I'm chomping at the bit to eat in a restaurant

Takeaways are a poor second-best compared to the buzz of eating amongst other people, says our columnist

- Joanna Blythman

The last year brought home to me just how much I value the precious physical experience of dining in restaurants with other people. Happily, as I write this, it looks as if restaurants in most areas of the UK will be serving customers inside by the time you read it. As a seasoned restaurant reviewer, eating out has always been a big part of my life, but I hadn’t realised just how much it mattered to me until I wasn’t allowed to do it. I’m clearly not alone.

As restaurants plan their great re-opening they are being inundated with online bookings. In Cornwall, Rick Stein’s Seafood Restaurant took 30,000 advance bookings, and while you could guess that the beautiful southwest would be gearing up to welcome holiday-deprived visitors, restaurant bookings are also hot tickets up and down the land. One Manchester restaurant, 20 Stories, received over 5,200 bookings for tables on its terrace within the first 48 hours of opening its reservations line, and in London, Richard Corrigan’s Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill had 500 eager customers on its waiting list for the first week of opening.