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Was not what I expected
The acting was great. Especially Lee Ji-hoon and Seo Ji-hye. MY first Song Seung-hoon show and he's gorgeous in that classic way - they are a good pair. The story and plot were good until about episode 12 and then the FL did something infuriating. I just had to speed through to the end to finish the show - the only saving grace is that they (except once and briefly) did not overuse the breakup/misunderstanding trope to keep the couple apart (they used other tropes, but that's a different story).Lee Ji-hoon was honestly a revelation - he was able to project a sense of menace to us, while feeling relatively harmless to the other characters (especially FL who seemed completely infuriatingly oblivious, though she did do all the right things always). And I saw Son Na-eun in Agency and loved her there, so that colored how I viewed her here. She walked the line of petulant and entitled very well.
I didn't really enjoy the side plot of "Keanu" and Ms. Nam - though, the other characters were memorable and well thought out (Lee Mun-jeong, Geon-woo, work colleagues etc).
I thought this would be a typical plot, and didn't expect the 2nd ML/FL to be such a large part of the story. Some may find them both repetitive and unnecessary, but their acting made it really worthwhile and different.
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warm but ......
it gives you a sweet and unique vibe coz dinner mates is not what people normally do but it definitely is interesting . The thing which disappointed me a bit was that the start did involve some good dinners but then dinners just reduced to none and some pretty bad problems came to surface. well without problems drama can't me made but it was just a teeny bit over.They could have included food some more i mean at some point i felt the name of the show didnt match it anymore . later on the show becomes about the problems with exes.i also read the manga of same title and if you think that you they are same you are wrong coz only the concept of dinner mate has been taken from the manga the story line becomes quite different
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Make your PRESENT ( NOW) GOOD ENOUGH
No matter how long or short a relationship was and no matter the reason for the break ups... still.. all break ups hurt. . No one can deny that your past happened. But try to make your present good enough. This drama dwells on both premises.OUR MAIN LEADS
Both Dr. Kim Hae Kyung (Song Seung Heon) and PD Woo Do Hee (Seo Ji Hye) suffered hurtful breakups. As he tries to move on from an 8 year old relationship, he met Woo Do Hee in a plane to Jeju Island. Who would have thought that one meal shared together could lead to so much more.
No names. No sharing of personal information, they decided to become dinner mates with the following set of rules:
1. Use a messaging app to contact each other
2. Let’s eat meal together when both are available and plan one day in advance
3. Take turns in picking the menu
4. No borrowing or lending of money
5. Unless it’s about the location and time of the place where we are going to eat a meal, do not try to contact otherwise
6. no dating
7. No touching each other
8. No forcing to have meals that both will not enjoy
9. Do not cross the lines as friends
With such meeting arrangement, one is bound to break the rules. Woo Do Hee began to question if things are just happening or is it ultimately destiny. As they say, there are no coincidences, only fate. But things are too complicated with both their lives especially when past loves enter the picture.
Nevertheless, at one point or another, we seek that great love. We ultimately want that epic love story we can tell our children and children’s children. We want to believe that the love we have now .. the person we are with now was because of destiny and that you are fated to be with that person. For those people who haven’t found theirs, waiting for fate to come.
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A slow-burn romance built on real conversation
This is one of the underrated drama which was surprisingly good to watch, while you progress with each episode, it grows on you and you keep watching. The OST is really good. Dinner Mate is a warm, thoughtful, and aesthetically beautiful drama. It’s perfect for when you want a story that feels like a quiet evening with good company and comforting food.It is a soothing and mature romantic drama centered on two emotionally scarred individuals who meet by chance and agree to share dinners together—no names, no strings attached. Through these simple meals, they begin to heal from past wounds and open their hearts once again.
What Worked -
1. At its heart, Dinner Mate is about connection. The simple act of eating together becomes a space for comfort, reflection, and growth. The dinner scenes feel intimate and emotionally grounding.
2. Unlike many fast-burning K-drama relationships, this one develops slowly, with mutual respect and emotional support. Seo Ji-hye and Song Seung-heon have a grounded, natural chemistry that feels real rather than theatrical.
3. The cinematography is soft and warm, with stunning shots of food, Jeju Island, and cozy cityscapes. It’s visually calming and reinforces the healing tone of the story.
4. Through characters like the female lead (a producer with trust issues) and the male lead (a psychiatrist with his own scars), the show addresses themes like anxiety, loneliness, and recovery without turning preachy.
5. From quirky friends to exes who aren't pure villains, the secondary characters bring humor, tension, and life to the narrative without overwhelming it.
What Could’ve Been Better -
1. While the premise is unique, it occasionally dips into classic K-drama clichés (like jealous exes, love triangles) which can feel unnecessary and predictable.
2. Around episodes 8–10, the story slows down a bit with more focus on the secondary characters and exes, slightly dragging the emotional core.
3. The stalker subplot had potential but wasn't explored deeply enough, making it feel more like a filler than a real threat.
While not flawless, its message about healing, companionship, and second chances is deeply resonant. if you wish to watch a comforting, slow-paced romance that feeds the heart and soul—just like a good meal should, this one is for you.
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Less dinners, more crazy exes
If we had more dinners and less crazy exes, I would've rated this one higher. I mean, look at our OTP's chemistry! It's so good! We wasted all of that on crazy and annoying exes. We could've had more romantic and amazing dinner conversations and banters between our leads. They are so cute together, I was holding it out for our main leads' moments. I though we're gonna have a romcom but it turned waaaayyy like a thriller with one (literally crazy) ex.This show did have an amazing OST so that's a plus.
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Beautiful drama with unique storyline
Such a Refreshing drama.Totally loved it. Highly recommended to those who want to watch RomCom with a different kind of Storyline. Chemistry between leads was Fantastic (had butterflies in my stomach most of the times). Mature leads has taken this drama on another level.Love their acting . Supporting cast's characters were amazing with their own interesting stories . We can learn from this drama while enjoying it.One of the best drama of 2020.OSTs are beautiful. Can't deny that this is a binge watch.I enjoyed it till last episode.I want to rewatch it. At last,GO FOR IT!!Btw you are going to crave for food in each episode so.. Prepare something to eat while watching it. XD
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The drama is funny when it tries to be funny and sentimental when it wants be. It is really beautiful. I love how it makes me feel.
It is a great feel good, light romance kdrama, with no extra drama/melodrama involved.
I love so many things in this show. The production, the coincidences, the level of understanding of each other the characters have come to. And so many other things. -oh and the trot music.
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Relaxing type drama but not without flaws
I was really looking forward to this drama because I love Song Seung Heon, and I became a fan of Seo Ji Hye in Crash Landing On You. Seeing Ye Ji Won in the cast list was also a plus for me. I had a slow start due to having to watch on my laptop but I really did like the first episode. The cinematography was well done and the music was pretty good. The first several episodes were really great and I felt very relaxed watching this show. There were things I enjoyed about it, but there were a lot of criticisms as well and the plot just wasn't that great. I'd like to see SSH and SJH paired up in something better than this because the chemistry between them was pretty good.So here come my nitpicks: I wasn't excited about the ex-lovers showing back up in the plot and annoyingly they never went away. That was a pretty old school trope/cliché - the ex that won't give up even though that person is in a new relationship. No Eul also seemed to be way too young to have been in a relationship with Hae Kyung - especially for such a long time. There are a lot of times that age gaps don't bother me. This wasn't one of them. It was awkward. I thought both exes were overly clingy and that the main leads coddled them way too much. It interfered with their relationship to the point that I was annoyed. The main couple were also mature age-wise but the script-writers kept blocking any scene they got cozy in with stupid interruptions that would have been understandable if it was a drama about a much younger couple. Add in to that a year time jump at the end where Do Hee starts acting a bit wishy washy about marriage...I was just super disappointed in the ending. There should have been a bigger payoff for all that frustration.
SSH, SJI, and YJW were the high points of the show. I think Son Na Eun and Lee Ji Hoon are both horrible actors and really dragged the show down a lot.
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Repetitive and poorly researched.
I know I only have two more episodes to go (each 'episode' is split into two smaller minisodes), but I just can't take watching this any more. Unfortunately, this means Dinner Mate takes the title of being the first drama I have ever reviewed where I have outright dropped the series.The premise of Dinner Mate is wonderful - a rom com based around two strangers slowly bonding and falling in love over a series of lunch/dinner dates. Sadly, that isn't what you get. The drama is instead somehow focused around two side characters - the ex-partners of both the male and female leads - and although I can't go into much detail due to spoilers, their inclusion in the series is completely unnecessary at best. I found myself getting frustrated almost every time they came on screen, and it was exhausting watching them repeat the same lines, intrusions and mistakes over and over and over again. Towards the end of the series, these scenes become so frequent that the relationship between the main couple ends up taking a back seat entirely.
The drama also swings wildly between surface-level comedy and serious - REALLY serious - topics such as eating disorders and obsession. It handles the comedy well, but (excluding the incredible performance from the male ex-partner Jung Hae Hyuk) does really poorly handling the serious stuff. Another reviewer said it felt like whoever wrote the show did no research into the topics they were covering, and I completely agree - the portrayals of therapy, abuse, anorexia and other mental health conditions were egregiously wrong at some points, and outright harmful at others. For example: eating a really good meal in a therapy session cannot "cure" a disordered relationship with food, but the show proposes this several times.
Finally, I think when a relationship between a side-couple becomes more interesting than the relationship between the main pairing, there is a problem lol! We get to watch a romance between two unlikely side characters which I won't spoil but absolutely adored, and is what helped pull the score I gave acting up to 3 stars. It's such a joy watching seasoned/older actors get to show off their skills on screen when a script allows them to, and this was no exception. Since we are talking about positive things, I also LOVED the soundtrack to this drama; I actually have some of the songs saved permanently to my Spotify (Dinner Mate, More Than Words and several of the instrumental tracks). They play them to death during the show, but because the songs were so good I didn't mind at all.
TL;DR Dinner Mate is an unfortunate case of a great idea carried out by a team who were unable to bring it to life. With the drama's story veering so far away from the main couple, we don't get much time to see their relationship build and so you're left with something that feels rushed and a little lost. Had the series focused less on how much "drama" they could squeeze from the constant issues the two ex-partners cause, and instead focused on the 'two strangers bonding over food' premise that they built over the first two or three episodes, I think this would have been a much more enjoyable watch.
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Story was alright, Seeing Seo Ji Hye in a new light, awful second leads
What worked:I started out really liking the premise and the buildup of the story. Like the slowburn romance between Hae Kyung and Do Hee and the concept of food as a healing "device" for people who were heartbroken/suffering in some way. I liked both Seo Ji Hye & Song Seung Heon. The former I was glad was getting out of her usual "cold, elegant" second lead sort of status, the latter was charming. Together I liked their chemistry. Lee Ji Hoon was also good here though I was thoroughly creeped out by Jaehyeok. Never been a fan of Na Eun's acting and disliked her and her character here.
What didn't work:
I didn't really enjoy the scenes of Do Hee at her office/interacting with her colleagues. I found I didn't care for any of them, found them noisy and just fast-forwarded all their scenes. And I absolutely disliked the way her boss kept pushing her to Jae Hyeok - despite Do Hee's protests and mentions of how uncomfortable she was - and how he'd just turn up randomly at her workplace. He was so stalkerish and so creepy to the point that I had to drop the drama when he broke into her house. That shit is not funny and was incredibly triggering. And instead of telling Haekyung that Jaehyeok broke into her house, she tells him that everything is okay. EYEROLL.
The pacing/editing also sometimes didn't quite work for me. I found it boring/slow at some parts and found the romance quite slow to start up.
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