Before your dinner
Things to talk about
Nobody runs a Pavlova dinner. The table is yours – this page is only here in case you feel the conversation needs a nudge to get going.
There are 52 questions to choose from. That’s a lot, we get it, so we’ve highlighted the one we suggest to begin with, and 3 more for when the convo stalls.
Just remember – these are by no means obligatory, and are here just in case you feel you could use them.
If you only use one
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever been paid to do?
You opened the page, so you go first. Ask it once everyone’s seated, answer it yourself, and let it go round the table. What happens after that is up to the six of you.
Easy ones
18
Low stakes, and every one has a story behind it rather than an opinion.
01
What was your very first job?
02
What’s a tradition your family always keeps?
03
What’s the most ridiculous way you’ve ever met someone?
04
What’s a place in this city you always send people to?
05
What’s the best thing you’ve watched this year?
06
What’s a hobby you’ve picked up lately?
07
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever travelled to?
08
What song puts you in a better mood immediately?
09
What’s a small thing that makes you happier than it should?
10
How would you spend a completely free Saturday?
11
What’s something you haven’t done yet but really want to?
12
What could you talk about all night?
13
What’s the earliest thing you can remember?
14
Where would you live for a year if you could go anywhere?
15
What job would you be catastrophically bad at?
16
If you woke up an expert at one thing tomorrow, what would you pick?
17
What’s the last new thing you tried?
18
What deserves far more credit than it gets?
Not so easy ones
16
Questions for the whole group
6
This or that - type questions
8
If it goes quiet
Every table goes quiet once, usually around the main course. Nobody has to fix it – but if you want to, read one of these out loud. Each one goes round the table in turn, so the conversation restarts together instead of splitting into pairs.
01
How long have you been in this city, and what brought you here?
02
The one place you always send visitors to.
03
The best (or worst) thing you’ve eaten this month.
Before you leave
Which question did you never get to?
Pick one together before anyone stands up. Whatever this table lands on, we’ll open with it at the next dinner — it’s usually the one worth coming back for.
See you at the table.