Thirty food date ideas, from cheap to candlelit.

Ideas 1–6

Revisit-your-story dates.

• 1. The first-date rerun. Same place, same order, same table if you can get it. Compare notes on what you were each thinking.
• 2. A year ago today. Find what you ate together on this date last year and go back.
• 3. Swap usuals. At your regular spot, each of you orders the other’s usual dish.
• 4. The history tour. Three courses at three places from your past: where you met, where you made up, where you celebrated.
• 5. The place you always walk past. Every couple has one. Tonight, go in.
• 6. The trip at home. Find a restaurant in your city that cooks the food of your last trip together and relive it, minus the jet lag.

Ideas 7–14

Try-something-new dates.

• 7. Blind order. One of you orders for both without saying what. No vetoes.
• 8. The unknown cuisine. Pick a cuisine neither of you could name three dishes from — Georgian, Ethiopian, Peruvian, Uzbek — and ask the staff to choose.
• 9. Menu roulette. Close your eyes, point at the menu, eat what you land on.
• 10. The counter seat. Sit at a ramen bar, a sushi counter or an open kitchen and watch the cooks.
• 11. Dessert first. Start at a dessert place, finish with dinner. It feels illegal; it is not.
• 12. One street, three courses. Starter, main and dessert at three spots within a few minutes’ walk.
• 13. Breakfast date. Same effort as dinner, half the crowd, better light.
• 14. The thing you have never ordered. Each of you orders the dish on the menu you would normally skip.

Ideas 15–22

Cheap and cheerful dates.

• 15. Street food crawl. Agree on a cash amount each and see how far it goes.
• 16. Night market lap. One snack each per lap, three laps, then vote.
• 17. Convenience-store picnic. A fixed amount each, five minutes to shop, eat in the park.
• 18. The fries hunt. Three places, three portions of fries, one winner.
• 19. Same dish showdown. Two places, the same dish — dumplings, tacos, burgers — scored on a napkin.
• 20. Food court world tour. Each of you brings back a dish from a different counter.
• 21. Golden-hour snack. Something warm from a stall, eaten where you can watch the sunset.
• 22. Spin for it. Can’t decide? Let a craving wheel of places you both love choose, and go wherever it lands.

Ideas 23–30

Anniversary dinners (and monthsaries).

In the Philippines and a few other places, couples mark a monthsary — a small anniversary every month. Any of these work for those, and for the yearly one too.

• 23. Where it started. The restaurant from your first date, ordered exactly as you did then.
• 24. The tasting menu. Once a year, let a kitchen decide everything.
• 25. Twelve-dish tradition. Try one new dish together every month. By the first anniversary you have a menu of your year.
• 26. A table with a view. Rooftop, waterfront, top floor — the food matters less than the light.
• 27. The place you saved for later. The restaurant on your shared list that you kept for a special night.
• 28. Progressive anniversary. Drinks where you met, mains where you got serious, dessert somewhere new.
• 29. A letter at dessert. Each of you writes one page about the year and reads it over the last course.
• 30. Dress up for the everyday place. Your usual noodle shop, in your best clothes. The staff will remember you.

Keep it

Keep the date: a page for every date night.

The best part of a food date is the next one, when you remember the last. Snap the table in PlateDiary and every dish is cut out and kept with the place and the night. Tag your partner as a companion and their page fills in on its own: where it started, your usual together, your spots, and “a year ago today” — which is how date idea number 2 happens.

Want the date on paper too? See date night scrapbook ideas.