Dine-In, Take-Out, or Delivery during Pandemic

Covid-19 pandemic changed a lot of things for all of us, that’s for sure, but not all industries got affected the same way. Various essential stores and offices were able to continue operating almost the same way as before, but restaurant businesses were completely thrown out of their routine practices. While customers are beginning to come back, some things will never be the same, and that is unfortunate, because we loved our eating-out experience before.

Dine-in options are limited to this day, especially in states with stricter rules, such as New York or California, but even there people are eager to open up and to invite diners in again. Dine-in is always my preference, because why order restaurant food if you can’t have the experience to go with it?

Fashion Island in Newport Coast is my usual go to place for shopping and dining therapy, so naturally, I took my kids there to get back to eating-out and enjoying ourselves last week. Even though my experience was not the same as before, we still had better time than cooking at home. And that is my inner dislike for cooking talking.

Masks are unavoidable, of course, but nothing to be done here. I feel more comfortable with a clear face shield than a tight nose and mouth mask, so we wear those and only where absolutely mandatory. Going into the restaurant and ordering, those shields have to stay on, but as soon as we sit down at a table outside, we take them off. We have to put them back on while walking out. Even with all this tedious on and off, it’s still better than taking food out or getting it delivered. Overall we loved our hummus, burgers with truffle fries, and many more delicacies. In fact, I was so overjoyed that I didn’t even take pictures of all our spread. I know we will be back in no time!

Take-out would be my second option, because it still requires leaving the house and kind of socializing a little, but it’s not the best option. You have to do the online or at a restaurant ordering and driving for virtually nothing, because you still go home with all the boxes and bags to eat at your kitchen. The only way to get some joy out of this is eating the food at a park or playground, but many of those are still closed for public in California or require masks.

Delivery almost works better than take out. You order from home and get food delivered in about an hour. The problem here is that not many restaurants have their own delivery fleet and even if they do, you might live too far from them. Grub Hub, Uber Eats, and Door Dash all charge fees and expect tips, which raises the price significantly. The delivery area is also limited with those services. All of that reduces your choices and doesn’t give you any other option but eating at home. This is still better than nothing on the nights when you simply don’t feel like cooking though.

All in all, I am very happy with dine-in option back, however limited and modified that may be. Our hope is that things will continue improving as time goes on and that more and more restaurants will go back to normal. Eating-out is good for society, business, and our soul, so please come back!