Spicy Speed Dating at The Thai Place Review

I’ve always been enchanted by the idea of speed dating and I blame Will Smith’s romantic comedy, Hitch. When the chance to try this out in real life came up, how could I say no? That’s how I ended up at the Spicy Speed Dating event run by the dating website DateMeKenya.com. Set in the quaint and homely ‘The Thai Place Restaurant and Bar’ on Ngong road next to the more popular Brew Bistro, it had both the excitement of trying out a new experience as well as a new venue.

The Thai Place requires a review of its own. The restaurant is a tastefully repurposed old corner house in a court of about five houses, that features a warm (real) fireplace on the inside with a spacious lawn that allows for outdoor dining. Parking without blocking someone is about the only challenge with the venue. The event was set to start at 6pm and being the Kenyan that I am, I strolled in at about 6.30pm. The instructions were that all daters were to come with a partner of the opposite sex to even out the numbers, so it is predominantly heterosexually oriented. I had been invited by my childhood fun buddy so while I was slightly nervous about it, I knew we’d have a laugh about it at the end of the day. Happy hour goes until 7pm with Kenyan beers and Mojitos popular among the crowd. Butterflies and liquid courage are taken care of as the cover charge of 1,500 caters for two drinks and some tasty bitings.

The speed dating started at 7pm with a short introduction by the hosts. There were about 20 people participating, a majority of whom were newbies. The event is logistically difficult to organize so if you’d like to attend, be considerate and rsvp in time. Some latecomers were actually turned away. The setup was quite well thought out. All the ladies were assigned a number and a table to sit. The gentlemen would sequentially move from table to table immediately quelling any fears of awkward moments as you try and decide who to talk to next. All the daters were given a simple score card, where you would write down the name of your date and whether you would like to meet them again. If both of you would like to meet again, a match was made. Real-life Tinder. The hosts would then send you an email with the contacts of all your matches the following day.

A set of serious and fun questions were also provided on two index cards should any awkward silent moments arise. They are definitely worth a glance. You only get 5 minutes for each date and a bell is sounded for you to wrap up and move on to the next. As a guy, you get to randomly pick where you want to start, so here’s a little bit of a cheat – you’ll get more than 5 minutes with your first and last date so if you’re a ‘window shopper’ be smart about where you start.

As you move from date to date, you quickly realize just how short five minutes is. There was also a diverse set of different ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds. Everyone had a great answer for “So, what do you do?”. I ticked yes to my first two dates, and quickly became a bit self conscious that I was ‘too easy to please’. There is a bit of a break when you get to meet your ‘partner’ and most likely take stock of the dates you’ve had so far. All in all a bit over an hour to meet 10 people is quite exhilarating. At the end most people lingered at their last date with a couple of others reconnecting with their partners. A few daters joined tables recollecting their experience of the evening, as the hosts collected the rating cards and payment.

Everyone I met spoke positively about the event with everyone whining about five minutes being too short to which the hosts explained, “Dating is supposed to be a mystery. If you are excited about getting to know someone and want more time you should tick a yes and if you matched you could have another date.” Full disclosure, I selected about 6 ladies that I would have liked to meet again and ended up having 3 matches the following day.

I spoke briefly to the organizers about their experience running a online dating site in Kenya and specifically the speed dating event. One of the challenges they pointed out was that most daters really valued their privacy – something they as organizers took seriously. So you won’t see any photos of the event or event testimonials despite the fact that their website has had people who met there and got married.

One thing was clear though, more men were needed to participate, so here’s my public service announcement: ‘At any of these events, there’s more than 10 attractive, mature, cultured and outgoing women who are willing to give you 5 minutes of their time in a quiet and safe environment to get to know each other. That’s better odds than any night out in a bar. With the venue and cover charge, the crowd is almost self-selecting for people who want to break out to meet and date like minded people outside their normal circles. Definitely worth a shot.’

For a fun night out, with the potential to meet new and amazing people, it’s really hard to beat speed dating.