Post Covid19 Dining Out

When the restaurants open again, would you dine out? That is the million dollar question. 

From my limited experience of dining out post Covid19, restaurant operators need to understand that the whole operating environment has changed. The new normal is no longer just about putting a bottle of hand sanitiser at the door, it is so much more than that. 

Restaurants should no longer be putting out shared condiments, utensils and cutleries on the table for everyone to help themselves. The virus can live on plastic for 7 hours, during which multiple customers would have helped themselves to a dose of the virus too. 

Many restaurants are still charging a surcharge for card payments. By all means provide the option of payment by cash or card, but removing the surcharge on card payments would be helpful. Do restaurant workers really want to be handling cash right now? And do the customers want them to handle food or dishes after handling cash?

Maybe it's time for restaurants to have disposable paper menus or menus on the wall to avoid multiple people touching those plastic encased menus and leaving their DNA on them.

Collecting customers' details does not mean passing a book and pen that have been handled by numerous people for customers to write their details down. To be honest, I don't really want to be touching anything that has passed through the hands of so many people before me. 

To ensure social distancing and meeting maximum customer numbers in the dining area, seating should be removed or if not removed, blocked off so that customers cannot demand to sit in a particular spot in close proximity to diners on the next table. 

Perhaps the more established restaurants have already implemented these changes, but there are still a number that have not, particularly the suburban restaurants. I would not be surprised to see restaurant reviews cover Covid19 safe practices besides the quality of service and food. 

So, back to the million dollar question. I think I will dine out at restaurants less often and preferably in large, airy venues with good hygiene practices. Until then, more home cooked food for me.