Eating out - are restaurants set out for social distancing within groups?

[knittingaddict]

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but I haven't eaten in anywhere yet and I would like to hear what you have experienced.

Are tables of people set out for social distancing, but the seating at individual tables as normal?

My brother wants me to go for a meal out with him, his wife and our parents. My parents are in their mid and late 80's and have breathing difficulties, dementia and diabetes between them, amongst other issues. My husband and I are in a bubble with our single parent daughter and two primary aged school children. We do a lot of child care and school is not really socially distancing. My husband and myself are also in the vulnerable, although not extremely vulnerable group.

I'm feeling the pressure to attend, but can see all sorts of problems here. I haven't seen my parents for months now. My instinct is that it would be stupid to risk it, for ourselves and parents. It already feels like we are taking on enough risk.

I could travel on the day and meet them after the meal in a private garden instead.

IME there's no social distancing on tables and very little between tables - unlikely to be 2m from all other tables though some places have screens.

Should add that we have eaten in restaurants outdoors quite a few times and felt very safe. I'm not completely paranoid.

Thanks *Grrretel. That's pretty much what I thought.

Everywhere i've seen you sit with the people in your party at a table as normal. It's only socially distanced from other tables and I think how well that's done depends where you go and you'd need to ask around locally to find somewhere that you're comfortable with. I went to one place and whilst the tables were well spread out two tables of young people came in who clearly all knew each other and had booked 2 tables to avoid being over the maximum group size. They had no concept of anyone else's space, were milling around rather than just walking in and sitting at their table and I was close to telling them to off. I've walked past some cafes that have chairs at different tables practically back to back with each other - they might be 1m apart when pushed under a table but definitely not when there's someone sitting at them. And I went to another place that had partitions between tables, really well spaced out, even though it was practically full you wouldn't have known anyone else was there.

Ok, I don't think I'm up for that. Sounds outside my comfort zone right now, especially with cases rising.

If there’s more than 6 of you then you can’t

There's 5 of us as it's a work day and husband can't make it. I wish there were more than 6 as that would be an easy decision.

Book two tables? Then you can be near but not make you feel uncomfortable. Would be a shame to miss out

Erm every other table seems to be cordoned off, that’s as far as social distancing goes. The seats at the tables are all available as usual, so if you want to social distance within your group you’ll have to sort that yourself or sit at other tables

I would personally go, but choose a quiet time for the restaurant and see if you can sit outside if possible

All the places we go have adequate spacing between tables and regular cleaning of tables, chairs etc. Staff wear masks at some, not in others. It is not practical for any of them to give you a big enough table for a group to sit fully socially distanced. I suppose some places on a quiet day may be prepared to give you a large enough table that you could distance when sitting at it.

Think I need to talk to brother and possibly the pub. It should be relatively quiet on that day.

Thanks everyone. I know it's not the most dynamic thread but independent views are helpful.

Normally I find between tables great not at tables though. The best you can do is bear garden’s with picnic benches me and two friends sat round one when I felt we were def over a meter but not two but no ordinarily it’s rare in my experience