Today we had a nice relaxed cruise back along the Llangollen canal to Ellesmere, stopping en-route for a typical pub lunch. Having now had 21 meals out since 4th July I am beginning to think I am an expert on Covid 19 precautions, perhaps I should start a consultancy.
Some places seem to have no real protection at all – Dukes in Manchester for example the waiters did not have masks, came within a few feet and, when busy (when we were there), the spacing tables were opened up to customers.
In Gino D’Acampo, also in Manchester, the chefs were wearing masks but most were round their chins, not their mouths and noses whilst the waiters, being very picky, kept on touching the laid tables with bare hands making sure the cutlery and condiments were just so!
The scruffy Thai restaurant in Macclesfield had every other table isolated, the waiter wore a visor and sanitized everything he touched. He also put a thin piece of tissue over the credit card machine so you could see the buttons but were not contaminated by them. We mentioned this trick to several other places who just nodded but ignored us stupid old people.
One restaurant had shower curtains round each table!
Two “Boars Head” type pubs we ate in were big on sanitiser but none of the staff wore masks!
The staff at the Lion Wharf hotel all wore masks and provided all the cutlery in plastic sleeves similar to airline meals. In another the waiter used his disposable glove to write the order on.
In Llangollen Gales wine bar had created rabbit hutches in the yard, these were quite cosy but it wasn’t until last night when we went to a restaurant in Chirk that we learnt that eating indoors in Wales is not allowed, you can only eat outside – not a great idea in a country renowned for it’s rain, hence the hutches.
At least a third of places did not note our contact details.
From this you can see despite all the talk about guidelines and rules almost every place does their own thing, if somewhere was identified as a source of covid I suspect they would go bankrupt so they ought to take it seriously. In the mean time we continue to live dangerously - a Greek restaurant tonight!