With the spike in coronavirus cases, dine-in group sizes are back to two while fully vaccinated diners may continue to sit in groups of five
Update: The government has announced that there will be no dining in from July 22 to August 18.
The past few days have seen an alarming spike in coronavirus cases from the active KTV, food markets and Jurong Fishery Port clusters, and it is highly likely that the numbers will continue to rise in the next few weeks. In order to curb the further spread of Covid-19, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced on July 16 new updates on the dine-in rules.
From today (July 19) until August 8, dine-in group sizes have been reduced to two while fully vaccinated diners are still allowed in groups of five. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they receive their second dose. With less than a week to react to the regulations, restaurants quickly scrambled over the weekend to update the bookings following the government mandate.
“I am very annoyed with the change… but there isn’t much we can do about it,” admits Salted & Hung chef-owner Drew Nocente, who elaborated that they have been strictly complying with the government rules since day one. When the updated protocols were announced last week, Nocente confirmed that they’ve had 45 cancellations this month.
Karen Cheng, the co-founder of yakiniku restaurant The Gyu Bar and sushi-ya Ichigo Ichie, is also disappointed, but confessed that the team is also "concerned about the developing clusters". She expounds: "I estimate that 50 per cent of bookings at The Gyu Bar were cancelled after the news was announced. For Ichigo Ichie, most of the bookings are for two persons, hence bookings were less affected. The changes are likely due to a combination of factors—in addition to the new restrictions, guests may also be more cautious about dining out."
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Remy Lefebvre, the chef-partner of Casa Restaurant by Remy Lefebvre at Chijmes which only opened last month, wasn’t spared either. And although he understands that the government is doing its best to keep everyone safe, he says that he would be lying if he said he was fine with the dine-in changes. “Like all other industries, we are facing a very hard time and it’s difficult to plan and manage our business well.”
When we dined at Casa last week, the 35-seat restaurant was fully booked. And with the new announcement, Lefebvre shared that they had a lot of cancellations for groups of four and five diners, though he didn’t elaborate on the exact number. But he is hopeful for dine-ins to pick up soon, as “many informed us that that they are on their way get fully vaccinated.”