Dinner Mate (2020)

Although not completely similar, both of these dramas feature office settings, love triangles, exes coming back into the lead character's life.

Both these shows are similar in the way that they have people who were betrayed by their exes who now want to come back in their life.

Both have couples that end up falling in love while having a drink/meal together. Both have a somewhat arrogant male lead and a female lead that is working hard to succeed in her work life.

The relationship vibes are similar. They trust each other and maintain healthy relationships.

Both FLs are learning to move on from their first love. Both are strong and independent women.

Both MLs are nice and confident. They have past traumas to deal with.

Both lead couples are kind and empathetic adults, both couples have good communication between each other with no silly misunderstanding and demonstrate trust in each other.

This drama is also about pschologist. Even though they don't like each other at the beggining, the romance grows over time. This drama also explores different psycholofical illnesses and past traumas.

may not be outrightly similar, but they have similar themes in terms of maturity in characters and their relationships
both the main leads are open with each other and are expressive with their feelings
dinner mate is more mature and talks about moving on from past relationships and is more centered on dating life
whereas HometownCha is more about healing through people and love
both dramas are different in terms of setting but very similar in terms of characters
Hong Banjang is carefree and loving like Kim Hae Kyung
Yoon HyeJin is career oriented and focussed like Woo DoHee, but not as funny or expressive
all in all, both are worth watching!

The drama made a lot of references to Crash Landing on You, because the actress who played Do-hee (Seo Ji Hye) was in it, so I think it's worth mentioning here. In my opinion, CLOY explored the destiny theme (which sadly only appeared in the first half of Dinner Mate) very well. Both dramas also have very funny and lovable female leads.

Similarities:
- The characters in Mystic Pop-Up Bar attempt to counsel customers when they visit the bar for a drink or for supper. The psychiatrists in Dinner Mate try to provide food therapy to their clients.
- Both are comedies with many hilarious moments.
- There's romance in both dramas!
- Both attempted to explore mother-child relationships.

Differences:
- I think Mystic Pop-up Bar was better in food therapy than Dinner Mate haha.
- Mystic has more character development and each episode explores a social issue so I think it is a very meaningful show. Whereas Dinner Mate focused more on the romance between the characters.
- Another main difference is that Mystic Pop-up Bar has a supernatural theme whereas Dinner Mate's theme revolved around mental illnesses. Overall Mystic Pop-up Bar felt a lot more serious (despite the endless comedic moments) because it touched a lot on life and death and was also a critique on Korean culture.
- Even though the romance in Mystic Pop-up Bar was not the focus, it was a lot more touching than the romance in Dinner Mate to me (I was moved to tears!!)

Personality of both MLs is similar, they are kind of serious people. Same FL.

In both cases FL had ex-boyfriend and that boyfriend comes back and pursues FL senselessly, making us annoyed.

If you liked one of these two, it's an assurance that you'll also appreciate the other. These two dramas have a few similarities, to name a few:

1. Both believe in the beauty of strangers. In both their first episodes, we clearly see how each show highlights healing with the help of strangers

2. Cinematography. Both shows have a similar color scheme and feel.

3. Maturity. Both shows evidently show mature leads that contribute to how beautifully the stories flow.

Both the couples meet when they seat in adjacent tables alone in a restaurant and they sit together to save table space. In both dramas the FL is still in love with her ex and the ML is younger.

Both revolves around characters who are suffering and then proceed to find and explore a new chapter of their life. They both portray love in a pure and destined manner and I must say the romance genre is very strong too.

- both about the world of psychiatrists and the importance of mental health
- fix you is more medical drama and dinner mate slice of life drama
- heartwarming and healing drama

There is no similarity in Plot whatsoever. But Both the dramas give overall the same vibe, Dinner Mate has additional comical side to it.