Eating with Locals: The Ultimate Guide to Social Dining

Solo travel is wonderful but – don’t you sometimes wish you could share a meal and have a conversation with someone?

What if (like many of us) you’re too shy to just walk up to people you don’t know and ask to join them?

Eating alone can be fun but… maybe not every single day.

Yet many of us travel because we want to experience local culture, eat local food and meet local people.

What better way to do this than by being a guest in someone’s home?

We’ve got Airbnb for rooms and Uber for rides. Now, we have a plethora of networks for social dining, or eating with locals.

Most function along similar lines: you choose a destination, pick a host family or activity, apply online, message back and forth if needed, and pay, either through the website or PayPal.

The experience is usually straightforward – you go to someone’s home and they cook for you. At times, though, hosts like to take whimsical approaches to hosting – they can turn their dinners into themed events, hold them at an unusual venue or focus on certain types of food, like tapas or chocolate.

These are the most popular social dining networks

Cookening
Adapted from the "Tables d'hôte" concept, this French startup focuses mostly on southwestern Europe. What I liked: Flexibility – you can discuss your food preferences and it has great reviews. What I liked less: You have to search rather than browse so you need to know your destination first. Caught my eye: Dinner cooked by a former Masterchef finalist.

Eat With
Eat With is an easy-to-navigate site with plenty of filters to make sure you pick the perfect dining experience. What I liked: Clickable food photographs organized by destination. Caught my eye: A feijoada in Brazil! I mean, who doesn’t want to try a home-cooked feijoada when in Brazil?

Meal Sharing
Fun Meal Sharing slogan: "To point to anywhere on the map and be welcomed to a home-cooked meal." What I liked: Facebook sign-up and the hefty help section. What I liked less: Website not as intuitive as similar sites. Caught my eye: French food. Sailboat. Long Island Sound. I rest my case.

VizEat
A heavyweight, VizEat is Europe’s leading social dining network. What I liked: A mixture of experiences, from food tours to cooking classes, all on one platform. The ‘recently viewed’ function is helpful too. Good filters for search. Caught my eye: Pasta sauces cooking class. Forget the pasta. Just give me the sauce.

BonAppetour
Well established in Europe, BonAppetour has a strong presence in Asia. What I liked: Global, site in lots of languages. Hosts are verified. You get 20% off your first experience. You can buy gift cards for friends and family. 24/7 support – you never know! What I liked less: No easy way to search for specifics – price or dietary restrictions. Caught my eye: Storytelling in Lyon.

PlateCulture
PlateCulture is the biggest social dining network in Southeast Asia. What I liked: Facebook signup, 10% signup bonus. Easy drop-down menu for destinations. App available. Caught my eye: Cooking class in Bali.

Voulez-Vous Diner
A Paris-based service, Voulez-Vous Diner is focused on France but has a growing presence in key world cities. What I liked: Their blog is filled with local travel tips. Caught my eye: Special places - a selection of the most stunning homes and most special meals.

Home Hosted Meals
A global network, Home Hosted Meals has hosts in interesting and less-visited countries. What I liked: Their vision: “We believe that by sharing a simple meal the people of the world may one day share peace and security based on acceptance of each other’s way of life.” Clearly lays out options. What I liked less: Slow process involving emailing host and waiting for the answer. No search function. A basic site. Caught my eye: This is more about the interaction than the transaction. Some meals are actually free if you buy the food! 

The etiquette of social dining

Heading off to someone’s home for a meal? There are certain rules – most of them unwritten – that you should follow.

• Make sure you’ve warned your host of any allergies.
• Of course, arrive on time for dinner.
• It’s nice to bring something with you – a bottle or some chocolate or a little entertaining gift – nothing fancy.
• A few compliments about the home or the table setting will bring the host some joy - especially when pre-dinner nerves are at work.
• During dinner, take part in the conversation. Listen, contribute but don’t monopolize. Remember it’s not just about the food – you can go to a restaurant for that. Don’t be shy to ask questions about what you're eating and the stories behind the food.
• Be careful with alcohol. If it’s consumed, don’t go overboard. If it isn’t on the menu, don’t insist. It may not be culturally acceptable for your host.
• Leave when it’s time to leave. You may be just settling in, but for your host it might be bedtime.
• Don’t forget to write an honest review after you’ve gone.

Things to think about when planning your eat with locals night out

• Arrange your transport there and back. Where is your hosts’ home? Is it in a faraway neighbourhood? If so, make sure you can find a safe ride back – reserve a cab before you go or ask if they can handle that for you.
• If you're traveling solo, can you be the only guest? It depends. Some hosts are fine with a single guest, others need at least two people to organize dinner. Ask them – another solo traveler may be trying to book and both of you together means dinner is on (not to mention the fun of meeting another traveler!)
• Will you fit in? What will the other guests be like? Well, you can’t predict everything in life so go on, be surprised. Take your open mind to dinner.
• Should you book your social dining experience at the beginning or at the end of your stay? At the beginning, your hosts might give you some good local pointers about what to see and do. At the end, you’ll have a nice send-off before you leave. Your call!
• What to wear? No problem. Wear what you would wear to a restaurant.
• What about hygiene? Restaurants must meet certain legal standards but no one is checking your host’s home. Your host is probably receiving you because she loves to cook and is proud of her house. A bad review from you would harm her reputation so she has every incentive to please you. I’d trust that.
• What if your plans change? Most networks have some sort of cancellation policy but beware, preparing a meal may take a few days if rare ingredients are needed and once those preparations have started, it’s neither fair nor polite to try to wiggle out of a commitment.

Local social dining resources

While most of the above networks are global, social dining experiments are starting locally, regionally or within individual countries. Here are just a few of those that are locally focused:

Cesarine - Authentic Italian regional cuisine by handpicked chefs

Yumzee - Join a meal near you in the UK

Chattable - Seek out potential table companions in the Netherlands

Eat in Common - Scandinavian social dining hub geared towards hosts who want to plan dinner parties

Social dining - differently

Not everyone uses a service or a network to arrange meals with locals on their travels. Sometimes, things just happen.

I asked Women on the Road about their own experiences and advice in eating with locals, and here's what they shared.

Bev from Auckland
A meal I had recently was with my Airbnb host in Lisbon. I arrived as my host was in the midst of a dinner party. Without hesitation she invited me to join them and poured me a glass of red wine. I had just arrived in the country and couldn't have felt more welcomed.

Kristina from Michigan
Just make sure there are at least two other couples/3-4 people in the event the experience is very awkward and uncomfortable.

Kathy Francis from Charleston, South Carolina
I have had home hosted dinners on trips to Ecuador and Thailand in which the family prepares the meal and we meet them in their home. It’s always an open and friendly evening, with both cultures wanting to learn from one another.

Philippa from Portugal
I have used many many times this webpage to have dinner with local people everywhere I travel! VizEat: Immersive Food Experiences - VizEat; From dinning in Barcelona and New York, to even doing a cooking class with a really cool Italian / Australian couple in their house in Barcelona. It was a really fun way to meet local or just regular people who are living for some time in a country and bonding as if you had friends everywhere you go. And... I really recommend it! 

Monique Peubez from the Jura, France
On a trip to the Faroe Islands, while speaking with a local student outside a church her mum opened a window and told her daughter to invite me for dinner. They offered me dry whale meat and mutton! Such a lovely family... since I had some French cheese still left in my rucksack I offered them some International friendship.

Anne Betts from Packing Light Travel
I love the way the sharing economy is transforming the way we travel, and how it promotes interaction with locals. I booked a delicious seafood dinner hosted by a grandmother and her granddaughter in Barcelona – I loved being welcomed in a Catalan home, the conversation, observing the interaction between a devoted granddaughter and her grandmother, the distance from the “tourist trail” and enjoying a home-cooked Catalan specialty.

Faith Dugan (currently in Asheville)
I’ve had a few wonderful experiences I’ve loved – once I was invited to the owner’s home of an apartment I was renting. I had only communicated with her by email. It was a lovely evening filled with wonderful conversation with her and her husband.

Donna Armer, Beaufort, South Carolina
I book places to stay before I leave the US. I'm able to correspond with the owner before I arrive. Once I'm sure the place in right for me, I ask the owner for help in finding local people who are willing to teach me to make bread or pasta or any local specialty. These exchanges develop a foundation for a friendship even before I arrive.

Coby Sikkens, Valleiry, France
In Tokyo, where I was for a meeting, some of my Japanese colleagues invited me to their home for dinner. The food was delicious, but I was wearing my office business two-piece suit and sat on the floor behind a low table. As I was unable to sit the way the Japanese did with my legs folded under me, I was allowed to stick them under the low table where they almost showed at the other end. After dinner, I was rescued by someone who found a chair!

Monica Murphy
One meal that comes to mind is a lunch I had at a friend's house in Oman. As with most activities in their daily lives, the men and women eat their meals separately, but I found myself eating in another house, sitting in the floor with the men and taking food from the communal serving dish. The Omanis are very polite and hospitable, and this would be "haram" in their culture - forbidden - but I can think of two reasons for this. First, someone asked if I was hungry and I said I was, because in Arab culture lunch is served later. Perhaps the ladies' meal hadn't been prepared yet. The other reason may have been language. My friend's brother spoke good English while the women could not. We had Biryani chicken, originally from India, a dish a lot of Omanis have for every meal!

Donna from Beaufort, South Carolina, USA
I have never had to use an app or service (thankfully) as I'm not technology savvy enough to do that. Instead, I make friends with people...usually the people I stay with, so I am invited to dinner often. I'm probably what you would call a conservative traveler, meaning I book places to stay before I leave the US. I'm able to correspond with the owner before I arrive.