Timeleft review: is dinner with strangers worth it?

Product · by Simone Rainieri · 9 min read · Published 24 September 2026

Timeleft is worth trying if you are new to a city, can cope with a table of strangers, and are happy to pay a monthly subscription plus your own food. It is a weaker fit if you want a friendship to form without effort on your part, dislike group settings, or would rather be introduced to one person at a time. Timeleft is a weekly dinner for four to six strangers, matched by a personality quiz. Its subscription costs 9.99 a month in the US according to its own blog, and it scores 3.3 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 760 reviews.

What Timeleft is

Timeleft runs weekly gatherings for people who want to meet others in their city. Its homepage claims more than 3 million members. The main format is a dinner on Wednesday evening for a group of four to six guests, which lasts about three hours. There is a women-only dinner on Tuesdays in more than 50 cities, and the App Store listing also names Saturday coffee meetups, group runs, drinks after dinner in some cities, and walks. You never see profiles beforehand. The company matches people on age range, personality and language, then tells you where to be.

How a Timeleft evening works, step by step

1. You choose an activity (usually dinner), then a city, a language and the evenings you can do.
2. You take a personality quiz. Timeleft builds each table from age range, personality and language preferences.
3. Shortly before the event, the app sends the restaurant and details of your group. Some accounts say the day before, others the morning of.
4. You go, and you pay for your own food and drinks at the restaurant. The app supplies icebreaker prompts.
5. Afterwards you decide who you want to stay in touch with.

The company says dinners are held in public, vetted restaurants. Reviewers describe more variable evenings. Two Timeleft groups merged into one table of eight on the evening one London reviewer attended, because attendance was low. A journalist's dinner in 2025 had only three people at it.

What Timeleft costs

Timeleft is free to download and paid by subscription. The table shows what the company and the app stores publish today.

The App Store listings do not say which purchase is which plan, so the cheapest and most expensive prices are a range and not a price list. The pricing model has changed over time. Reviews from December 2024 and February 2025 describe paying for a single event, one at £12. A later App Store reviewer says buying a single dinner was removed and a subscription is now required.

Which cities have Timeleft

Timeleft's locations page lists dozens of US cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington D.C., and five UK cities: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Manchester. Dublin is the only Irish city listed. The company's own pages disagree on scale, saying 48 countries and 160 or more cities on the locations page, 52 countries and more than 200 cities on the homepage, and more than 250 cities in the App Store listing. Check that your city has dinners on the days you are free.

What reviewers say

Ratings are high on the app stores and lower on Trustpilot. The US App Store listing shows 4.6 out of 5 from 8,500 ratings, and the UK listing 4.5 from 962. Trustpilot shows 3.3 out of 5 from 760 reviews, with 48% giving five stars and 26% giving one. The complaints cluster around money and support: charges continuing after cancellation, slow replies, and loud or wrongly booked venues. Some reviewers also mention mismatched ages and, in a few cases, allege that Timeleft handled reports of bad behaviour poorly.

Individual accounts sit either side. In a February 2025 Substack review, a London writer who went to a dinner in Elephant and Castle said the conversation never dried up, liked that it was not a dating event, and joined a WhatsApp group afterwards. A blogger who went to three dinners in Metro Manila in 2025 found the personality matching worked and some connections continued, but wrote that deeper friendships needed effort outside the app. A December 2024 review of an Edinburgh dinner was cooler: about six people at a table, conversation fading after the icebreaker cards, and a cancelled subscription. A journalist writing in May 2025 stayed in touch with two people and did not go again.

Timeleft pros and cons

Is Timeleft safe?

Timeleft says dinners are held at public restaurant partners, that profiles need real names and photos, that members must be 18 or over, and that there are block and report tools. It also says no personal contact details are shared unless you choose to share them, and claims that 94% of group chats are never flagged for a safety concern. That last figure is the company's own and we cannot check it. Some Trustpilot reviewers allege incidents at events and say their reports were handled badly. Treat a Timeleft table like any first meeting with strangers: arrive by your own transport, tell someone where you are, and leave if something feels wrong.

Who Timeleft suits, and who should look elsewhere

It suits people who have recently moved, who find planning the hardest part, and who are comfortable talking across a table of five or six. It also suits people who like variety, since a different set of people turns up each week.

Look elsewhere if group conversation drains you or if you want fewer, deeper introductions. Our review of Meetup covers interest-based groups that meet repeatedly, and Bumble For Friends Groups covers a group feature inside an app you may already have. One-to-one introductions are a different bet, which we compare in one-to-one friendship apps vs group events. For the head-to-head with Vairi, see Timeleft vs Vairi.

So, is Timeleft worth it?

For a newcomer with free Wednesday evenings, a month of Timeleft is a reasonable experiment, at about 0 in the US before you pay for food. Go to more than one table, because the reviews suggest a single evening tells you little. Cancel before the renewal date if it is not working, and keep proof that you did. If you leave a dinner with one person you would like to see again, the follow-up is yours to make.

Key takeaways

Timeleft is a weekly dinner for four to six strangers matched by personality quiz, paid by subscription at 9.99 a month in the US per its own blog, with food extra and a 35% penalty for no-shows. It is rated 4.6 from 8,500 ratings in the US App Store and 3.3 from 760 reviews on Trustpilot, where the complaints are mostly billing, support and noisy venues. It is best for people new to a city and comfortable in groups, and worth at least two dinners before you judge it.

Related reading: best apps to make friends in 2026, Timeleft vs Vairi, and Meetup, reviewed.

What is Timeleft?

Timeleft is an app that seats groups of four to six strangers at a restaurant for a weekly dinner, usually on Wednesday evenings. Groups are built from a personality quiz, age range and language, and you pay for your own food.

How much does Timeleft cost?

Timeleft's own blog gives 9.99 a month in the US. The US App Store listing shows purchases from 9.99 to $62.99 and the UK listing from £13.99 to £44.99. Food and drink are paid separately at the restaurant.

Is Timeleft free?

The app is free to download, but booking events needs a paid subscription. Earlier reviews describe paying for single events, and a later reviewer says single purchases were removed.

Is Timeleft safe?

Timeleft holds dinners in public restaurants, requires real names and photos, and offers block and report tools. Its claim that 94% of group chats are never flagged is its own, and some Trustpilot reviewers say reports were handled badly.

Is Timeleft worth it?

It is worth a month if you are new to a city and comfortable in groups. Go to at least two dinners before judging it, and cancel before the renewal date if it is not working.

Which cities is Timeleft in?

Its locations page lists New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Seattle and many other US cities, plus Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Manchester in the UK. The company's pages give different totals, from 160 to more than 250 cities.

Do you have to pay for your own food at Timeleft?

Yes. The subscription covers the matching and booking, and each guest pays for their own food and drinks at the restaurant on the night.

Does Timeleft work for making friends?

It puts you at a table with people who chose to meet strangers. Reviewers who went to several dinners say friendships needed follow-up outside the app, and one says the experience worked best as an icebreaker in a new city.

Sources, all opened on 24 September 2026: Timeleft homepage; Timeleft, Dinner with strangers: what it is and how it works (13 April 2026); Timeleft, 9 best apps to make friends in 2026 (20 April 2026); Timeleft locations page; Timeleft on the US App Store and the UK App Store; Timeleft on Trustpilot; Tasting Table, why complete strangers are meeting for dinner (19 May 2025); Florence, Reviewing Timeleft (1 February 2025); Pete Codes, TimeLeft Edinburgh dinner review (19 December 2024); Valerie Anne Pascual, Museum of Thoughts (21 August 2025).

Read next: Facebook Groups alternatives, if the goal is actual friends

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