Cancellations & Refunds
Plain words. One policy for everyone. No fine print.
Where things stand today
Right now, payment is arranged directly between host and chef — Tableside doesn't hold money yet. Agree on deposit terms in your event's coordination thread. What follows is the standard we ask everyone to honor, and every cancellation is recorded on the platform. When payments launch on Tableside, this same timeline will be handled automatically.
The closer the dinner, the more is owed
A dinner is a date-specific, perishable thing — the policy follows its timeline.
More than a week out
Cancel freely — any deposit is returned in full.
Your chef can still fill the date.
Getting close
The deposit stays with the chef; anything beyond it is returned.
Menus are set, other work was turned away, orders are next.
The final days
The full amount stays with the chef.
The food is bought, the prep is done, and the date is gone for good.
Exact hour boundaries will be published when payments launch — they're being set with our founding chefs around real ingredient-ordering lead times.
Who cancels matters
If the host cancels
- Refunds follow the timeline above.
- The cancellation is recorded on your event history.
If the chef cancels
- The host gets everything back. Always. No timeline, no exceptions.
- The cancellation is recorded permanently on the chef's profile.
The asymmetry is deliberate: hosts risk money, chefs risk reputation — each side is protected against the other's failure.
Before cancelling, try rescheduling
Moving the dinner usually beats losing it — for everyone. Propose a new date in your coordination thread; if both sides accept, the booking simply moves and nothing is forfeited. If no new date can be agreed, the timeline above applies from the original date.
Life happens
Illness, family emergencies, the genuinely unforeseeable — documented emergencies are reviewed person-by-person, outside the rules above, and handled fairly. If something serious has come up, contact us and we'll help both sides land it well.
Cancellations are part of the record on both sides — separate from reviews, which measure the dinners that happened. Cancel rarely, communicate early, and it will never matter.