Most cities have a loneliness problem. Los Angeles has a loneliness problem with a commute attached. Friends live forty minutes apart, plans die on the 405, and plenty of people who moved here for work can go a month without a dinner that was not organised by their job. So it is no surprise "Timeleft Los Angeles" is a common search.
Here is what you get, what it costs in dollars, and where it works and does not. We run a founder dinner club in the same city, so take our view as informed, not neutral.
Timeleft is a dinner-with-strangers app. You pay a subscription, take a short personality quiz, and Timeleft seats you with a small group you have never met at a restaurant it picks. Los Angeles is on its list of US cities, and Orange County runs as a separate one. By Timeleft's own description it is not a dating app and not a networking event. It exists so people in big cities have somewhere to be on a Wednesday night.
How a Timeleft dinner works in Los Angeles
You answer the questionnaire once. From then on, you book a Wednesday and the algorithm builds a table of four to six, balanced on personality, age range and the language you want to speak. The booking window stays open until 13 hours before dinner, so a Monday decision can still be a Wednesday plan.
You do not see names, jobs or the restaurant when you book. The venue and a preview of your group come shortly before the night (the App Store listing says on the day, Timeleft's blog says the day before).
In most cities that late reveal is part of the fun. In Los Angeles it is also a logistics question. The table could be in Koreatown, Culver City or Highland Park, and if you live in Santa Monica that is the difference between a twenty-minute drive and a whole evening in traffic. Before your first booking, decide how far you are willing to go on a weeknight, and check where you have landed as soon as the venue arrives.
The real cost in Los Angeles
The price on the pricing screen and the price of the night are two different numbers.
Timeleft's US subscription is $19.99 a month. The App Store lists two longer plans at $46.99 and $62.99, which work out cheaper per month if you commit. Promotions move these around, so the app is the only price to trust.
That fee pays for the matching and the reservation. Dinner is your own bill, settled with the restaurant. Our estimate for Los Angeles, with a main, a drink, sales tax and a 20 percent tip, is $45 to $80 a head.
Then there is the line item every Angeleno forgets to count: getting there. Valet, a meter or a rideshare each way adds a real amount to a night out, more if the table lands across town. Two Timeleft dinners in a month realistically come to about $120 to $200 all in. Still a reasonable price for two evenings with new people, but budget for that number, not the subscription. And cancel through the app before the renewal date if you are done, since unexpected renewals are a common complaint.
What people say after going
Timeleft rates 4.6 on the App Store from more than 8,600 ratings, and 3.3 on Trustpilot from roughly 760 reviews, where nearly half are five-star and about a quarter are one-star. Most nights go well. The ones that do not generate detailed reviews.
The recurring complaints are noise (restaurants too loud for one table-wide conversation), groups that do not feel matched on age or stage of life, location details arriving too late to plan around, and subscription billing.
In Los Angeles the stakes of a flat table are a little higher. If you drove forty minutes for it, a dinner that never gets going costs you the whole evening, not just two hours. The upside is the same as everywhere: when it works, you leave with people you would not otherwise have met, and some of those turn into a standing plan.
Who Timeleft is good for in LA
People who just moved here. Los Angeles is hard to break into without a school, an office or a scene. A fixed Wednesday with no organising required is exactly what Timeleft does best.
People whose work has odd hours. Entertainment, hospitality and freelance schedules make recurring plans with friends hard. A dinner you can book as late as the morning before fits around a shoot or a shift.
People whose friends are spread out. If your circle runs from Long Beach to the Valley, a table of new faces closer to home can be easier than coordinating the old one.
As with any format built on chance, go three times before you decide.
Where it falls short for founders in LA
Los Angeles has a real founder scene, but it is scattered: consumer and hardware teams on the Westside, creative studios in Silver Lake and Echo Park, climate and manufacturing companies Downtown. The distance is exactly why people who should know each other never meet.
A Timeleft table does not close that gap. It is matched on personality across the whole city, so the chance that someone else at your table is building a company is low, and the chance that they are at your stage and in your market is lower. In a city where half the room has a project, there is also a real chance the table turns into everyone's pitch, which the format has no way to stop.
That is not a flaw in Timeleft. It is a product built for friendship being asked to do business development. For the longer version of that argument, see our Timeleft alternative guide for founders.
Timeleft vs Founder Feast in Los Angeles
| Timeleft | Founder Feast | |
|---|---|---|
| Who you eat with | Anyone on the app, grouped by a personality quiz | Founders, investors and people building something real, each application read by a person |
| Matching | Algorithm: personality, age range, language | A person: stage, industry and what you are working on this year |
| Night | Wednesday dinners, women-only on Tuesdays | Every other Thursday at 7pm |
| Table | Four to six | Five |
| When you find out | Venue and a group preview shortly before the night | Restaurant and tablemates 24 hours before |
| Where | Restaurants anywhere in the city | Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Santa Monica, Venice, West Hollywood and Downtown |
| Cost | $19.99 USD a month, cheaper on longer plans, plus your meal | $39.99 USD a month for every dinner you book, plus your meal |
| Between dinners | Drinks, coffees and runs to book | Your table's chat, the member directory and chat in the app |
| Made for | New friends | Peers, with no pitching |
Other options in Los Angeles
If you want people in your industry rather than a random table, Los Angeles has more structured options than most cities: founder communities, accelerator alumni groups and a busy event calendar. We keep running lists of the founder communities in Los Angeles and the tech networking events worth your evening.
And there is Founder Feast. Our Los Angeles dinners seat a table of five every other Thursday at 7pm, from Venice to Silver Lake. Every member applied and a person read the application. Tables are matched on stage and industry, and the restaurant and your tablemates arrive 24 hours before, so you know the drive is worth it before you get in the car. Membership is $39.99 USD a month and covers every dinner you book, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver. You pay the restaurant for your own meal, as you would with Timeleft. Members also host coffees, runs and hikes between dinners, as extras around the table rather than a replacement for it.
The verdict
For making friends in Los Angeles, Timeleft is an easy, low-cost start. Budget for the meal and the drive, keep an eye on renewals, and give it a few Wednesdays. For meeting people building what you are building, it is not the right product, and it never said it was. Using both works: one night for the city, one for the company.
The full Founder Feast night in this city is laid out in founder dinners in Los Angeles.
Common questions
Which night is Timeleft in Los Angeles? Wednesday for the main dinner, Tuesday for women-only dinners.
Should I drive or take a rideshare? If the table will drink, a rideshare. Either way, check the venue as soon as it arrives and plan the trip home then.
Can I go with a friend? It is designed for going solo. Two people who already know each other change the table's dynamic, so a supper club or a group event suits a pair better.
Is Orange County the same as Los Angeles on Timeleft? No. Orange County is its own city in the app, so choose the one where you want to eat.
Related reading
- Timeleft in San Francisco, the same review for the Bay.
- Timeleft in Vancouver, the original version of this guide.
- How to meet founders in Los Angeles, if peers are the goal.
