Due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, the authorities have banned indoor dining since March 22, 2021.

Lucky are restaurants that have access to outdoor space, such as those on the ground floor of a building that allows restaurants to occupy part of the side walk.

Photo above: a restaurant in One Bonifacio High Street second floor that fortunately has its own outdoor dining area

Restaurants inside the malls that do not have an outdoor space, well, hard luck.

Mall operators are working hard to help their restaurant-tenants. 

The owners of Bonifacio High Street mall, for example, are setting up a food street.

One Bonifacio High Street mall has already set up tables in the adjacent open park to encourage patronage.

Photo above: outdoor dining area outside One Bonifacio High Street mall

SM Aura has glarmmed up its SkyPark on the fifth floor open space to make it more attractive to diners, and in our view, they have done a great job, making outdoor dining more enjoyable.

SM AUra’s SkyPark has two sections at either end of the roof top.

Photo above: outdoor dining area near Nagi Ramen and Yabu Japanese restaurant on 5th floor of SM Aura mall.

Forbestown Road has from the start a place where alfresco dining is common. After the ban on indoor dining was announced, the owners of Forbestown started putting tables on the street at weekends to help the restaurants.

A newer area with a lot of outdoor dining options is at 11th Avenue corner 26th Street, at the back of BGC South Corporate Center.

We presume we should be happy that we are allowed to dine out at all. Certainly we do not want to go back to hard lockdown where nobody is allowed to go out. Unfortunately, we have to sacrifice the children’s freedom of movement unfairly. There are scientific studies to show that kids are not more contagious than adults in spreading the disease, and kids have stronger immune system than adults. They are just easily identifiable, and assumed to have no economic value, in the authorities’ bid to control the spread of COVID-19.

Photo above: before the March 22, 2021, announcement, kids were already not allowed to dine in restaurants. So parents either had to give out dine-out, or be creative like this family. Now, kids are even banned to go outside their home.

Now that there are more dining tables located outdoor, diners can continue to enjoy their favorite food, so long as the weather cooperates!

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