EatWith in Budapest
Wouldn’t it be cool to go to a new city and get invited to a dinner party? Where you could meet interesting people and be fed by locals? I think it’s a great concept.
I first heard about it a month ago while watching CNN in a hotel room in Mexico City.
The principle is borne of the same concept as Airbnb, the idea being to bridge the gap between travellers and locals. In this case the feature was on EatWith. It’s pretty simple. Through Eatwith, you can pay to be invited to dinner parties in about 150 cities around the world. You sign up with their site, browse the city you’ll be in, and see what dinners/dates are available. If you find a dinner you are interested in you just write the host and tell them that you’d be interested in coming (the average cost of a dinner is $40 US). They’ll confirm the time and the place and you just show up. In the feature, the CNN cameras follow the young journalist as he shows up at the home (New York in this case), interviews the host (EatWith hosts are real chefs), and then mingles with the 6 or 7 guests that had come to attend the dinner. They were from all walks of life, most in their late-20s to mid-30’s, and all travellers who wanted the unique experience of meeting strangers in a foreign city. It looked like a great time and by the end of the evening people had exchanged telephone numbers and made new friends.
This was something Lissette and I were very interested in experiencing. One of the toughest things when arriving somewhere is getting to know people and feeling comfortable with your new surroundings. We hoped a dining experience with locals would be a pleasant introduction to our new temporary home: Budapest.
Our Eatwith experience
Booking: We found out that there is only one local host in Budapest. There was no event planned for the weekend that we wanted. At least 3 people were required to have a dinner with Balazs (our host). A few days later he wrote back. Somebody else was interested. The event was planned for the following weekend. At that point we confirmed our attendance on the website and paid ($46 US each).
The Dining Experience: There are always some anxious moments when you show up at a stranger’s house for dinner. That dissipated quickly. We were 6: The hosts (Balazs and his girlfriend Eszter), Balaz’s young son (Will), a young Brazilian guest (Rafaela), and Lissette and I. The ice was quickly broken when 10-year old Will came up to me and, very formally and with a British accent, “Sir, may I ask you a question?” “Of course you may” I answered. He proceeded to ask me all about Maple Syrup, something his class had covered on their studies on Canada (he goes to private school in London).
Balazs offered us Pálinka, Hungary’s traditional fruit brandy that is often served as both an aperitif and digestive. Nice. He showed us around the home, highlighting the rooftop balcony where they grow their own fruits and herbs.
Soon we were sitting around the table.
Appetizers: Old style bread, with freshly made pesto, a liver pâté, and some pickled onions and pickles. Served with rosé wine. All very good.
Entrée: Cold cucumber soup. Excellent.
Conversation flowed well, Will and Rafaela leading the way.
Main Course: Stuffed Paprika (very similar to a red bell pepper except with maybe a bit more bite) served with rice and/or mashed potatoes. Lissette doesn’t eat meat so her Paprika was stuffed with Ricotta cheese and vegetables. Everyone else’s Paprika was stuffed with a mix of beef, pork, and vegetables. Not at all heavy, the flavours accentuating more the pepper itself than the fillings. Very good and served with red wine from the local market.
Dessert: cottage cheese dumplings with sour cream and powdered sugar. The Dumplings were made on the spot by Will and fried by Balazs. Easy to make and very good.
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By the time we finished desert it was 10:30 and 3 hours had passed by. Conversation had flowed well. It was time to go. Along with Rafaela, we said our goodbyes and departed.
Summarizing our feelings about the Eatwith experience
We have mixed feelings about our experience with EatWith, most not having anything to do with the dinner itself.
The dinner itself was very good. It was simple, fresh and all healthy (except the dessert which we’ll have to work off). The wines were simple but good. We wanted typical Hungarian cuisine without the pretense. We got that. No complaints whatsoever, we really enjoyed it.
The atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant. You’re always afraid at events like this that there might be a jerk in the room. Nobody can control something like that, it’s part of the game when you sign up for dinner at a stranger’s house. But no, everyone was very nice.
Did we feel that we learned much about Hungary, Budapest, or Hungarian culture? Not as much as we wanted. Again, the thing about dining as a group is that conversation tends to go in different directions. I sometimes felt that questions I had got lost or, at times, were only partially answered.
Our major objection to using EatWith again
Simple. It’s the pricing.
In a recent post I wrote about how much we used Airbnb last year. Airbnb is great because it is a cheaper, more flexible alternative to hotels. Airbnb has done a great job bridging the gap between the traveller and locals. Travellers save money, locals make money. It works for everyone (except hotels).
Our EatWith experience cost $92 US between the two of us, $126 CAD when it showed up on my credit card. That’s a lot of money in Budapest. Just to put it in perspective, we paid about $100 CAD for a 3-course meal with wine and digestives when we went to this restaurant (currently ranked #6 of restaurants in Budapest on Trip Advisor).
We love the idea of eating with locals. Food is always an issue when travelling and meeting people is for us is the greatest part of travelling. The concept of companies like EatWith, WithLocals and others is great. How can it not be?
But there’s something wrong when it costs less to eat at a good restaurant than it does at a local’s house. It defeats the whole purpose. I don’t know how pricing is set, whether it’s EatWith or the host. At one point in the evening, Balazs mentioned that there used to be 5 hosts in Budapest working with EatWith. Now they are the only ones. Why? He didn’t know. But I have a pretty good idea. If it’s costing me more money to go eat at a local’s house than at a restaurant I won’t go. And if you’re a local and people don’t come, you won’t make money. And you’re going to stop offering the service. It’s a volume-driven business and you won’t make money when you have one host, in a touristy city like Budapest, who can barely scratch up 3 guests for by-weekly dinners. It’s a great concept, but I think the marketing strategy has to be tweaked if it is to be successful. I hope they fix it, because eating with locals is something we would love to spend more time doing.
Have you eaten with EatWith, WithLocals or any other site connecting travellers to locals? Would love to hear your experiences.
Related: Our Taste Hungary inspired Budapest Food Tour. How we saved big bucks
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Related: We Spent 2 months in Budapest. Here is what to See and Do (and what to Skip)
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Hi Frank,
I really gravitate towards this type of connecting with locals. And I don’t even worry if one of the participants is a jerk. It has never stopped me from having a good time.
Last year we invited 4 friends to join us on a tour of Spain. Conrad and I planned most of the trip and I thought it would be fun to try a meal sharing situation. We ended up having a 5-hour meal with two young ladies in Madrid. I booked it through mealsharing.com and it cost 25 Euros each. This included all the wine, food, and transportation. Since we were 6, each girl drove a car to pick us all up at our lodging in Madrid and drove us to a smaller town about 20 minutes away. At midnight, they drove us back.
It was an amazing experience, we learned much about local impressions of political conditions, traditional food history, and their lifestyle.
I just did a quick search of Madrid on two sites: Eatwith and Mealsharing. Eatwith’s pricing ranges from 28 to 145/person, and Mealsharing 8-25/person. That’s a significant difference!
I get wide-ranging opinions on the whole concept, maybe about 50% for and 50% against. But I wholeheartedly agree with you in terms of high price. I will use it again for sure. Sharing a meal — and 5 hours — with locals deepened my understanding of the country and its people.
Regards,
Josie
Great comment Josie. Thank you so much for sharing that. I will definitely have a look at mealsharing.com
i like the idea – sounds great. but you know, I almost feel they shouldnt be charging at all. It’s about cultural exchange and in some ways that makes the experience more aligned with something like couch surfing where you can meet people even if you dont want to stay outside a hotel, which I’ve done a couple of times and it was great. $46 is really expensive and for half that in Budapest I’m sure you could get an awesome restaurant meal and who knows, get chatting with the owners or the people in the table next to you.
You’re very right Andy. I’ll admit I like a dinner party, reminds me of the better aspects of when I was working. On the other hand, is paying that much a ‘local’ experience? Or is it basically just a restaurant in someone’s home? Some of the comments here have me question that…
Interesting concept, I’ve never heard of eatwith. If I were to come across it though, I would agree with you in that it is way too expensive. Having owned a restaurant and a B&B, food/hospitality are in our blood. We don’t mind paying top dollar to dine out and enjoy a high quality well prepared and well-served meal, but I don’t think I’d risk paying the same amount of money to dine in someone’s home. I’d have no idea what to expect. At least in a restaurant I’d have a pretty good idea, based on reviews and the reputation of the restaurant. The problem may lie with the fact that out of what you pay not only does the host have to be paid, eatwith has to be paid as well. The overhead for the concept is too expensive. Dining at a restaurant there is no middle man. Interesting though, it’s good you had the experience to share with us.
Thanks Patti. Yes, the pricing is what it comes down to. I really don’t know how they come up with that number and what Eatwith takes. But I do know that it was more expensive for the real-life experience in Budapest than on the feature in New York (where $40 might make sense). So maybe pricing has to be more location-dependent…
You are 100% spot on. The high cost doesn’t jive with the intent. I love the idea, but it just doesn’t compute. We had a very fortunate experience, just this week, that a friend of the couple we are housesitting for invitied us to her home for dinner. She cooked a traditional lamb roast with her garden veggies and a from-scratch chocolate pudding. It was just the three of us, but we had amazing conversation. A highlight of our time in Melbourne, for sure!
Thank you so much Sarah. That’s the best kind of experience.
Very interesting read. I think we would not try “Eatwith”, just because it feels too expensive, especially if you are vegetarian. We are members of Hospitality Club (http://www.hospitalityclub.org) since 2006 and we had many nice dinner experiences over this web-site. The concept is similar to Couchsurfing with a focus on meeting people from other cultures (rather than finding a free place to sleep). While we usually do not use it to find accommodation we meet people for dinner or coffee and quite often we get invited at their house or we cook together. And some of these encounters developed in real friendships.
Another great comment. I’ve never heard of Hospitality Club and Lissette is like you; vegetarian (kind of; no meat but ok with fish). I like the concept.
One thing I also started to question but never put on the post: at what point does an ‘eating with locals’ experience become just another quasi-restaurant experience? Because when it gets to be all about the money it is no longer an authentic local experience. What you are describing is non-profit and puts the focus really on sharing and the local experience. And that’s what we wanted.
Thanks Natascha.
Hi Frank, It sounds like a very interesting experience. Like you, I think we would enjoy trying it once for the experience, but I don’t think we try it more than once unless the prices dropped. From what I’ve heard about Budapest, you could have got a lot out of the $92 you spent on only one meal! Sounds like this is not for the traveler on a budget.
Yes, that’s our one objection. EatWith prides itself on being selective with its hosts and most are “chefs” (part time chefs?). But as you saw, the meal itself was simple, nothing like a fancy 5-course meal in a restaurant. So why are we paying above restaurant prices? I don’t quite understand.
But the concept of eating with locals is great and we’d participate in more of these kinds of events…
I totally agree, you can have an outstanding meal in LA (my home), San Francisco, BKK or even Hong Kong for $40 a head! I’m too much of a cheap skate to spend much more on a possibly non-pro product and/or environment…Now $20 + a 20% booking fee??? and every guest brings a side or an item (bottle of wine, some breads, a desert, etc…from a host provided list of sources) What you think Frank? I’m a developer, you wanta give it go with me 😉
cheers!!!
ron;)
You’re talking about about an organized potluck? I think that’s a great idea Ron. But I don’t understand – you’re throwing these dinners in LA? And SF, BKK, and HK?
But if someone where we were was doing something like that we would come, that’s fun!
Yes, Tony, you might be right! But who knows without trying. My friend Kemkem had a great experience and they’re seeing the hosting couple on their own outside of the ‘arrangement’.
I hope I didn’t give the impression that it was a lousy evening. Far from that. It was actually enjoyable…just a bit expensive.
This kind of reminds me of my post about Airbnb not always being the best deal. Sometimes people forget that they are in competition with hotels and in this case, restaurants..and price their offerings not on how much the market commands, but on how much money they want/need. Like you said, if you can get a great dinner for less at a restaurant, why wouldn’t you? About the conversation though, l don’t think that is part of the deal. It’s great if it happens. I ask pointed questions, and l was eager to learn about Seville. The hostess likes talking about the city, and shared her knowledge..like l didn’t know there was still a huge part of the walled city left…etc..etc..but l think if she hadn’t wanted to talk about Seville, l wouldn’t care. It would have been more important to have good, not forced conversation. That would have been a death knell.. That being said..your dinner was expensive :-).
It’s all about the supply and demand, which is why I’d like to see more competition in these kind of sites. Yes, agree Airbnb can be a little pricey depending on the market. Still the most flexible solution I’ve found though for people travelling for an extended period of time.
Conversation. No, you can’t dictate where conversation goes and that’s what I’m saying. I’m in no way blaming the hosts. But I always hope to get a personal take. We did on the food as the host was very good in explaining about Paprika, wines and palinka. But sometimes other people monopolize conversation and you don’t get as much as you wanted from the experience…