pls help im obsessing – improved dining area in weird small kitchen

tldr; want more space for face to face dining and seating for guests. kitchen has open areas that idk how to use and current set up is too squished in some regards. What’s the best way to use available space and improve kitchen for dining & hosting?

My partner and I live in a small condo with a kitchen that lacks a functional dining space. We enjoy hosting and cooking for friends, but can’t have anyone over for a meal because we don’t have a space for more than 2 people to eat. The breakfast bar is awkward and small for even just us. I want a more elegant and functional place for us to eat together, with the option to include friends.

I have a few ideas, but they all involve demolition which would require a contractor (expensive, a pain to manage, and inconvenient as it would make the most important part of our small home a work zone for a TBD amount of time).

Part of our kitchen has dead space that I have no idea how to use, while the current seating area is low on space.

I love bench seating and banquettes, and think there could be an opportunity there but it’s not totally necessary. I like the intentional look of “built in” features (i.e. banquette).

Other units in our small, old, quirky building have opened up the arched doorway to the breakfast bar window so I think it can be done – whether the wall between the “window” and arched doorway is load bearing is unknown and might require a horizontal beam installation if removed. Annoying / expensive but not impossible.

Extra space:

between the back of the counter stools and start of the doorframe: ~28” if the door opens 90 degrees. Should the door be allowed to open more than that? • ⁠between the pantry and the counter: 48”. This area is what confounds me the most. Since the pantry door opens into this space, what the heck am i supposed to do with it?? For how small our home & kitchen are, this is a valuable amount of space I’d love to make use of but have no idea how. Any ideas on this, even if not related to adding dining space, would be sooo appreciated

I have 3 ideas and would love input on them:

1. ⁠Open up the arched doorway and the breakfast bar window. “Scoot” the breakfast bar backwards toward the doorframe so there is sufficient overhang on BOTH long sides of the breakfast bar and doesn’t block the doorway to the kitchen, AND overhang on the short side parallel to the wall (also, bring the breakfast bar counter all the way to the wall so it is a proper peninsula, and take out the small vertical piece of wall that seems to exist for no reason). Would this be too chunky / awkward?
2. ⁠Open up the arched doorway and the breakfast bar window. Put a banquette or bench seating along the wall that the short side of the breakfast bar was attached to, with a dining table and a couple chairs around. Would this make the space between the kitchen too cavernous / empty?
3. ⁠Open up the arched doorway and the breakfast bar window. Change the pantry door to open on the wall the short side of the breakfast bar used to be attached to and close off the current door. Put a banquette in that weird alcove in between the counter and the pantry, add a table and couple chairs. Would this be 1) too small for the plan? 2) strange to have the dining table in between the pantry and rest of the kitchen?

Any other ideas????? Would 2 or 3 make the space between the living room and kitchen too open??? Pls help im obsessing over this thank you