Let’s find out! Curiosity got the best of me and here I am writing about my experience from the past Wednesday night.

Before the dinner with strangers

After hibernating in the winter, when I heard the birds chirping louder, my whole body was:

It’s time! Let’s get outside and meet new people. Let’s put ourselves out there and try new things.

And so I did. I was seeing the Timeleft ad for a while on social media and the concept seemed interesting even though I didn’t dedicate any extra time to finding more about the experience itself.

Every Wednesday, Strangers meet for dinner.

Book your seat now and meet 5 strangers over dinner, all matched by our personality algorithm. — Timeleft website

As you can see from their website copy above, nothing special or groundbreaking as it seems. Plus talking about their algorithm and app made me think that this was all and I have to Sign Up to find out more.

So I signed up and ended up following the user flow and picking up the necessary information to book a single or as I like to call it, a trial experience, and see what it's about.

Before that, I went over a very polar quiz that didn’t leave any room for flexibility. One of the questions was something along the lines of: What kind of person are you?

• Smart
• Funny
• (two random answers)

I went with it. 🙄

The options for payment came after setting up my preferences and picking the date for my dinner. The option was to subscribe to a monthly plan or get a single dinner.

The details after the booking of the single dinner surprised me. So here is what I found out and what happened after my purchase:

• The email was AI-generated and not very original, but all the important information was there.
• I had to bring money to pay for dinner. What was I paying for then? The matching service only? The game they mention in the email? Why is this not disclosed somewhere beforehand? 🤔
• So I pay 17,99€ for a single event and then have to bring 25–35€ for an “affordable” price range restaurant in Zagreb? Without the drinks? In this economy? 😂
• You can see where my excitement went down, especially after finding out that no one from the Timeleft team would be present.
• Even the restaurant that was supposed to be a “secret” until Wednesday morning is within the $$ range of pricing on Google Maps. And quite frankly, I've never heard of it before.
• I mention not a secret because when I checked my profile on Tuesday, I could download the event to my calendar and the location of the restaurant was already included there. 😁
• So now I wonder how awkward all this will be when you sit at a table of 50% Croatians, 17% Bulgarians (only me, I am sure) and 33% of Ukrainians in a Lebanese restaurant 😅 Sounds like the beginning of a joke, doesn’t it. Read further for the update.

During the dinner

I arrived 10 minutes early because it started to rain and I asked for my table with the “number” which was a code word and expected to be seated. What I was greeted with was:

Oh, we have plenty of space right now so you can choose.

First of all, I was not sure if we were 5 or 6 of us so I did not expect to make any decisions regarding our seating arrangements, since the organisers were supposed to take care of that. *sigh*

Anyway, I am seated at a table for 8 and waiting for the other strangers to show up. While waiting none of the waiters asked me if I would like water or anything to drink while waiting.

After the other participants started to show up little by little, we decided to wait until 19:30h in case the last 6th stranger decided to show up since we could see in the app that they were going to be late.

And then we waited some more…for 25–30 minutes for someone to take our order. And here is where my disappointment with the restaurant choice by Timeleft grew bigger and bigger.

First, I ordered a cold dish (mezza) that I wanted to try for a while (Warak Enab Bzeit) but they told me they didn’t have it. Then I ordered the Mint and Cedar Lebanese tea, which can you guess? Also not available. 😅

So I had to settle for coffee with cardamom (I was feeling sleepy already) and Shakshukeh.

The meal was essentially 2 over-fried eggs with chopped tomatoes with seasoning and crispy bread on top.

And since I do not know how this meal is served, I also ordered a portion of that same crispy bread that was on top. 🤦🏽‍♀️

Everyone got their drinks except me. 🤣 At this point I was sure this couldn’t go any worse and decided to just go with it.

You would think: “Why didn’t you tell them to bring it?” Well, first they disappeared for a decent amount of time again, and second after all, I gave up on it anyway.

So after we all started eating, we also tried to keep up with the Timeleft “game”, which essentially was a card game with conversation starters. My issue with the design of the game was that level 1 was so boring and generic that naturally only 1–2 people were interested in answering the questions.

So after we finished our meals, most of us got tired and sleepy. The rainy weather didn’t help with the low energy during the dinner and made this experience feel meh.

The tip of the iceberg

We couldn’t split the bill! That’s what the server told us, and we had to dig for cash, calculate and decipher everything from the bill ourselves.

Again, it would have been nice if Timeleft had picked a place that has flexible payment options!

Not to mention that the bill was over 90€ and:

• The coffee was included, but I did not get to consume it
• Some of the bottled water was missing from the bill
• The server's reaction and solution was to count the coffee instead of the water

But on the positive side of things, I intentionally picked a middle seat on the table and the girlies sat around me. One of them and I managed to take out the chat and went for some McDonald's ice cream. 🍦

After the dinner

I decided to go online and check the mobile stores for the reviews of this app, and see if this was me confirming my own bias about the app and the inadequacies of the whole experience or if this was what the experience was for other people as well.

Side note:

Oh, yes, if you want to leave them some feedback, the only way to move forward with the submission is to upload a photo. 😂

And here is what users say:

The verdict

Great idea, not-so-great execution, unjustified pricing model.

Would I recommend it? No.

Would I try it again? In a couple of months/years in another country, maybe! Just maybe.

Thank you for reading! ☺️

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