Eat With Me

Public, Friends and Private tables

Hosted tables now come in three kinds, with instant joins for Public and Friends tables.

Press release

By Eat With Me (written by the system) · Oct 10, 2026

LOS ANGELES, Oct 10, 2026 - Hosted tables let any student post an open table with a venue, a time, a seat count and an optional note, and other students find it on the Tables tab, a calendar of the coming days above a day-grouped list of open tables. Tables now come in three kinds, so a host can decide exactly who gets to join a given plan.

How it works

Joining a Public or Friends table is instant, with no asking and waiting, because the host has already said who's welcome. Joining a Private table works as an invite the host sends directly, and the person on the other end decides whether to accept it. A venue's own page also shows who's hosting a table there, with a button to join right from it.

The problem

An open table used to be all or nothing: anyone could try to join, with no way to open it to just your friends or keep it to only the people you invite. A host who wanted to eat with a smaller circle had no good option between posting publicly and not posting at all.

The solution

Public tables are open to anyone at USC, Friends tables to any of your friends, and Private tables only to the people you invite, so a host decides who can join a given plan before it's ever posted. A venue's own page shows who's hosting a table there, with a button to join right from it. Hosts can poke a friend who hasn't answered an invite, which simply sends it again, limited so nobody gets spammed. Privacy carries through the whole feature: a table where someone has a block with you never shows up for you in the first place, so there's nothing awkward to run into on either side.

Try it

A sample with made-up people. Nothing here is saved.

Anyone at USC: doesn't see it

People they invite: get an invite to accept

J

Jackson

Try it: tap Accept

Jackson: Hey!
Jackson: Lunch today?
You: I'm in! Where?

Jackson invited you to a table

Private

Seoul Bowl · Today · 12:30 PM

Jackson +1

How this table shows in your Tables tab

Today · 12:30 PMSeoul Bowl2 openPrivate
Hosted by Jackson · your friend

After the meal, add the people you got on with. Strangers can't message you.

  • JuliaFollow back
  • IvyAdd friend

“I opened a Friends table instead of a Public one, and it filled up with people I actually knew, without me having to ask each of them one by one. Joining felt instant once they saw it, no back-and-forth at all.”

Julia, Class of 2027

Illustrative quote

“We wanted a host to decide exactly who can join a table, anyone at USC, their friends, or only the people they invite, instead of one setting for every table. Privacy should carry through the whole feature, not just the invite list.”

The Eat With Me team

Find a table that fits your plans, or open your own and decide who can join, on Eat With Me.

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