While I have taken the 5D to restaurants, I now prefer to take the Sony with me as the image quality is acceptable and it is less imposing.

It's funny that you can tend to raise peoples eyebrows if you shoot with something other than a phone.

In the long run, I have more often regretted not having enough kit with me(eg.speedlight, reflector) than having too much. I tend to have a Pelican case stashed in the car, with flash and tripod, all the time and the Sony in the wife's handbag.

A rule of thumb for me is; quiet dinner in a restaurant, at least have my phone for a snap. A group of 4 or more in the restaurant have the Sony, any more than that, have access to the DSLR.

And as a sidebar to this topic, 2 years ago when we were having our catstrophic floods and people were dying and thousands were forced out of their homes, the media, the police, the councils all were telling us to stay away from troubled areas. They didn't want rubberenckers coming and clogging access points and especially told would be pro and amateur photogs to stay away. So I did.

12 months later they(Council) had a large public exhibition and called for members of the public to submit their images from the floods, even run a competition for the best images, showing devestation and heartache. This peed me off a lot.

So now I say, to heck with the annoying glances, I'm going to try and get the shot if I want to, but stay safe and not endanger myself or others. And like in my work, I'll have the best tool for the job with me.