Eateries spare no effort to ensure customer safety
Staff remind diners to don masks before and after meals, among other precautions
From rolling out digital menus to providing diners with antiseptic wipes for their cutlery, eateries here are doing what they can to keep Covid-19 away.
A spokesman for the Restaurant Association of Singapore, which has more than 470 members, told The Straits Times that food and beverage (F&B) operators are complying with regulations, such as putting up signs to remind customers of safety measures like safe distancing.
Staff also ensure diners put their masks back on when they are done eating and drinking.
Mr Andrew Tjioe, chief executive of Chinese restaurant operator TungLok Group, said that in addition to safety measures such as temperature taking for all diners and staff, the group's restaurants have implemented other precautions.
CLEAN CUTLERY
These include providing customers with food grade disinfecting wipes to clean their cutlery before dining, and having plastic partitions between tables at some of the restaurants.
TungLok Group has 15 restaurant brands here, including Dancing Crab and TungLok Signatures.
Mr Tjioe said staff have been briefed to remind customers to put their masks back on when they are no longer eating or drinking.
He said: "Most diners have been mindful of this without being reminded.
"The remaining are receptive of it without constant reminders."
Mr Loh Lik Peng, director of the Unlisted Collection group, which runs 18 food establishments including Burnt Ends, agreed that customers and employees have taken to the safety measures well.
He said: "We require our patrons to cooperate with us to ensure everyone is safe, and I do genuinely believe that almost all of our patrons recognise we do this for their own good.
"So far, we have encountered little difficulty with enforcing the rules."
He added that ensuring safety measures such as social distancing and contact tracing has become "second nature" to employees.
"It's as important as the service and the cooking," he added.
Some of the group's restaurants have also implemented time limits for diners to ensure that more customers can be served and staff have enough time to sanitise tables.
TIME LIMIT
For example, The Market Grill in Telok Ayer Street has a limit of 11/2 hours per table.
Customers are encouraged to make reservations online.
Enterprise Singapore said in a statement last month that the agency had issued three composition fines to F&B outlets since the start of phase two of the reopening.
Two composition fines of $1,000 were issued to restaurants for failing to implement safe distancing.
One fine of $300 was issued to an employee of a food outlet for not wearing a mask when preparing food and taking orders.
Eateries visited more than once by Covid-19 patients
Eateries visited more than once by Covid-19 cases during their infectious period in the past three weeks:
- My Kampung foodcourt at Kallang Wave Mall: Visited eight times between June 30 and July 7.
- People's Park Food Centre: Visited on July 1 and 5.
- Old Airport Road Food Centre & Shopping Mall: Visited on July 4 and 7.
- McDonald's at Tampines Mart: Visited on June 25 and 28.
- McDonald's at Lucky Plaza: Visited on June 28 and July 4.
- Marsiling Lane Market & Cooked Food Centre: Visited on two separate occasions on June 28.
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