Answer
How does ToShareAMeal keep social meals safe?
By keeping meals in public restaurants, limiting what anyone can learn about you before you meet, and making it easy to leave, report or block. It is worth saying plainly what is not done: there is no identity verification and no background checking, so treat a table as you would any first meeting in public.
Where meals happen
Every table is at a real, public venue — a restaurant, café or similar. Private residences are not allowed, and meals are shared in a room with staff and other customers in it.
What other people can see about you
Signed-out discovery shows the venue, time, meal type and seat counts only. It never shows diner identities or messages. At a table, other diners see what you chose to put on your profile — not your contact details.
Chat is scoped to the table
Group chat opens when the table is ready and closes after the meal, and you see messages from the point you joined onward. There is no open messaging between strangers before a table exists.
Leaving, reporting and blocking
You are never obliged to stay.
- Leave a meal early at any point, without explaining yourself, once you have settled your share.
- Release your seat before the meal if plans change; the seat reopens for someone else.
- Report a person or a table — reports are reviewed by human moderators, not automatically closed.
- Block someone: it takes effect immediately, is not revealed to them, and keeps you from being seated or matched with them again.
Money as a safety issue
Unclear bills cause most of the friction at a shared table, so the payment approach is agreed before the meal and locked once the table is ready. ToShareAMeal never takes payment for the meal — you settle directly with the restaurant.
What we do not claim
There is no identity verification, no background checking and no guarantee about who will be at a table. Everyone attests that they are an adult, moderation is human, and sensible first-meeting habits still apply: meet at the venue, arrange your own way home, and trust your judgement about leaving.