Please do NOT list the names of the restaurants at which you ate. Here are the facts.
Hep A is often spread via food. Food handlers who have Hep A are a risk factor. They are only a risk factor for a few months after which they will stop being contagious. So far so good. Most people exposed to Hep A will not get sick. Most who get sick will be so mildly ill they will not even be aware that anything happened. A few will became significantly ill and a tiny fraction of them will be hospitalized.
If you have some pre-existing problem with your liver and you then catch Hep A it will possibly be more serious.
However the incubation period between exposure to Hep A and the appearance of clinical symptoms has a very wide range of 15 to 50 days.
What this means is that while you and your friend only ate together at three meals, those places need to be evaluated but two cases absolutely does not prove you had a common source. He could have been exposed to Hep A elsewhere within a nearly two month time from your exposure.
Example. You both became ill the first week of June. Your exposure could have been mid May and his exposure could have been mid April. So don't blame the places you ate here based on two cases. The local epidemiologists asked because they want to know what places to evaluate. Only if more than just your two cases are shown to be connected to a single source is a case proven.
For information on
Hep A click here