Eating Out in the Pandemic

The COVID 19 pandemic has undoubtedly changed the world upside down. Even though things are getting “normal” now, they are already changed to a huge extent. Eating out was a completely different experience in the pandemic. During the lockdown, all the restaurants were closed but after a certain point restaurants started opening up and only delivery was available. But even after they opened up people were scared to order from outside due to the spread of the virus. However, people eventually started ordering taking safety precautions. The delivery agents or the teams also provided safety instructions and precautions before the food was delivered.

Figure 1: Restaurant staff taking precautions post the pandemic (Downloaded from Google)

Restaurants: Talking about the situation after the lockdown, the restaurants were still closed and only delivery and takeaways were available. Now, things are getting “normal” and all the restaurants have opened up. Out of my own experience, I have been to multiple restaurants and I have seen different practices in different places. However, necessary precautions and safety measures were taken to ensure the safety of the customers and themselves. All restaurants had a compulsory temperature check and customers were asked to sanitize their hands before entering the dining area. The staff had their masks and gloves on all the time. Even though precautions were taken everywhere, I personally felt it was not very safe to go and eat outside in the same cutlery and utensils and with the food being served by someone who is serving in multiple tables and is coming in contact with multiple people. I also saw people coming with small kids and elderly people which I don’t personally think is very safe at this stage because diners can't socially distance themselves while seated at the same restaurant table, and they can't wear masks while dining. This has a strong chance of spreading the virus.

Street Food: Street food stalls were all shut during the lockdown but back in my own city, I discovered that these street food vendors were preparing the dishes at home and selling them from their houses and people came and took them away. However, the prices were comparatively higher than that of the times before the pandemic. For example; One plate of Dahi bara aloo dum was sold at 25 to 30 rupees before the pandemic and when it was being taken away from their houses, it was sold for 50 rupees per plate. After the unlock, when things were opening up, street food stalls also opened up but again, either they only had takeaways or had a restricted number of people that they allowed standing near their stalls with strict social distancing.

Figure 2: Street Food after the pandemic where additional disposable plates are being given.

Again this was not a very safe atmosphere for me even though social distancing was being followed because the virus has still so much unknown about itself and along with continuing population dissemination and research that is still not rigorous enough to reliably detect and isolate anyone who might be infected, it is premature to consider re-opened companies and remove restrictions on public life to be 100% healthy or safe.

Another major aspect that I came across in terms of eating out in the pandemic and also post the pandemic is that the prices have increased and the amounts have decreased in almost all the places. This may be due to the losses faced during the pandemic. Both restaurants and street stalls switched to the digital mode of payment even though they did not have it before. This was done in order to avoid payment of cash and have contactless payment. Lastly, eating out in the pandemic was extremely different than that of the times before the rise of the Coronavirus pandemic in terms of safety, price, and hygiene.