Or host them , for that matter.
Dinner parties seem to be a common occurrence for the sort of people who feature in TV adverts, or the lifestyle columns in newspapers, yet I have never been to one.
Nobody I know goes to them, unless they do and they’re keeping quiet about it to avoid having to invite me, so I wondered how often they happen in real life.

Free food? I’m there.

only the “car keys / bowl” type

Does cooking for some mates count as a dinner party?

pre-kids, yes lots.
post-kids, no never.

Does cooking for some mates count as a dinner party?

Yes 🙂

What constitutes a dinner party these days?

If it’s being invited to a friend’s house along with other friends in the evening to eat a meal with them (at the table) and having a laugh over a few bottles of wine, then yes.

If it means all of the above whilst wearing a tie and finishing off the evening with port and a cigar, then no.

Yes, it was the main form of socialising for many years when kids where small. More recently it’s frieds for dinner often midweek. Have got to the point where we can cook better than most restaurants and we enjoy doing it, plus of course the wine costs 25% of the restaurant price.

if invited, yes

eerrmmm … I am in so whose cooking?

I don’t like chatting by the way and I speak with my mind.

The last time we had dinner party was a long long time ago when I was with my ex … nowadays I just eat whatever is available cheap.

😯

edit: I got invited to a party a while back, many many moons ago, but ended up looking like a zombie on my own cos I could not pretend to be interested in non-issues. I went there alone and went home alone thinking WTF has my life coming to … in a strange country. Food was shite because they can’t cook …

only the “car keys / bowl” type

Does Graham even have a key to fit his car?
Or is it just a screwdriver jammed in the ignition. 😉

yes, but only with close friends

Yep – meals out are quite often underwhelming and expensive. Much prefer a night in with a group of friends and a few well chosen bottles of red especially as most of my friends are good cooks. The children can bugger off upstairs and play – we can chat/debate/argue loudly and best of all there is no huge bill to split at the end

We’ve been invited to one a week on Wednesday. Must be a year since the last one we had though.

Dinner parties are miserable, sad affairs, attended by soulless couples with nothing better to do with their lives than outdoing the other soulless couples that make up their dinner party ‘circle’.

Grown men, forced to dress smart, dragged along unwillingly. Probably the only time they are ‘allowed’ out, and too scared of their scolding wife to actually enjoy themselves.

Talking shite all night about cheese and wine, or the latest book they have pretended to read, and bragging about their latest property valuation/investment portfolio/new car in that self-satisfying way which only dinner party couples can.

No I don’t go to dinner parties, nor would I ever host one. I do, however, have people round for something to eat now and then and they often return the favour. If they called it a dinner party though it would be the last time!

No never .I dont have those sort of friends and hope I never will

What brakes said. And it’s complicated by the fact I live in the North and work in London.

Very occasionally go for a meal at someones house with a group of mates, get pissed and chat the same shit we would at the pub.

Will probably end up at a house with the same mates New Years Eve, as per – always a good night though

Couldnt imagine a worse way to spend an evening.

transporter13 – Member
Couldnt imagine a worse way to spend an evening.

Having fun with your friends?
Sounds awful 😕

I am vegan
the misses is Veggie and gluten intolerant

What do you think is the likelyhood of an invite 😉

Eating at a mates house and cooking etc is fine but a dinner party seems a bit false/formal/uncomfortable.

I’ve occasionally had a takeaway and beer at a mates place but that’s about it.

Dinner parties sound a bit middle class sitcom sort of events

I can see how sitting round a table using a full set of cutlery and having to converse without a telly on in the background might scare some people

I guess the house value discussions get pretty serious at ‘dinner parties’

I can see how sitting round a table using a full set of cutlery and having to converse without a telly on in the background might scare some people

Is that why you think folk keep saying no?

Personally I think its your bonhomie

I’m really, really surprised ar the ferocity of some of the answers. Sharing food and drinks with friends has been a regular part of my social life since I was a teenager. Of course sometimes it outdoors and we might then call it a barbecue.

Having real friends around for food and drinks is a really nice way to spend an evening.
Having some prick from work or being asked to make up numbers in an awkward way less so.
Allegedly you’re all adults so make a choice and go with it.

Why so much hate for eating and drinking with mates?
There really are some idiots on this forum.

I often go to so called dinner parties at various mates houses but I guess they’re not the sort of thing that the OP had in mind. Nice dinner, rather a lot of wine n’ champagne, good few smokes and then the night starts proper as everyone brings something different for the after dinner dessert course so to speak 😉 , get the decks set up in the bar/pool room downstairs, smoke machine on with lasers and you’ve got a cracking night/morning

been to peoples houses for dinner and had mates them over loads of times. not really a dinner party rather and just food and a piss up. always a good way to spend a night. If the ones youse go to are dull, youse probably need to find better mates! 😆

Since attending a cookery school in India, curry night at chez sbob’s is pretty popular.

It’s eating and drinking with your mates. There’s nothing formal or “middle class” about it FFS.
Why wouldn’t you?

somafunk – Member

I often go to so called dinner parties at various mates houses but I guess they’re not the sort of thing that the OP had in mind. Nice dinner, rather a lot of wine n’ champagne, good few smokes and then the night starts proper as everyone brings something different for the after dinner dessert course so to speak , get the decks set up in the bar/pool room downstairs, smoke machine on with lasers and you’ve got a cracking night/morning

We’re definitely on the same page bruv.

Do you like Indian? 😀

i sometimes drop my wife off at dinner parties.

does that count?

Do you like Indian 😀

Damn right I do, my fav type of cooking, spent 6 months buggering about India on an Enfield and being a vegi it was an utter delight and I learned to cook so many dishes. Our last dinner party gathering involved all Indian food, bajis/samosas/pakora/chapatis/nans/Baltis/sag aloo/phals/tandoori king prawns/ butter rice/ pilau rice all freshly homemade including chutneys etc and all ate with just our hands and using the various breads as scoops/shovels – can’t beat going native every now and again 😀

If you don’t enjoy dinner parties with friends then that says something rather alarming about the social group you have chosen to align with.

and being a vegi

My signature dish is Keralan beef and coconut curry.

Offer retracted. 🙁

😆

on an Enfield

Bloody tourist!
Blend in on a Honda Activa. 8)

Yep…guilty as charged…just another bloody western tourist living the dream 😀 …till our 6 month visa ran out 🙁 . We did have a Honda cd110 to start with but the journey from Mumbai to Delhi on it whilst laden with our luggage put paid to any further notions of attempting to tour extensively so a trip to the Enfield marketplace in Delhi to get something more suitable was decided, the Enfield handled like a big docile Indian cow (thump…thumpa…thumpa) and leaked oil just as often as the cows leaked piss. I loved that country like no other I have visited yet was often in tears with the utter poverty and death/disease/disabilities we came across on a daily basis not to mention the umpteen times we avoided head on collisions by having to throw the bike off road.

Kerala was beautiful but I loved Shimla and Kashmir best….3 weeks spent rubbing our own charas which lasted our entire trip and enough left to post back home….I so hope to go back for a cycle tour.

Yes, as the inviters and invitees.

By dinner party though, it’s certainly not a posh affair. Just good food, good wine and good friends. Anyone who mentions school fees or house prices gets mocked immediately!

The last one did end with cigars and whisky , which was nice 😉

Dinner party? Giving free food? Cooking for other people? ….duh! Weirdos

There does seem to be a distinction between “dinner party” and just having friends round here.
It’s the former, more formal, arrangement I had in mind.
Given some of the threads on STW, I wondered how many people see them as an opportunity to show off their new car/watch/trophy wife/Aga.

I’m guessing the OP means this sort of fake socialiing

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/lizhunt/6450773/The-dinner-partys-over-what-a-relief.html

Throughout my twenties and early thirties yes plenty. As we’ve got older and had more kids it just seems to be straight for the wine and whiskey and sod the food.
But then I did move from London to Bedfordshire.