The number of customers seated in each enclosed space of a hospitality venue is limited to 20 under current restrictions and venues must comply with the one customer per four square metre rule.

Underbar's Lucy Taylor, partner of chef Derek Boath, said they were lucky to be able to operate the small restaurant as they always have, with a few slight changes to ensure compliance.

The restaurant seats 16 people for a chef's tasting menu on Friday and Saturday night's.

"I guess that is one of the benefits of being a really small restaurant," Ms Taylor said.

"Other than bringing in a couple of extra tables to make sure people are spaced out, we still can operate with the same number, so that is lucky."

Underbar announced its closure on March 22 in response to COVID-19. It re-opened for its first night of service since on Friday.

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The restaurant that received a 'chef's hat' for the second year at the Good Food Guide Awards in 2019 regularly books out for the next month of dining in days when dates are released.

Ms Taylor said most customers who had already booked from the last week of March until the end of April opted to take a voucher for the restaurant in place of their deposit and many had already re-booked for the coming months.

"We were so heartened because there was a real flurry of bookings and we were pretty quickly booked up," she said.

"It was the 25th of May when we knew we would be able to open in June so we opened up June and July reservation and within not many days we were basically fully booked."

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Ms Taylor said having to close the restaurant in March was a 'shock to the system', particularly for chef Derek Boath who spends up to 60 hours a week preparing for the two nights of service.

"The first concern we had was the financial side of things, but we were so lucky because our landlord very kindly said we didn't need to pay rent for three months," she said.

"That was a real lifeline for us, it was a huge help. JobKeeper has been a huge help for us too.

"We are a really small business and there is not a whole lot of money to be made in restaurants if I am perfectly honest, so it was really great for us to be able to provide that for our staff to keep them ticking along."

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After overcoming the initial shock and sorting out their financial plan, Ms Taylor said she and Mr Boath viewed lockdown as a treat to spend time with family and work on the business rather than in it.

"Derek has done things like a three day knife making course with Adam Parker and he has been out foraging for mushrooms with our eldest daughter who is about three," she said.

"He has spent some time menu planning and trialing dishes that he might not ordinarily get the time to do.

"We are usually so busy all the time just trying to get as much done as we can week to week, but you don't have those moments to reflect, actually look at the way you do things and potentially do them differently. This was a valuable time for us."

Ms Taylor said customers who had booked to dine at Underbar in the coming months had expressed excitement at being back in the community and dining again.

"I think what this time maybe has done is highlighted just how enjoyable and valuable those experiences are; the opportunity to dine out and have a lovely meal, nice wine, catch up with friends or your partner and have a lovely treat," she said.

"I think being at home for months on end, people are appreciating that even more than they did before."

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Underbar has been operating for three years in its permanent space at 3 Doveton Street, after opening as a pop-up at Fika Cafe in November 2016.

Ms Taylor said the support of the Ballarat community helped the restaurant open in its own permanent space and now about half of their guests travel from Melbourne.

"We are excited to be back. We are grateful for the support of our landlord and everyone looking to come back. We are only here because people come in every week and dine with us," she said.

"A lot of thanks to our community, our landlord, to Matt from Fika for the extra tables and to everyone for wanting to come back and eat out."

The Victorian government has announced restrictions on hospitality venues will be eased to a limit of 50 people per enclosed space from June 21 and this is expected to increase to 100 in the second half of July.

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