Come Dine With Me

Current Realities

As much as I enjoy my own company, one of the things I missed the most when the COVID pandemic hit was dining out with friends, family, and even colleagues. At my last job, it was always fun to have lunch dates with the team where we could unwind over exquisite meals, talking about everything but work. Those were some of the good times were sitting out, sharing a meal, and using tableware from a restaurant didn’t seem like such a big deal. Now, even with the phased reopening of restaurants, one of the most hit sectors during the pandemic, I still shudder to think of how dining out with family and friends can ever be the same.

What’s the new dining normal?

Out here in Toronto where I live, restaurants in the phase three reopening of the economy can now serve guests in-restaurant dining, however keeping with the maximum number of people allowed at a time, ensuring adequate physical distancing, and keeping records of guests to aid with contact tracing in case of a COVID exposure. All these steps are to keep with the standards of ensuring restaurants are safe enough to re-open to customers. But what does this spell for some who may still be too paranoid to enjoy a meal out with friends?

Overthinking or Overreacting?

After a long time of social distancing, it felt good to finally be able to do some of the things I love to do – travel, explore new places. Given I had just moved my entire life to a new country, sight-seeing was huge on my list. They say the best way to know a city, is to see the city, so off I went with some friends to sightsee at Niagara Falls, one of my very own “Seven Wonders of the World” and it was nothing short of Ah-mazing! Niagara falls had only just recently opened up to guests following the abrupt shutdown due to COVID and it was a joy to see people out in nature, with face masks on, albeit walking rather consciously, avoiding any possible human contact as much as possible. Amidst the joy that was our sightseeing adventure of the waterfalls, we had to eat at some point, so we settled for a restaurant that served buffet where we could “eat all we could eat.”

I briefly pondered about sharing dishes and cutleries only to find out that we couldn’t even get our meals from the buffet spread by ourselves. The restaurant had decided to limit the number of people hovering over the food platters especially with the current COVID precautions, so I wondered how our supposed “buffet” meals would be served.

Buffet or À la carte?

Each table was assigned a server responsible for bringing the food from the buffet spread to the diners. Once we had gotten all the dietary requirements ticked off the box, next was having the food brought to the table. We were informed that a serving of every item would be brought, and should we want a refill or extra of any item, we need only to request and that would be brought too.

I am very particular about plating my meals, so I was curious to see how the various options would be presented to us, given as this now turned out to be an à la carte styled buffet. Sadly, when our trays were brought to us, every food item laid directly on the tray – there was no partition in sight, consequently all solids, liquids, slurry, and mushy spreads united on that single tray. The expectation that the different food items would have been served within individual plates or bowls immediately seemed like a utopian thought. Simply put, the unexpected entanglement of mismatched textures and flavors on that tray had us shook.

I love clean plated food and just seeing a tray with a combination of several solids, sauces, and mini bits wasn’t exactly exciting my sensory taste buds.

For a food lover, that food-mismatch ordeal coupled with the anxiety of sharing tableware during COVID made for an underwhelming dining experience.

If you are like me, overly self-conscious especially during our current COVID-19 realities, how has restaurant dining changed for you since the pandemic hit? Are you the unfazed type, no fears, or worries eating at any restaurant or would you rather just order take-out and eat in the comfort of your home?

Restaurant dining may never be the same. Some still wonder if they would need to sanitize the restaurant cutleries or ask that they are steamed or boiled before use. What are some of the paranoia you have experienced dining out since the phased reopening began?