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Original poster

Would you eat out now (inside dining)?

251 replies

Featherstep · 10/10/2020 22:11

I really miss going out for a weekend cafe or pub lunch with my family but my husband thinks it's not worth the risk eating inside now that the virus is spreading again like wildfire. He's probably right - the last time we sat inside for a pub lunch (in August), I felt very uncomfortable being so close to the people at the next table.

Most outdoor seating gets booked up really quickly. I feel like for almost every outing since March we've brought packed picnic lunches. I am SO sick of packed sandwiches and would just love to sit down somewhere with warm food for once, just like pre-Covid times!

So just that really, are you comfortable going to lunch if it's going to be inside?

OP posts:
Heyahun · 11/10/2020 13:30

You don’t wear a mask when you are dining inside though? Wtf? 😂

OverTheRainbow88 · 11/10/2020 13:34

@Heyahun

No, but you have to wear them to walk to your table, or to the toilet and when you walk out.

Heyahun · 11/10/2020 13:45

Can’t see the big deal with that. It’s not super inconvenient. Sure you have to wear them on the bus / tube / shops - why is wearing it to walk to a table for a second Worse

WankPuffins · 11/10/2020 14:43

@loulouljh I had lunch in a pub yesterday and found the mask thing fine. Just slipped it on every time I had to go to the loo and when leaving. It’s second nature now. No inconvenience at all.

Covida · 11/10/2020 14:57

I don’t mind wearing a mask walking to my table either. Hardly notice it.

SueEllenMishke · 11/10/2020 14:58

No, but you have to wear them to walk to your table, or to the toilet and when you walk out.

It's hardly a major inconvenience though is it? Not worth locking yourself away for the foreseeable

MrsJonesAndMe · 11/10/2020 15:10

No, not inside inside. We have a cafe that is under roof - used to be the old station, so it's ventilated but not freezing and has patio heaters. We go there but not anywhere else. Funny that I feel it's not safe to go to a restaurant, but I'm sending my children off to school with no protection on a daily basis Confused

Oaktree55 · 11/10/2020 15:15

No

ScrapThatThen · 11/10/2020 15:17

I have eaten out a couple of times. Prefer high ceilinged spacious places!

viccat · 11/10/2020 15:21

No and haven't been all year. I didn't eat out that often pre-covid either though so it's not like the local restaurants were relying on my custom before.

Getting take aways and ordering things for delivery instead.

Toddlerteaplease · 11/10/2020 15:22

Yes as long as the weather was ok. But I'd be happy to sit indoors as well.

DappledThings · 11/10/2020 15:23

Yep, I eat out (inside) at least twice a week.

harridan50 · 11/10/2020 15:28

Yes met some friends last night and will hopefully be out on Thursday too. Enough of my life is currently curtailed as it is

Fluffydogfluffycat · 11/10/2020 15:29

Agree with others that it seems low risk compared to sending kids to school!

loulouljh · 11/10/2020 15:36

But I do mind wearing a mask to walk to the table. And the toilet. I want to go out for pleasure. Not visit a hospital. That ruins the enjoyment for me. We were going out quite alot to support local pubs and cafes but have stopped now. I think alot of people have as places around here are very very quiet now...

loulouljh · 11/10/2020 15:38

And I don't go on buses and the tube nor to shops! So for me it is a massive change and a massive inconvenience...

Yogawithmydog · 11/10/2020 15:51

presented data showing that pubs and restaurants are implicated in more than 30% of coronavirus infections amongst the under-30s

Is that the study that's being discredited as it was less than a hundred establishments (98?) so not statistically significant when extrapolated to an entire country?

21catsandcounting · 11/10/2020 15:53

Pubs and restaurants are full to the brim where I live (London). I don’t mind wearing a mask walking to my table. It’s a few seconds or minutes of my stay.

Yogawithmydog · 11/10/2020 15:54

And I've been inside cafes for coffee daytime (30 mins or so) which felt fine as usually fairly quiet and plenty space but haven't eaten out in the evening for a long time (not really Covid related, more my own circumstances).
I think I would eat at a nice restaurant with proper SD but not go to a popular pub.

YouSetTheTone · 11/10/2020 15:54

@LilyPond2 but as other people have pointed out, there are plenty of other viral illnesses - including norovirus etc - that run the risk of having unpleasant long term consequences if you catch it. In the past I assume you still lived a reasonably normal life despite that? What is really, when you boil it down, so different?

You may have made a risk analysis based on you and your family, which is absolutely your prerogative, but I still don’t think you understand how dependent the U.K. economy is on hospitality. In fact you obviously don’t because you didn’t actually respond to that part of the pp’s point- you just got on a high horse.
Disproportionate levels of fear are tanking the economy. People’s jobs and livelihoods are at risk. Public funding for essential services like education and the NHS are at risk. You might be ‘keeping your family safe’ but you’re contributing to a scenario which may well stop your family being ‘safe’ in the future.

BrazenlyDefying · 11/10/2020 15:57

Absolutely we would - we are away next week on another part of the uk and have booked a restaurant, and a pub lunch.

feellikeanalien · 11/10/2020 16:05

Yes. DD and I had lunch out in a cafe today. It was lovely. It's about the only thing we have to look forward to now that she can't have any friends to play and we're not allowed to see family.

I'm starting to get to the point where I feel I have no trust in the figures quoted and the rules which are being brought in so have to make my own risk assessment. I will follow the rules, wear masks etc but if I can legally eat out with my daughter then I will continue to do so. Mind you that will all probably stop next week anyway!

Yogawithmydog · 11/10/2020 16:07

No. I don't get the appeal at all. It's just food. Eat at home

I am SO fucking SICK of cooking every night. Thinking what to cook, buying what to cook, cooking, clearing up, doing it all again the next day. I don't enjoy cooking. It's a chore, for me personally, am fully aware others love it. I don't find it relaxing. I bloody love eating out when I can (in normal times). And yes, it's the social aspect too, talking with friends while eating lovely food that I didn't have to COOK.

movingonup20 · 11/10/2020 16:09

Went to the pub yesterday. Had covid in March, had worse colds so no issue with catching it again I suppose so pretty laid back

ScaramoucheFandango · 11/10/2020 16:11

I think the difference for me is that if I were to get ill in the next few months I don't expect to get any great help from the NHS.

It kind of puts a dampener on the idea of being indoors in a pub or restaurant.

Work goes on and education the rest is a luxury to me.

I support local businesses and UK manufacturing wherever I can. I don't feel any guilt in not supporting chains. Or the pubs that make the town centres no go zones of a weekend. Just in the name of supporting the UK hospitality industry.