Diners Excited To Be Eating Out At Night Again

Many restaurants resumed their evening dine-in services on Thursday after the government relaxed social-distancing rules to allow them to serve customers until 10pm instead of 6pm.

At a restaurant in Wan Chai, a customer surnamed Chan said she would now be going out more often.

"I'm very excited, so that's why I'm coming out for dinner tonight," she said.

"When the restaurants were closed for dinner, I usually bought takeaways or cooked at home. And then after a period of time, like after a month, I got sick of it, I really wanted to go out [to have dinner]."

She said she didn't mind using LeaveHomeSafe, the government's contact-tracing app, if it helps keep people safe.

But not all diners were happy with the arrangement.

A man surnamed Ip, who queued up outside a ramen shop in Wan Chai, said he would leave his personal details with the restaurant instead of using the app.

"I think it's kind of like they're trying to force us to use the app, and trying to trace where we're going," he said.

Some restaurant owners said they would rather sacrifice some business by only providing takeaway meals because they didn't want to collect their customers' information.

"I understand the government is trying to do things step by step... sooner or later if they realise a lot of people are leaving their information with the restaurants, then they have the excuse to enforce the law of downloading the LeaveHomeSafe app," said Roberto, a pasta stall owner.