Food & Wine News South Africa

Eat Out survey reveals post-pandemic dining trends

Even though things are slowly returning to normal, the pandemic has left its mark on us. Specifically, it has changed the way we eat and our dining experience.

Finally out of the state of disaster, there are some new regulations that are in place until early May to ensure a smooth transition. These include wearing a mask indoors and gathering limits on how many people are allowed indoors.

Eat Out connected with local diners and asked them about dining in less restrictive conditions and what their expectations are.

Here is what they found:

There’s a lot more apprehension from diners as the pandemic wanes. 65% of respondents said they would dine out less often, 28% said they would dine out as frequently as before and 7% said they would dine out more often.

With regards to masks, 47% of diners said they would still wear a mask and 53% said they would not. Interestingly, 51% of diners want waitstaff to still wear a mask, while 41% said they are not bothered.

54% of diners said they would take sanitiser with them to a restaurant, while 46% said they wouldn’t. 76% of diners said they would prefer if the restaurant provided hand sanitiser. The same can’t be said for temperature checks, as only 18% of diners said they would still prefer if they are in place at restaurants.

59% of people said they would still adhere to the 1.5m social distancing.

To read the full report, go here.

Let's do Biz