How We Supported Restaurants During Lockdown

One of the things I definitely missed during lockdown was going out for dinner. In pre-Covid times my husband and I regularly ate out. That’s why I felt like a kid in a candy store with so many restaurants to choose from when we moved to London. Over the years we’ve done our fair share of exploring restaurants and different cuisines.

I do really love to cook at home as well. Then lockdown happened and we suddenly found ourselves in our kitchen creating three meals a day, pretty much every... single.. day.

That’s why my husband and I came up with our “lockdown stay home dinner date nights''. Throughout lockdown more and more restaurants started to provide takeaway options to stay operational. Brilliant! All of the sudden we had plenty of choice of good quality takeaways, even from some of our favourite local places.

It’s not like we never ordered takeaway before corona, but usually we’d resort to comfort food like burgers or pizza. After suddenly spending so much time at home, we were looking for an excuse to get out of those sweatpants and get rid of that “no makeup, just out of bed look”. For us, a juicy takeaway burger wasn't going to do that trick.

So, lockdown date night was born. We agreed to dress up as if we were going out and order in from a nice restaurant or traiteur. In my opinion, a great way to show your (local) favorite businesses some support during these hard times. As an added bonus, it gives you a break from your kitchen as well.

Accompanied by some candles, a nice bottle of wine and a romantic Spotify playlist, your dining room almost transfers into a restaurant. All you might have to do is reheat the food and pour yourself that glass of wine.

Don’t get me wrong, I cannot wait to go out there and explore dining out again. But who knows, this might just be a tradition we want to keep alive long after lockdown.