Would you pay RM55 just to meet up with five strangers for dinner, not including the cost of food and drinks?
Well, at my dinner table last Wednesday, my five new companions’ answers were yes.
Let’s first rewind to how I got into this situation.
Fancy a dinner with strangers?
The company that made all this possible is Timeleft.
Headquartered in Paris, Timeleft has only just recently launched in Malaysia. Their offering is simple, yet just a bit strange (pun intended): Dinner with strangers every Wednesday at 7PM.
The idea is to “create opportunities for the magic of chance encounters”.
Speaking to the country manager of Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, Kimberley Kiew, we learnt that Timeleft’s mission is to address urban loneliness, which is quite present in Asia.
She pointed out recent studies indicate that 16% of Malaysian men felt “very or fairly” lonely.
But Timeleft’s possible “cure” comes at a price. You could pay RM100 for a month of dinners, or RM250 for three months, or RM350 for six months.
The team kindly let me join in on a dinner, which I’m happy to report to you about.
How does it work?
To start, you need to download the Timeleft app.
Any suspiciousness you might have about the offering should subside at this point. Featuring a well-designed UI, the app will get you to input information such as your name and birthday.
But on top of that, it’ll also get you to answer personality questions, such as whether you enjoy politically incorrect humour.
You’ll also get to adjust your budget between three options (one dollar sign to three dollar signs). I personally choose the middle.
You’ll also get to choose the general area you’d like to have dinner at. Currently, the Malaysian options include Bangsar, City Center, and Petaling Jaya.
To ensure meaningful and enjoyable experiences, their algorithm curates tables of six people based on affinities and the answers you’ve inputted.
On Tuesday evening, the app will reveal insights about your group, but they’re rather vague details. It’ll tell you what percentage of the group is in certain industries, their nationalities, and very critically, their Zodiac signs.
I learnt that I was the only water sign that evening, which was a little concerning. (I jest… unless?)
Come Wednesday morning, the location of your dinner will be revealed. The restaurant I was assigned to was Flying Peacock in APW, Bangsar.
There were a lot of sharing items on the menu, which honestly is a bit tricky since you might not share the same palate as your new friends, and would be pricier if you decide to order it for yourself.
Party members can alert the app that they’re running late. Due to traffic conditions, I thought I would be late but turned out to be on time. Unfortunately, I couldn’t rescind my “late” notice.
Another thing about the app is that it offers up some icebreaker questions, which is helpful in getting the ball rolling.
The questions are simple and straightforward, yet prompt a lot of genuine insights and sharing. For example, some questions involved what animal we would choose to be, the strangest things we’ve eaten, and our go-to karaoke songs. All in all, they were simple questions that could lead to deeper discussions.
Other conversation topics involved our careers, why we went on the app, and of course, our zodiac signs (which I guessed wrong for every single person).
So, why were people there?
Some were there in search of a deeper connection, romantic or otherwise. Some were there out of curiosity. Some were there because they were adventurous.
Most of my companions said that they first heard of Timeleft on Instagram, having come across their ads.
Save for myself, everyone was between their mid-20s to very early 30s. At 22 years old, my age had seemed surprising, but that made sense because, really, how many people in their early 20s would be up to pay a fee to have dinner with strangers?
“This (Timeleft) does seem like something 30-year-olds would do,” someone had commented, to which I agreed.
The fact of the matter is that younger people may not find events like these worthwhile, preferring instead to socialise in avenues like clubs, parties, or even dating apps.
On top of that, as you approach your 30s, you might be losing touch with old friends or even feel like you can’t truly open up to them anymore. In those situations, how then can you find people who are also looking to make new friends? Timeleft then becomes a very possible solution.
Moreover, the ticket’s price point already makes it so that it welcomes a specific demographic of people—slightly more affluent, likely English-educated, and reasonably open-minded (enough to want to eat with strangers).
So, what’s the verdict?
It’s a great way to meet people outside of your usual echo chamber, industry, and social circle. When else would you really be able to meet people who are willing to divulge their life stories like this?
This is especially great if you’re someone who’s typically shy and nervous to take the initiative to meet new people. It’s arguably safer than chance encounters as well, since the algorithm will likely filter out people who, say, have wildly different political views than yourself.
It might also be great practice for those who want to work on socialisation skills.
Plus, you can actually leave comments after the dinner to let the Timeleft team know if anything odd happened. You can also select whether or not you’d like to eat with certain people again.
Would I try this again? I’m not sure. It was great meeting new people, but to continually do this song and dance and reintroduce myself and my lore to new people every week does seem a bit tiring.
Will I meet my five new friends again? I hope so. If any of you guys are reading this article, hit me up!
Ultimately, I’m not saying that Timeleft is guaranteed to let you make genuine connections, but it definitely gives you the opportunity to do so—something that is hard to come by these days.
Whether or not you can actually make good on that opportunity, you’ll simply have to find out yourself.
