You may remember a while ago, when only takeaways were allowed to open, I wrote a post on my local restaurants and whether they were still open and doing takeaways during lockdown.
Well this week, the lockdown restrictions have lifted and it’s now possible to eat inside restaurants again. In fact, if you’re reading this on the Wednesday evening this post was published, I’m possibly out for a meal right now (but it’s slightly outside the catchment area for this list).
I thought I’d have another review of my local restaurants to see what’s changed. Here’s what I found:
- I said this in my previous post, but there are a lot of restaurants near me. Every time I thought I had been everywhere, I remembered another one that I yet to visit. And when writing this list out again I found even more I still hadn’t been to. I should probably have broken the list down into subcategories or a more logical order, but it is what it is. And some of them are more takeaways/cafes than restaurants, but I’m not being too picky.
- Only a small number of places have closed down. In fact, only one place has definitely closed down, and there’s another few that may have closed down but could potentially just still be dormant. There’s even been a new sushi takeaway open since lockdown so maybe things haven’t been as bad as they could have been (here at least anyway).
- There’s a few places I didn’t previously include in my list because I thought they were more “cafes” than “restaurants”. However, a lot of them have now re-stylised themselves as more “cafe/bars” and are open later in the evening for food and drink. There’s still a few pure “cafes” in the area which I’ve not included as I’m only listing places which open in the evening.
- I’ve also added a few extra pubs to my list. My original list only included places that served food, but I missed off a couple of pubs that did food that I hadn’t realised. I’ve just included all pubs now, even if they only do drinks.
- A lot of places have been refurbished. Mainly the cafes that have shifted into the cafe/bar niche, but also some of the takeaways and the restaurants too. Whether they intended to do this anyway, or whether they just took advantage of reduced customers numbers during lockdown to do it, I don’t know.
| Have I been there? (April 2020) | Have I been there since lockdown? | Status? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Chinese (the only Chinese now since the other one closed) | Yes | Yes | Open |
| The dodgy Indian | Yes (but not since the new management) | Yes. It’s fine with new management, but it’ll still be the “dodgy Indian” | Open |
| The classic Indian (it doesn’t look like it’s been refurbished since the 90s) | Yes | Yes | Open |
| The posh Indian (used to be across the road but is now where the posh Chinese was) | Yes | Yes | Open |
| The expensive fish and chip shop | Yes | Yes | Open |
| The fish and chip shop restaurant | Yes | Yes | Open |
| The station kebab shop | Yes | Yes. This one has now also been refurbished, but they still do a proper kebab | Open |
| The posh kebab shop (formerly the normal kebab shop) | Yes (but not since it was refurbished) | Yes (you can read about it here) | Open. Not previously an eat-in place, but now has a few posh tables. |
| The fried chicken takeaway | Yes | Not since lockdown | Open |
| The Mediterranean restaurant | Yes | Yes, and it was strangely empty | Open |
| The Thai restaurant | No | Yes, and this has turned in to one of my favourite surprise restaurants (takeaway anyway) | Open |
| The noodle bar | No | Yes. They even delivered despite me only living two minutes walk away | Open |
| The Indian at the other end of the high street | No | Not since lockdown, but I think I may have actually been there before | Open |
| The restaurant around the corner that possibly specialises in burgers | No | Yes. It wasn’t bad but they were surprised when I walked in, rather than ordering via an online delivery service | Open but at the moment still only for takeaway/delivery (or it was yesterday when I walked past). |
| The steak restaurant | No | Yes. Although somehow I felt like I wasn’t their target clientele when I just walked in for a takeaway meal | Open |
| The Italian place on the hill | No | Yes | Open |
| The pizza place up the hill | No | Yes, twice. The pasta was good, but the pizza had an incredibly soggy bottom | Open |
| The other Italian place on the hill | Yes | No | Open |
| The greek place on the hill [Missed this one off the list first time.] | Yes | No | Open |
| The Italian chain restaurant | Yes | No | It didn’t open during lockdown and has now closed for good. The one place that has definitely closed |
| The Italian chain restaurant | Yes | No | Open |
| The Italian chain restaurant | No | No | Open |
| The spicy chicken restaurant | Yes | No | Open |
| The large pub on the corner | Yes | No | Open |
| The old heritage pub | Yes | No | Open |
| The tiny pub near the large pub on the corner [I didn’t include this one first time as it doesn’t serve food. But that’s no longer a requirement of lockdown rules so it is now fully reopened] | No | No | Open |
| The old pub behind the high street [I didn’t include this one first time as I thought it didn’t serve food. It was much bigger than I expected, including a large garden at the back.] | No | Yes (for drinks) | Open |
| The cheap chain pub | Yes | No | This was closed for most of lockdown (even before Christmas and when outdoors has been allowed). I’m not sure if it’s reopened yet as I forgot to look when I walked past, but I can’t imagine it’ll be closed for long |
| The pub at the far end of the high street | No | No | Open. I don’t think it does food, but I’ve never been here |
| The Mediterranean restaurant that also likes to think it’s a bar/night club | Yes | I went for drinks here with a friend when that was allowed last year | Open |
| The hipster place on the corner | Yes | No | After being closed for all of lockdown and not reopening for outside only, I thought this place might have closed for good. But it did belatedly reopen last week for outside and I’m sure inside will be open too now. |
| The Spanish tapas place (I thought it was more of a cafe, but it is open until late evening) | No | Yes. This is on my list of places worth trying again. | Open |
| The place up the steps that used to be a police station | No | No | Open |
| The Italian chain restaurant round the corner | No | No. I had a look at the menu, but I just wasn’t interested in it | Open |
| The restaurant that I can’t remember next to the Italian chain restaurant round the corner | No | No | I think this one might have shut down permanently, there’s no signs it may reopen but it could surprise. |
| The place that used to be the French restaurant | No | No | Fully reopened, but it still feels like somewhere I don’t want to go. |
| The American diner | No | Yes | There’s a notice on the door that it won’t be opening for Christmas/New Year. I fear it may not be reopening at all (but again, I could be surprised) |
| The chain bar that does for 2-for-1 cocktails at all times | No | No | Open |
| The Irish pub opposite the station | No | No | Open |
| The other Irish pub opposite the station | No | No | The shutters are still down so it might have closed down |
| The burger place upstairs from the night club | No | No | I think this has probably shut down for good. The night club downstairs has been refurbished/rebranded and I’m expecting the upstairs place to be too |
| The seafood place on the wrong side of the tracks | No | No | I’ve never been able to work out whether it was open for takeaway during lockdown. It looks like it’s open again now, but it has absolutely no signs outside so I have no idea |
| The dessert place | No | No | Open as normal |
| The dessert place across the road from the dessert place | No | No | Open as normal |
| The vegetarian place | No | Yes | I hadn’t realised this place opened late in the evening (I think they did it before lockdown). I think they do some chicken dishes too, so not purely vegetarian. The vegan burger was alright, would eat again. |
| The place that used to be the cheap cafe | Yes, but when it was still the cheap cafe | No | This used to be a cheap cafe, but they refurbished and now open late into the evening too. |
| The deli cafe | No | Yes, I grabbed a coffee here when I met up with a friend | This is another one that’s also extended it’s opening hours into the evening since lockdown |
| The “pick your own sandwich” chain | No | No | Wouldn’t have been on the list before, but had a brief renovation and is also open late so needs to be added |