we haven’t eaten indoors since March 11, 2020.

I did dine in once back in February in Florida. I didn’t want to but it started raining just as we got ready to eat so we had to go inside. Fortunately it was a big place and they weren’t crowded.

I don’t plan to dine inside until virus cases are way lower.

 

[Aerides]

I don't plan to do indoors until well after my 2nd shot, and even then only in a good, well aired, non-cramped place.

Besides, outdoors is always my preference, and I live in S. Fla, so don't whine to me about how hot it is. Our favorite sushi place has a small row of outdoor tables, and "our table" has been one that was 12+ feet from the next even before the pandemic. Bonus, it's under a big overhang from the building.

It'll be July before it's stinking hot outdoors in the evening, so I'll see then if we'd prefer to try back inside for the summer, but unlikely for now.

 

[mystang52]

Last November, for our anniversary, we ate indoors at an upscale restaurant(in NJ). Because we got there early, something like 4PM, the place was empty.
We had a great meal, I enjoyed it, but DW did not feel comfortable so we vowed not to do any indoor dining after that. We have gone to restaurants that offered tents, but always sit at a table that abuts the tent wall so at least some air is getting in to our seating area.
May 10 we are going to Fort Lauderdale. We've been there many times and know all the local restaurants. We will only eat at a select few where we are very familiar with their outdoor layout.

 

[disneysteve]

We have gone to restaurants that offered tents, but always sit at a table that abuts the tent wall so at least some air is getting in to our seating area.

In the summer and fall, the tents were great. Once cold weather set in, many places fortified their tents so they were essentially indoor spaces. We avoided those. Now that the weather is nicer, the open air tents are back. We ate at one a couple of weeks ago and it was nice. Plenty of fresh air flow.

 

[qwerty3656]

We eat out 2 or 3 times a month and have been since last summer.

 

[Midpack]

We’ve been eating at restaurants 3 times a week almost throughout, though carry out or outdoors. We did start eating indoors last Fall when restaurants were below 50% capacity, but once we had another surge we went back to strictly carry out. I’ve been vaccinated and DW will be 2 weeks past her 2nd shot in mid May, and we’ll think about indoor dining again. However, we like sitting outdoors anyway and the weather is cooperating again so we’re in no hurry to go indoors until it gets cold again, Dec? I sure hope we’ll be at our new normal by then...

 

[MRG]

We had our second dose of Moderna on April fools day and have eaten indoors twice in the past two days. We hadn't been indoors since before the original stay at home order last March. We'd enjoyed outdoor dining weekly in the warmer months by November people had heated indoor patios installed that we wouldn't enter. Since then we have only had takeout.

At the local Chinese place today I heard a familiar voice from one of the servers. The lady has a unique sound to her voice and a wicked sense of humor. I found myself smiling for no other reason. [emoji846]

 

[harllee]

We are fully vaccinated and we have now eaten outside at restaurants twice--not a very good experience because the pollen has been so bad. I am not ready to eat inside a restaurant yet, just don't feel comfortable yet so I am sticking to take out.

 

[W2R]

I keep records of this kind of stuff, as part of my spending records.

Anyway, as many of you have known for years, Frank and I normally eat lunch at an Italian mom'n'pop restaurant every day. Mandates had local restaurants shut down for eating indoors from 3/16/2020 to 5/15/2020.

On 324 of the 336 days since then, we have eaten lunch indoors at our usual restaurants (masked and distanced as the mandates required). We stayed home on 12 days due to Hurricane Zeta, ice storms, torrential rains, digestive upsets, one sleepless night, and once due to a thrown out back.

We are old, eating out means a lot to us, and we are glad we had the freedom to make the choices we did. We accepted that there was a risk that we might get sick. It turned out that neither of us has had even a cold or other virus since before the pandemic.

The restaurants were extremely cautious to not violate the mandates, since if they did so their restaurant license would be immediately revoked. This is strictly enforced, here. We were careful about obeying mandates too. Anyway, earlier this month, the limitations on how many customers could be served (50% of capacity) were removed and it's back to 100%. Therefore the signs on every-other-table saying you couldn't sit there, were removed.

We usually go at around 3 PM so at that time of day, that didn't make any difference in how many customers were there. Usually there is only 1-2 other tables with customers when we get there.

 

[Koolau]

We've seemed to get out of the habit of going to restaurants. Most were either closed or only open for carry-out, with curtailed menus. I suppose we've been to sit-down meals 3 times since the first of the year. We'd like to get back "into it" as the Island opens up.

We're at tier 3 - which means restaurants can be open to 50%. With our 2nd shot almost 2 weeks old, we're starting to relax a bit and will probably start haunting our old haunts!

I agree with W2R that eating out is one of our great pleasures - and it seems more so as we age. We don't go in for "fine dining" and we never have a bar bill, so our budget for eating out is modest. YMMV

 

[audreyh1]

Gosh, we actually ordered our first restaurant food in 13 months today! But we did curbside pickup.

We won’t dine in until area cases drop a lot more, and many more people are vaccinated. Not something we really care about anyway in the US.

 

[truenorth418]

I’ve eaten inside a few times recently. Here in Miami most have outdoor seating options and I usually prefer that but sometimes the outdoor tables are full or it’s raining or something so then I go inside. Not a big deal, especially now that I’m fully vaccinated.

 

[MichaelB]

No indoor dining for us yet. We did some curbside pickup, and that worked well, but most restaurants here aren’t doing that anymore. For the past couple of months we’ve have regular take out, but only with restaurants that clearly follow the guidelines.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Unfortunately, when folks DO start going out to eat again, the choices are going to be much more limited. Sure, the big chain stores will still be around, but the smaller (and often MUCH better) Mom and Pop places will be out of business.

I would hope that those that are relatively healthy and are fully vaccinated give thought to supporting these struggling businesses sooner than later.

 

[Ronstar]

We ate dinner in restaurants in Indiana a few times last summer, and during our week long October road trip through Pennsylvania to the Smoky Mountains. Also breakfast several times at the local diner and a local brewpub for lunch. Every time went in masked and sat distanced from other patrons. Also takeout from restaurants about twice a week since March 2020. I'm 1.5 months post dose 2 and DW is 2 weeks post dose 2, so I suspect that we will increase our dining out, while doing it safely.

 

[Souschef]

DW and I have been fully vaccinated, and we finally dined indoors at our favorite Chinese Restaurant.
It was a wonderful experience for her, as she has been basically housebound.

 

[RobbieB]

I've been getting take out forever. Some places here are doing inside but most are still pick up or delivery. Lots of tables on the sidewalks though and tents in the parking lots.

Never saw much risk in phone in and pick up. Maybe a whole minute inside.

 

[Retch The Grate]

We've been doing outdoor dining every few weeks here in the bay area. We started over the summer, paused for a few months in december/january/february when the bay area spiked and locked down again and are back to it. Meeting up with our podmates for lunch outside on sunday.

Now that I'm vaccinated I feel less squicked walking through the indoor space to get to the outdoor dining, but I'm definitely not going back to indoor dining until infection rates crash back to pre-march 2020 numbers here in the bay. No need to risk extra exposure. OTOH DW is totally planning a solo train trip on the Zephyr to Chicago in June so that will necessarily include her eating indoors, but she's got the Pfizer vaccine (I ended up with J&J).

 

[disneysteve]

We've definitely done plenty of takeout and some outdoor dining. And we have preferentially gone to local independent restaurants, not chains, but we always do that. We are not fans of chain restaurants, and after this is all behind us, we want those independent places to still exist.


We only had one experience eating outdoors where we felt a bit uncomfortable. Tables were too close together and poorly laid out so patrons had to weave in and out of the tables to get where they were going. Other than that, I've actually really enjoyed eating outside so much as it is something we almost never did prior to COVID. Some of our local favorites set up really nice outdoor seating areas and I hope they keep them around long term.

 

[RunningBum]

I took the GF to a really nice winery restaurant this week for her birthday. The kind of place where they had numerous courses, and a different wine with each course. Blow that dough kind of place, but worth it to us. Anyway, tables were spaced apart in the small dining area, and we happened to have a table by an open window. Both of us are vaccinated, though short of the two week post-vax period. Servers were masked at all times, and nearly all patrons were also masked while waiting for their food.

We've eaten inside only one other time since last March, for my birthday in November. This place had smaller dining areas, and I think just 3 tables in our room, also spread apart.

With nice weather coming, I expect we'll eat mostly outdoors, but unless the situation changes we'll be ok inside.

 

[mountainsoft]

We have gone to a few restaurants over the last few months. I think we only ate inside once, but the tables were widely spaced. I generally prefer dining outdoors anyway, even in cooler weather.

My wife had her first COVID shot, but I haven't been vaccinated yet. Wasn't eligible till yesterday, and good luck getting an appointment in the next few weeks. I haven't worried about it much, just wear masks when up moving about, and keep my distance.

 

[Bamaman]

Our rather conservative state is now running wide open. Restaurants are technically open to 100% levels.

But we find most businesses to have signs that say masks required. And restaurants also remain downsized--distancing diners and customers wearing masks come and going.

I see very long lines at fast food restaurants. Our McDonalds couldn't open the dining room if they wanted because they now don't have sufficient employees to man the inside cash registers. So our fast foods require customers to wait in long lines in autos.

It is nice to be able to go out to eat on weekends. And the popular restaurant parking lots appear to be full. But I have no desire to wait distanced or sitting in my car for an hour to get in. Eating out is best done mid afternoon at this time.

 

[Dtail]

We have only eaten outdoors or take out until now.
However we are ready now post Covid shots to try some indoor dining at limited places.