HouseBites

Dinner parties are a great way to meet new people, unless it's Celebrity Come Dine with Me, and it ends with you challenging Anneka to eat her own bloody rice. Seeking to hook you up with more like-minded folks: HouseBites, just soft launched to the capital.

The brainchild of a former dating-site operator, Bites facilitates BYOB dinner parties composed of total-stranger guests & hosts, with the latter free to charge whatever fee they like, and choose themes, which the founders suggest can range "from a late-night poker tournament to a Sunday roast", a delightful tradition born of a fat misunderstanding for what the 7th Day was a day of.

To attend an event, just search by location/ food type/ price, etc., then peep the menu/host profile; currently on the schedule are a Swedish Supper ("no Swedish massage included") "Banish the Winter Blues" (four courses of comfort food, incl chicken casserole & Aga baked bread rolls), and a film-inspired Ital-fest called "Big Night Soho Style" -- given the location, presumably involving a lot of huge, throbbing pennes.

Hosting's also simple: punch in details (food type, smoking/non, etc.), plug your price into the Paypal-esque credits system, then accept/decline requests based on user profiles + your contemptible biases/desire to for once feel powerful.

There are spots still available for the service's official launch events, planned for the weekend of the 18th/19th Dec, with the vaunted Savoy Truffle Supperclub hosting two "five-course feasts" on the 29th floor of Centrepoint -- thankfully, unlike Anneka's paella, this food'll be so delicious you won't even think about using your jump-suit.