Yep, many here regretted supporting Cruz in the Primary - primarily because he wouldn’t have had the gonads to go head-on against Hillary, due to fear of losing ‘the women’s vote’. Nothing unique about Cruz on that, every other Republican running in 2016 would have melted down too.
As far as the restaurant, knowing the media, if Cruz stuck around and things got nasty, Cruz would have been blamed (just as Trump is blamed for all of the Left wing violence these days) - so Cruz probably did the right thing at that time, given what we’re up against.
After the smoke settled, there was simply NO GOP candidate who would have been able to withstand the media onslaught on behalf of their preferred candidate, HRC. If Republicans don’t learn to ape (is that racist?) the Trump willingness to push back and attack, DJT may be the last GOP president.