I remember reading this cool story about the first restaurant to open after Mao died. By then, eating out was such a foreign experience that people did not quite know what to do. The customers washed their own dishes afterwards, for example.

Ah I thought it was the "service work doesn't actually add value to the product (dumbass statement) unlike the people who farm and process the beans and are therefore not a part of the proletariat". Tbf there was also the "expecting able-bodied people to go and pick up their own takeout instead of getting a gig worker to do it for them is ableist" discourse so it's not like there's a shortage of twitter restaurant discourse

Your twitter restaurant discourse I can at least see the reasoning behind. Like so many other things, it's not inherently exploitative but under capitalism it absolutely is. I agree that people who can cook for themselves should do so as much as possible, but no restaurants under communism is honestly laughable because I'd open one the second I could and make the food free if I didn't have to worry about survival. They might not be the exact same as what they are now but people are always going to want well-prepared food they don't normally have access to, and it's not like people are going to stop getting hungry at inconvenient times.

This would be a lot of wasted effort. One of the key steps Cuba took towards women's liberation was the collectivization of domestic labor through e.g. neighborhood canteens and cafeterias. Not exactly a restaurant experience, but absolutely still eating out!

under communism there would be no restaurants

I would cook for maybe like ten people a day that sounds nice