To keep businesses moving, restaurants have introduced diner time limits

Some restaurants are limiting patrons to 90 minutes or two hours of dining in order to keep their businesses moving due to Covid-19 safety capacity limits. Turns out, being told to finish your food can be jarring for some. Diners can be alerted of the dining window when reserving their tables, once they are seated, and/or throughout the meal. Seating more parties within an evening can allow restaurants to receive higher food sales than if guests lingered for hours at one table, an important factor for restaurants to prioritize during the pandemic, The Wall Street Journal reports. But not every patron is adhering to the timed seating efforts. “There’s only so much we can do without making a scene,” said Emmanuelle Massicot, an assistant general manager at Kata Robata in Houston, Texas.