Original Dating  Avis 

The host was late and often seemed confused. The venue had poor acoustics I could not hear any of my dates. The host forgot to check in a few people, so they didn't appear in the selection of dates you wish to stay in touch with. i have been using this company off and on for years, and they have been getting worse and worse. Their getting rid of score cards was a bad decision.

Update: if their customer service was even 5% as efficient as their responses to their numerous bad reviews they'd be well on there way to providing something close to mediocre. Unfortunately though the company is WAY below par

To quote my friend "I'd rather eat my own s**t than go to another one of their events". Have been to two: very poorly attended, the men were just awful and the company tries to deviously get as much money out of you as possible without actually providing a good service. Avoid avoid avoid

I’ve attended two events with Original Dating—on the 31st and most recently on the 3rd in Tooting—and I want to say a big thank you to the organizers and hosts. Both events were really well-run, professional, and welcoming. You can tell the team puts in a lot of effort to make sure everything goes smoothly, and I truly appreciated that.

That said, I’m writing this with a heavy heart. Sadly, I didn’t get any matches from either event, and it feels like no one was really interested in me. I came to these events full of hope and optimism, genuinely believing I might meet someone special—someone to love deeply, to share life’s joys with, to travel and grow old with. But it didn’t happen, and it’s left me feeling quite crushed.

For now, I think I need to take a step back and give myself a little time. It’s not easy putting yourself out there, and while I’m glad I tried, the emotional toll is real.

Still, I want to thank Original Dating for giving people the space and chance to connect. Just because it didn’t work out for me (yet), doesn’t take away from the effort and care they put into what they do.

It was a good night with lots of laughter and nice to meet lots of new people, great event, thanks for organising it.

I have tried contacting Original dating over 5 times now asking for a call back ive tried calling the number (Automated no option to speak to anyone) so ive emailed 5 times and no response. once i get a call back i will remove this rating!! By all mean ill remove this post but please help me so i can talk to someone Please call me on 07747896597

I have been to 3 events with this company and all have been amazing. The lock and key theme is such a nice relaxed environment and a great way to meet single people in a group setting.

2 events were cancelled on the trot and they have refused to respond to my request for a refund of money.
Awful
Never using again

A throughly enjoyable experience, as I have always preferred Lock and Key parties to online dating. The 1-2-1 interaction is more enjoyable. The Devonshire Terrace is a very nice venue, which I have been to before with Original Dating. My only negative would be that the venue was a little bit small, especially for a Valentines event, other than that, it was a great experience.

Been to quite and few and have never had a bad experience. Also had the chance to meet some interesting women and ones I’d never usually meet in an everyday life. The event was organised professionally and everyone stayed til the end.

Fantastic host good venue nice selection of people and very very friendly

Original Dating provided a fun, happy, and engaging speed dating event, which was made so by Eleanor, the fabulous host who made the event, the evening special.

Event in Cardiff on the 13/3/25 was cancelled short notice due to attendance cancellations. I completely understand this and it is not an issue.
I was issued a credit to rebook another event however there are no other events running and therefore I can't use the credit.
I explained this via email asking for a refund but received no reply. There phone number is an automated machine with no human able to be spoken to.
Borderline scam.

I went to a coffee speed date event at Vauxhall, London. It was an afternoon event and so for £20 I expected the event to be well-attended with free coffee/tea throughout the event. Usually for London-based speed date events there will be 20 males to 20 females. Not this one! There were 9 females booked according to the host and 1 did not turn up. There were however 14 of us men - why did they not cancel the event considering a) lack of women and b) the big imbalance between men and women? There were no free drinks on offer - it's quite affordable for the company to offer free tea or coffee - given that this was what it was sold as. I decided not to take part and told the host this. He told me to email the company asking for a refund or credit for a future event. This I did - emailing them three times over the past 5 days. I tried calling them on the number on their website but it does not go through to a person - it just tells us to email and the line eventually goes dead. I have been a customer with this company for many years now and have bought tickets for many events. Even though I paid £20 for this very disappointing event and even though I didn't take part and even though they know I have been to many events in the past they will not give me a credit for a future event! Many other speed date companies will reschedule if low on numbers or will happily give you credit for a future event. Not this one it seems. I will NEVER buy another ticket for a future event with this company - not because it was a rubbish event, but because they refuse to give me credit for a future event. You have lost a customer today you hopeless business people. I have emailed them back but they are now ignoring my emails and to date - have only received one useless reply from them for this issue.

They replied to this review and I am therefore replying to it here: they say the event was 'sold out to their maximum stated capacity of 30 guests' why then were there 14 males and 9 females? Surely if it was a sell-out then there would be an equal ratio of men to women. As I stated a London speed date event can have 20 men and 20 females. This company will not cancel an event or merge events like other companies do - they will just plough on with an event which does not have enough people of one sex.
They don't offer free coffee/tea at their coffee speed dates - if they did then maybe they's dell more tickets. £20 for a Saturday afternoon speed date session is pricey enough.
Their phone number is not manned - it simply gives options such as emailing and eventually hangs up. It is so good for a company to provide the human touch so that you can physically speak to someone about your complaint - this company does not know how to handle customers properly.
They state 'As a small business we do our best to provide a quality service at an affordable price' - that is absolute garbage. Is is a small business because it has not grown and one major reason for that is because they do not know how to treat their customers properly. I will never give this business another penny and that is because of the poor way they have treated me with regards this event.

Not the typical trendy coffee place I was expecting. However, it was a nice venue.
I particularly like that the event is in the afternoon, so there is more opportunity to mingle afterwards, as opposed to having to rush home in the dark at night.
There were just enough people at the event, for people to be able to hear each other. Any more people would have made it too loud. The host was welcoming and accommodating for those who were slightly delayed due to transport issues etc, which was very much appreciated.

Great experience. It was my first singles night. Everyone was very friendly and pleasant. Will be going again.

A really good selection of guys and a welcoming and vibrant atmosphere. The addition of having a free welcome cocktail at the bar was a nice touch and the choice of cocktails was great too. My only issue I had was how the guys were rotated around each table. I unfortunately missed out on two guys at the end and there was a moment when noone came over and everyone was seen to. Maybe if the space was slightly bigger and the tables and chairs were laid out in a circle format that could work? Overall, a really fun night out and I would definitely recommend trying it.

Had a great evening last night, met lots of lovely people, and they had a great DJ. My only reservation was that it was a bit too loud at point so maybe somewhere with an outside area, where you can go and chat would be good.

The host was very welcoming, she made us feel at ease and ran the event well. I was hoping to meet more people; there were only 7 women to meet, compared with about 15 at other events, but over all I really enjoyed the evening and met some nice new people.

I made the mistake of low reviewing this dating company, So my apologies on that I have to mention that first. Good venues just wish there was more instead of mainly central London when it comes to venues in London. Great hosts who do there best to help singles mingle. The only thing I can say is that's might be seen as a negative which is not for me is that ice breaker events are the only best options. What I mean by ice breakers is it also know as key and lock where the guys go with keys to girls with locks to see if there key fits that lock. This is a great excuse for both individuals then to strike up a conversation, if the lock unlocks both individuals then earn a raffle ticket. The more raffles you earn the higher chance you win a prize at the end which seems to be a nice bottle of bubbly.

Well organised event and a nice venue.
Only five women and seven men but, as this was my first event, I found that to be ok.
Four minutes is just about right to chat. Everything explained well and I was made to feel welcome and at ease by the staff at the venue