Forgotten British reality dating show now available on Netflix will have you hooked
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If you're seeking a show to cringe-watch without a care in the world, featuring a heady mix of entertainment, genuine storylines, and irresistibly awkward train-wreck moments, topped off with a healthy dollop of romance then Dinner Date is the answer.
Dinner Date first premiered on ITV from 2010-2012, eventually shifting to its sister channel ITVBe from 2014 to 2023. It’s now available to stream on Netflix and fans of the show couldn’t be happier. Created by Jimmy Baker and Joseph Varley, Dinner Date is the giddy amalgamation of shows like Come Dine With Me and Blind Date.
In each episode, one singleton is presented with five menus which they must whittle down to their three favourites. Then, the individual suitors behind those three menus must cook said menu and host the ‘picker’ at their home for a dinner date. At the conclusion of the date, both the diner and the cook must rate their date out of three stars and in the end, the dinner guest must pick one contestant to take to a fancy restaurant - where no one has to cook.
The two who didn’t make the cut are given pre-packaged meals and a bottle of wine as consolation for their heartache, or lack thereof. What follows is chaos, manic entertainment, and top-tier viewing cringe as the show parks its cameras in the house of the participant trying to bring their ‘seductive salmon parcel’ to life on their ‘sizzling table’ and other such wildly creative gastronomical feats. This is a show that focuses on the food.
Almost every date that’s aired across the show’s successful thirteen-year run has been painfully awkward — although this could be in part due to the show’s scriptedness or the amount of retakes shot for each encounter. This man-made spectacle of a show is hard to pause and viewers concur.
