Restaurants in level 2: Tonight will be 'as busy as December party season'

Tonight hundreds of Kiwis will be sitting down to a very special meal - one they haven't had to cook themselves and can enjoy at a table that doesn't also include their working-from-home set-up and the kids' school work.

From today, New Zealand's restaurants and cafes are allowed to open under level 2 - and as might be expected, eateries are already well and truly swamped with bookings.

In fact, Mark Gregory, founder of booking site Restaurant Hub, tells the Herald the demand is "exciting".

"Within 24 hours of Monday's announcement, we saw bookings across the country at December's party time levels. In other words 'Everyone wants to eat out'. We saw many popular restaurants booked out in hours."

Auckland restaurants are gearing up for a busy weekend of dining at level 2. Photo / Josh Grigg

He said restaurateurs were wanting diners to book ahead and would be obliging by the one metre social distancing rules, meaning fewer tables.

"They don't want to disappoint and with two hours maximum dining time, many are able to safely host two sittings."

Not all eateries are opening today, however. Some are waiting until the weekend or early next week to have more time to prepare for dine-in guests.

Gregory says; "Today will see around 70 per cent of our restaurants re-open with the rest looking at next week or later."

L2Update

Parnell restaurant Pasture is one of those holding off for this week.

Head chef and owner Ed Verner told the Herald: "We want to go hard next week and make sure it's perfect, we don't want to open half-cooked."

Ainslie Herrell from Hip Group, which owns restaurants Ortolana, The Store, Amano and dessert destination Milse, says they won't be opening all at once today either.

Pasta hot spot Amano will be open from 7am on Sunday.

Herrell says they've already had "a great response from our lovely guests and are fully booked for our opening day.

"The following Friday and Saturday nights were fully booked within the first 24 hours of opening our reservations."

Interestingly, Herrell has also had a number of Christmas party enquiries since Monday's announcements.

For those who have nabbed a booking tonight - and in the coming weeks - it will be a new dining experience for sure.

Sid and Chand Sahrawat are operating their restaurants Sidart, Cassia and Sid at The French Café with reduced capacity due to the new regulations.

The award-winning restaurateurs say they are "very grateful" that customers trust them to follow the regulations and that people are happy to return to the restaurants.

To ensure safe distancing while dining, some tables have been removed. And guests won't be set with cutlery and glassware until they are seated. Only one server will be on each table and a staff member will man the bathroom and sanitise after each use.

They've also put QR codes on each table for contact tracing.

As of lunch time, Cassia was booked to 90 per cent capacity with three tables left. Sidart is fully booked tonight and Saturday, but still has a few seats available on Friday. And Sid at The French Café is operating with staggered sitting times, with limited availability tonight and Friday, and is fully booked on Saturday night.

Jervois Steak House, Soul Bar and Andiamo, which are all part of Nourish Group, are often fully booked on weekends during normal times. Founder Richard Sigley said tonight the Auckland restaurants were 70 to 80 per cent booked to reduced capacity.

"Our guests have been very supportive in these tough times, with lots of calls to purchase gift vouchers as a way of showing support until we're able to fully operate again which has been very encouraging for us," he said.

"We've seen a great response in bookings from our regular guests, many of whom rang us as soon as Level 2 was announced to check availability - we appreciate their support and are looking forward to serving them again tonight."

Italian restaurant Pasta e Cuore's John van Houten says it looks like the restaurant will be full tonight.

"We are looking pretty full for tomorrow evening and Saturday. But "full" means something different under Level-2. To keep social distancing and to comply with the other Level-2 rules, we only have half the number of seats/tables as we did pre-Covid."

He said they had made several changes, stopping their delivery service for level 2 with contactless pickup still available.

"We have made many changes to our menus in order to offer more choices, streamline our kitchen production and cut back on inventory. We have also tightened our inventory of wine offering a full range of wines but less double-up of choices within each range."

Savor Group operations manager Joanna Cooke said restaurants Ostro, Oyster and Tap would not be opening until next Thursday.

"We are busy planning the next stage and ensuring the environment is safe for both our staff and customers.

"At this stage the restaurants are booking out very quickly and we have had an overwhelming amount of customers contacting us for reservations and messages of support."