" Dinner Mate " started smoothly, but quickly started dragging.

The first few episodes of the drama were interesting. It was a fun ride to watch the main characters meet by chance again and again, but being ignorant of who they were in reality (him being the doctor the girl was trying to track down and her being the broadcasting employee whom he was trying to avoid). That scene with the cheating boyfriend on the island was pure entertainment as well and it gave the couple a solid start. Finally, the female lead was one of the best characters of the drama, as she was unconventional for Korean drama standards, dynamic, strong opinioned, and a delight to watch till the very final episode. In addition, the story of the homeless man and the director of the broadcasting company was quite interesting and sweet.

However, the drama started lagging after those first episodes. It was disappointing to discover that, even though the description and the name itself indicated that the couple will bond over food, there were few to non foodie moments. So why go with that concept if you aren't going to use it? Just say that is about people with exes and emotional problems that heal each other. I mean, I get this is based on a manhwa which probably used the two characters as dinner mates, but the drama did not. Also, speaking about the exes, they were okay at first, but they got way too annoying. In addition, the introduction of them wasn't smooth when it came to the female lead. We first saw her going on a surprise trip, hoping to get proposed by her boyfriend, so she clearly was over her, let's call him main ex. But no, another one was thrown to us out of nowhere. I mean, the male lead was straight forward about his ex girlfriend and his feelings for her. But for the girl, the whole situation was messy. However, that was not the main problem with the exes. It was interesting that they had a background story to boot their motives, but they were way too obsessive, especially the girl's ex, and that got tiring after a while, as she kept telling him that she was over him and he just kept bothering her.

Also, the main romance was boring. They didn't start on romantic premises, which was a relief and refreshing. However, they became a couple a bit too rushly and that did not help with the built-up of the love story. The drama got boring too, as the story repeated cliche trops when it came to the main plot.

So, overall, four out of ten.