TimeLeft Edinburgh dinner review

I heard about TimeLeft, an app which arranges weekly dinners with strangers, on the My First Million podcast. From a business point of view, it's really interesting! The founder started it after making a bucket list and realising he only has a finite amount of time left on this earth, hence the name: TimeLeft. He's making $1m a month from arranging dinners for people with strangers.

Why I tried TimeLeft

I went in with managed expectations and I figured I would just treat it as a random night out. If I make friends that's great, if I don't it's no big deal. I'm in a relationship so I wasn't going for anything romantic. The app says it's not a dating app but I guess some people treat it as one. You can't really stop people doing that.

I've lived in Edinburgh for 6 years and I am pretty happy with my social life here so it wasn't a high stakes event for me. I can see it could be different if you've just moved to a new city and you really want to meet new people. I've been there and it's tough. And it's a lot harder to meet new people once you're an adult.

The matching process

An important part of TimeLeft is that you don't get to choose who you have dinner with and I feel that's a good thing. Otherwise, it becomes like a dating app where people swipe on strangers and make instant judgements. I think the founders made it this way to avoid people just selecting those they are similar to or are attracted to e.g. 25 year old guys in finance select other people like them.

The app does do a personality quiz but I was a little sceptical about this "algorithm" and whether the people I would meet would actually be based on my answers. Also, wouldn't it be a good thing to be matched with people from different backgrounds and with different jobs?

The group

I was told the night before the dinner the nationalities of the people I would be dining with - Americans, Scots and English. That's pretty par for the course in Edinburgh these days! I don't really think that's an important detail though for having dinner with strangers.

I was also informed about the industries they worked in, which I guess might interest people more. I was also told their star-signs, which was a bit random and woo-woo for me. I guess a lot of people that go to these dinners are Gen Z or younger millenials so maybe a star-sign is important to these people. As an elder millennial I did a bit of an eye roll.

The venue, the food and the cost

On the day of the dinner I was told where I'd be going for dinner - it was Mara, a bougie restaurant in Leith, a gentrified part of Edinburgh, and the menu looked good! The drawback was that dinner turned out to be buffet meal of cheese, cold meats and then some skewers. It was fine but I didn't feel it was worth £20.

I'd have preferred to spend £30 and get a great meal than buffet food to pick over. I guess it does avoid the awkwardness of splitting bills with strangers. Everyone just got drinks at the bar so that made things easy.

Cost of going to one event:

TimeLeft membership: £20

Buffet dinner: £20

Drinks: £10

So that's £50 if you go to one event (and you could easily spend more on drinks)

If you get to 4 events in a month it would be at least £140, including the monthly membership.

First impressions

When I walked into the restaurant I was a bit surprised that it wasn't just one table of 6 strangers in an otherwise busy restaurant full of regular diners. TimeLeft had booked half of the restaurant, we were all in one big room and so it felt a bit like a university graduate group interview with 50 other people. I guess it just felt a bit overwhelming for someone like myself who likes small groups of people.

The host was very nice and showed me to my table. I had got there early so I wasn't late to introductions etc. On my table there were 3 Scots, 2 Americans and 1 English person. I was actually surprised that 2 of us were from the greater Edinburgh area. So I guess there's a desire to meet new people, even if you are not new to town. There were 4 guys and 2 women on our table and I'd say most people were early to mid 30s.

In general we got on fine and we had a few laughs. There were 1 or 2 people on the table I could see myself hanging out with again. People were quite surprised when I told them I did ghostwriting for founders for a living - I guess it's a bit of an unusual job. On my table there was a lawyer, a writer, an actuary and I didn't hear what the other two people did for a living. I mentioned that I had heard about the app on the My First Million podcast - it seems like others found out about TimeLeft from friends who had moved to Edinburgh or from Instagram ads, which makes sense.

The conversation

The format was pretty dry though - they give us "ice-breaker" cards so we went round the group asking each other progressively deeper questions. It felt a bit like a group-bonding session but with strangers. There is obviously a limit to how much you are going to share with total strangers and it just felt too much like an office work event that a lot of us introverts hate.

The downside was there wasn't a common thing to bring us together. I moved around a lot in my 20s and 30s and I eventually worked out that you really need a common interest to make new friends. "We are both new to town" isn't really a common interest or activity. The best ways I've found to meet new people in cities has been things like joining a running club (you do a common activity), going to a martial arts class (you have to talk to each other) or volunteering (you have a common interest AND you have to talk to each other.

Once we ran out ice-breaker questions and the standard small-talk, the conversation dried up pretty fast and it did feel a bit awkward. Maybe there were too many introverts on our table and we needed a chattier person? I had been there for 2 hours by this stage so I made my excuses and left.

I think it's always good to try new things so I'm glad I was adventurous and went along to TimeLeft. If you are willing to go in with reasonable expectations and not expect to meet your next bestie, I think you should try it out. I would maybe think up a few interesting things to talk about and ask the group if the conversation runs dry though. I'd say if you are new to a city or just feeling lonely, give it a shot as you don't have much to lose.

As you get 4 dinners with your monthly payment, I might check out another one in the New Year. But I cancelled my subscription because overall, I think it's better to meet people when you've already got something in common e.g. you all like painting/board games/ football.

I think there is room to improve on the model and I'm actually working on an alternative where people meet up based on a common interest. I think "we are all wanting to meet new people" isn't enough to generate friendships or good conversation. It's a bit like a blind date but with strangers. But I'm glad I put myself out there and gave it a shot. And maybe I'll try another one in January.