Under Level 2 guidelines, customers must be seated while eating or drinking and be separated from other customers by one metre, with no more than 50 customers inside at a time.
Albar manager Grant Benson said there were a lot of loyal customers who still came in for a casual drink, but overall business had been slow.
Friday night had been a little busy, but some of the weeknights had been "dire".
Under the regulations, customers had to be sitting down, which lowered its capacity by about 30 people.
Although bars and restaurants were open, not many people wanted to bother with wearing masks and social distancing, he said.
He expected business to pick up in Alert Level 1.
"We’ve just got to keep on with it."
Comes First Chicken Diner owner Joseph Scanlon said the situation was not ideal.
He pushed for a positive dine-in experience at his restaurant, which was "massively restricted" by Level 2 regulations.
"It takes a bit of the personality out of it."
As a new business the lockdown had been frightening, but demand was starting to return to normal, he said.
Co-owner of Nova Cafe, Jizo Japanese Restaurant and Stuart St Mac's Brew Bar Mark Fraser said the change had affected each of his businesses differently.
The amount of business was "about what you expect, which isn’t great".
Nova Cafe was doing all right and had a steady stream of customers and the cliental coming to Mac’s Brew Bar was more casual, but it had not been hugely affected, he said.
On the other hand, the capacity of Jizo had been halved by the Alert Level 2 regulations.
The lowered capacity was not the only issue.
The shift to online work had had a huge impact on the number of people who came in during their lunch break, he said.
It was too soon to say if the Level 2 changes would have a lasting effect, but dropping down to Level 1 would not be a saving grace.
A lot of the revenue for Mac’s Brew Bar came from large events, such as rugby games or concerts.
Those busy nights could make up revenue lost throughout closures and he hoped they would return soon.
It was not all negative however, as the change to Level 2 had given staff a big morale boost.
"There's a real sense of camaraderie," he said.
"You can tell people are happy to be back again."
