How Will Foodies Cope With the New Restaurant Changes Post COVID-19?

Words Baby-Leah Burnett

Are you excited to get back into restaurants, to explore and to eat some of your favourite dishes? As we already know the lockdown has restricted us from fine dining, dinner dates and birthday party outings and now we are not sure if the restaurants experience will ever be the same. Contributing lifestyle editor, Baby Leah reveals exactly what we can expect post-COVID.

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Being able to walk into a beautiful room filled with tables occupied by a sea of different individuals whilst being served from the minute you walk in, to the time you leave, is many people's idea of a perfect night out. However, COVID-19 has caused the hospitality industry to be completely non-existent since March and foodies (such as myself) have been hit the hardest at these closures. COVID-19 has meant that we have been starved of that sought-after luxurious environment paired with steak from places such as 45 Park Lane which literally melts in your mouth. Instead, we have had to compromise with home-made dishes followed via YouTube to recreate our favourite foods. However, you cannot deny it's impossible to recreate the Instagram-worthy interiors of places like the bathrooms in Sketch and Aquashard or the aesthetic of outside terraces like the Syon Lounge. As a true restaurant enthusiast, you pay just as much attention to the way your seats feel and what music is played to the way the food tastes. The true question is, how is the hospitality industry going to recover post-COVID and how are our experiences going to differ compared to the last meal we had outside our homes?

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The time has come where many restaurants have re-opened their doors and we will be able to return to our favourite food locations. After almost 4 months of an inactive Open-Table and unavailable restaurants on the CODE app (a discount app available to those who work in popular restaurants in and around London) we can finally begin to make reservations again...but what does this reservation now entail? One of the main things that is unsurprising is that social-distancing measures are going to be in place, which although sounds like a hassle for the employees, could be a pro for us who love to dine. Oblix at The Shard is one restaurant that Is known for its crowded yet lively East bar and its busy West Restaurant where many dread the counter seat (a seat where you must be seated side-by-side with strangers). However, with the new social distancing and decreased covers, will this give us the privacy we always craved when going on a date? I know that many of us have been too close to a birthday party of tipsy teens or encountered a bridal party a little too rowdy whilst you wanted to have something more intimate. So, could this be a good thing? Social distancing is unarguably a headache on small places such as the tube but in restaurants and hotels this could be a game changer.

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Changes such as social-distancing and face-masks are inevitable and unsurprising but one change I have seen that I love are quarantine “greenhouses' ', they have been used at a noodle restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. These igloo-like globes are similar to the ones used at ‘The Coppa Club’ in London which are always highly requested by the guests. It is first-come first-serve much like the window seats in The Shard so the thought of it being a necessity is quite exciting especially as they seem so isolated and intimate. On top of this, they are very convenient considering London's unpredictable weather! Plastic table dividers have also made a frequent appearance in countries such as China, which divide you from your partner you are eating with. In my opinion, these don’t make too much sense if you are already in each other's company, it would make more sense to have the dividers in between the tables that you are near to prevent the spread of the virus. Either way, from what has happened in countries ahead of us in regards to COVID-19 every precaution will be taken in the restaurants we are all dying to go back to.

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New apps have been developed to assist with the new way of dining. One of many that I've seen is “Dines” which essentially decreases the amount of table service to a minimum for the guests. You can simply register your restaurant with “Dines” and it eliminates queues at bars, waiting for waiters as you order and pay via your smartphone. From this alone, you can clearly see that coronavirus has triggered a spike in modern technology, and we are really entering into a new way of life in all areas of our lives. These changes make smartphones a necessity to your nights out and some would even feel like it takes the magic out of being a waiter/waitress. Could the virus and development of such apps eliminate these roles for good? Could it take the “rawness” out of hospitality? Some may love it some may hate it but it’s a new norm we are all going to have to conform to – at least – until a vaccine is developed.  

Baby-Leah Burnett - Contributing Lifestyle Editor