Being alone at a restaurant isn’t sad. It’s a table where nobody interrupts you.

Eating alone carries a stigma that does not survive much inspection. The table is good: food arrives, nobody is waiting on you, you can read or look out of the window or think about your own week, and you leave when you are finished. What makes it feel exposed is the idea that other people are reading it as a sign, and mostly they are eating.

Try it once, at lunch rather than a Friday night if that is easier. Bring something to read for the first ten minutes as a prop. The self consciousness usually goes before the food does.