Remember the days when we can all just randomly enter a restaurant, sit down and try their food offerings just for fun? Or even if we do plan to eat at a particular restaurant in advance, we’ll look it up online, check the reviews and then make a reservation if it passes preliminary muster. What’s more, actually sitting outside in public without masks feels wrong – one of the consequences of living in a pandemic indeed.
Hubby and I haven’t dined out in ages. We’d try sporadically, and then I’d get scared and go back to hiding at home. Mind you, we’re both fully vaccinated, but just venturing out there involves more research for my peace of mind. I’d hate to feel we’re being unsafe.
The questions that I consider include:
- What’s the current level of virus spread? If high, then we stay at home.
- Does the restaurant require proof of vaccination? Do they have a fully vaccinated staff? I hope so!
- What’s the seating capacity? Are large groups allowed? If yes, it’s out of my consideration.
- Is there outdoor seating? Any patios, decks, or expanded outdoor seating? For the longest time, I wasn’t a big fan of alfresco dining since insects tend to feast on me. But with the pandemic, insect repellant sprays are my best friends.
- How’s the table spacing situation? Distant enough, I hope!
- Are the doors and windows open? Once again, I used to prefer eating indoors with the a/c on, but not anymore.
- Do they provide hand sanitizers and, if needed, disposable masks? I just want to know it’s there when it’s needed, even if we’re already wearing masks and toting around our hand sanitizers.
- Do they offer options like drive-thru, delivery, take-out and curbside pickup, instead of dine-in? Pretty good if they did.
- Are there hardcopy menus or scannable QR codes? I still see a lot of those hardcopy menus, so I guess scannable QR codes aren’t a thing here in the Philippines.
- Are both servers and diners wearing masks? Okay, servers not wearing masks will be a deal-breaker for me. As for diners, well, as long as they wear it back immediately after eating, that’s fine with me.
That’s why I’ve gone blog silent for a long time. Sure, we’d order tasty food, but most of the time, when we receive the food, it doesn’t present well anymore. While I wanted to blog about such delicious meals, I wouldn’t want to make the food look not nice just because the presentation went a bit off during delivery.
I’m starting 2022 with the hope that I can blog about new restaurant discoveries soon!