Poll: Are You Ready To Return To Your Favorite Dine In Restaurant?

[Rustic23]

An age break down in the poll or answer would be interesting. My answer mirrors ReWahoo’s.

 

[Moemg]

We've been twice . We ate outside at a table spaced a good distance from the other tables.Right now I am only comfortable with outside dining at restaurants that are taking the proper precautions .

 

[Sunset]

Already been. Sit outside, 10 feet from anyone, same place I've been doing take out from for 2 months at home.

I didn't think of that before doing the poll.
I answered longer than 2 months.

However, if they had outdoor patio seating spread out, that would eliminate the biggest risk which IMHO is: Indoor shared air.

Currently our restaurants we used to visit 2x per week were indoor, but if they could fix that, it would be OK.

 

[Morgan22]

I don't know if we'll ever do dine in again. But we do continue to do alot of takeout.

 

[HI Bill]

I haven't had restaurant food since I left New Zealand on March 22nd. While there, we ate out A LOT. Like once to twice a day, most days. We tried to eat at outside tables, and at those far from others. Toward the end of the trip, restaurants were taking down our names, email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses, for potential use in contact tracing. They spaced the tables at least 1 meter apart. Just after we left, they closed the restaurants, but they're now reopening. Many restaurants place flatware directly on the tables. Along with menus. In New Zealand, they place a bottle of cold water on each table. Customers refill their own glasses. Lots of ways to transfer COVID in restaurants...so I think those who are high-risk should stay away for a while longer. In Hawaii, we've started re-opening our economy, but without many tourists, it's a slow trek.

 

[Dtail]

We are willing to eat only served outside of the restaurant. Haven't done so yet and we normally eat out 3x weekly.
As for dine in, not comfortable at all just yet. We shall see.

 

[slingshot]

Ate in at a locally owned sports bar/sit down diner for lunch today. It was nice to see some of our friends and neighbors enjoying a meal out too!

 

[Sojourner]

At this point we simply do not know when we will return. Not until we feel comfortable in doing so and that involves more than the precautions the restaurant implements. When the number of cases/deaths in our area decreases to a point we think our potential for exposure to the disease is at or near zero, we'll be back.

In addition, really not sure how enjoyable it would/will be with masked wait staff, no condiments on the table, disposable menus, etc. Our inclination is to wait until things are a bit more normal.

+1000

We are in no rush to eat out. We do miss it quite a bit, but we're planning to see how things are going well into the summer (say, mid-July) before taking the plunge. If cases are dwindling significantly by then and there aren't any headlines about restaurant-linked infections, then we'll start to re-incorporate the whole "dining out" thing back into our lives. Until then, we're happy with cooking at home and occasional take-out.

 

[brewer12345]

I doubt we will be in a restaurant the rest of the year.

 

[orchid55]

We went on a business trip last week. We ate in one dine-in restaurant and probably won't do another for a while. The servers were masked and gloved-up but our view of the kitchen showed us both cooks with their masks only covering their mouths. We finished our meal but it was a sobering experience.

 

[Ian S]

Increasingly it looks like exposure over time in an enclosed environment puts you most at risk. While it's enjoyable to dine out, it's just not worth it to us at this point. Spending an hour in such surroundings eating without a mask obviously and breathing recirculated air wouldn't be a relaxing and enjoyable time for us. At my age if I was to contract the virus and require hospitalization, the odds I'd die in the hospital apparently are around 16%, oddly about the same as dying from a single game of Russian Roulette. The latter might be preferable as it's far quicker.

 

[GreenEggs]

Before C-19 we ate out way too often. It was like an addiction.

We'll wait and see how it goes with the second wave. There's been a lot of folks refusing to wear masks around here and not much testing, so we don't have any idea if it's safe.

 

[ER2B]

We ate out at least 2 to 3 times a week before CV19. We're in our early to mid 60s and enjoying home cooked meals right now. We're not eating out until we get vaccines. We'll reassess options next year.

 

[11522914]

Cobra977
when the number of new local cases is zero or near-zero for a sufficient amount of time, even with restaurants and retailers at 50% capacity etc, then we'll venture out into the wild. Until then, there is absolutely no need or desire to take that risk.



+1

 

[rk911]

Absolutely. no fear here.

 

[audreyh1]

I haven't had restaurant food since I left New Zealand on March 22nd. While there, we ate out A LOT. Like once to twice a day, most days. We tried to eat at outside tables, and at those far from others. Toward the end of the trip, restaurants were taking down our names, email addresses, phone numbers, and home addresses, for potential use in contact tracing. They spaced the tables at least 1 meter apart. Just after we left, they closed the restaurants, but they're now reopening. Many restaurants place flatware directly on the tables. Along with menus. In New Zealand, they place a bottle of cold water on each table. Customers refill their own glasses. Lots of ways to transfer COVID in restaurants...so I think those who are high-risk should stay away for a while longer. In Hawaii, we've started re-opening our economy, but without many tourists, it's a slow trek.

Ha - you might should have just stayed in New Zealand!

 

[splitwdw]

I want to see my parents (60's)and grandparents (90's) so not going out to restaurants. You don't know the habits of the other people at the restaurant and if they have been wearing masks, taking care of themselves and social distancing. I'd rather be able to see my family.

 

[JackJester]

We don't eat out a lot, but we miss our local steak house. You just can't make a really primo dry-aged seasoned steak at home. We'd wait for them to work out the kinks for 2 weeks, but by week 3 we are there! We do like to bring our own bottle of wine and pay the $20 corking fee, but I guess that won't be allowed. So, we'll have to pay in-house price which includes their typical $20-$40 markup fee over what we can get from the winery.

 

[Kwirk]

Before Covid we ate in restaurants almost daily. It won't be worth the risk for us until this virus is just a remote risk. It's home cooking and contact-free takeout for the foreseeable future.

 

[Poopycat]

I don’t live in terror of getting the virus but I also don’t want to take any extra risks. I assume I’ll get the virus at some point since it’s so contagious, but I’d rather delay as long as possible so maybe doctors will have some established best practices for treatment by that time. I cook at home most of the time because it’s cheaper and healthier, but when I want to treat myself, there are delivery options for a lot of places I like and pickup or drive thru for additional places. That’s good enough for me.

If there’s any service I might be willing to patronize, it would be a hair salon. Tired of my hair hanging in my eyes and looking ratty. But I’ll put up with it for at least a couple months more because haircuts are a little too close for comfort with another person right now. Nobody’s looking at my hair right now anyways because I’m in my house most of the time, and when I am out, I am either walking or wearing a mask and nobody is paying attention to my rattiness.

 

[W2R]

Restaurants in our suburb were opened to dining in on the 15th. On five of the days since then, we have had lunch "dining in" at our favorite restaurant, and on the other two days (Monday and Wednesday) we ate at home. This is normal for us and it is nice to get back to normal.

There is a limit of 25% of the maximum capacity, but most days it is empty and on a couple of days there has been one other customer (way on the other side of the restaurant). Never more than one other table occupied, so far. It's essentially empty, not like going to a grocery store or other store.

The wait staff does a great job of keeping things clean and sanitary and the restaurant is meeting or exceeding all your assumptions in the first post of this thread. The food is no different. We try to tip well.

Bear in mind that New Orleans got hit hard, early on. Our peak was on April 2, after which the cases dropped off sharply and stayed down despite greatly increased testing. From what I understand, many other locations (where other forum members may live) had a much later peak or several peaks and still have a moderate or high level of daily new coronavirus cases.

 

[MichaelB]

Absolutely. no fear here.

No fear here either, but lots of caution.

None of the choices apply to our situation.

At this point we simply do not know when we will return. Not until we feel comfortable in doing so and that involves more than the precautions the restaurant implements. When the number of cases/deaths in our area decreases to a point we think our potential for exposure to the disease is at or near zero, we'll be back.

We follow this approach.

 

[big-papa]

Miss going out but not gonna do it till we feel it's safe. We are doing curbside pickup, however.

 

[Dtail]

We are doing curbside pickup and delivery for now. We wipe down everything, although that kind of potential transmission appears to be quite low based on recent studies.

 

[stedmakr]

If I was in my 30s - 50s my response might be different, but at 65 I'm not going to sit down in a restaurant. At some point the experts (scientists not politicians) will say the threat of exposure has diminished dramatically and or the remedies significantly diminish the consequences of the disease. Then I'll reassess.

I wonder if if the folks who are now going to restaurants or are willing to go have personally known someone who has passed from covid.