75 Easy Date Night Dinners That Beat A Fancy Restaurant

Looking to impress a date, but not feeling super confident in your cooking skills? These special chicken, steak, and pasta weeknight dinners are for you. All these recipes are a slight step above usual fare while still being totally achievable by even the most novice of home cooks. We also polled our editors (and not just the chefs!) for their go-to date night recipes, and among these are some of their tried and true hits. Get inspired with our list of 52 dinners for two—we know you’ll turn out something spectacular.

Don’t forget: Everyone loves being cooked for, and it truly is the thought that counts! If you’re hoping to serve a meal to your boo, stick with something simple and classic, like pasta or easy proteins. Try our cacio e pepe, our bucatini all'amatriciana, or our penne alla vodka—despite their Italian names, they’re all SUPER simple, with flavor that’s out-of-this-world good. For protein, you can’t beat chicken, like in our sesame seed-crusted chicken Parm, our creamy Tuscan chicken, or our butter chicken (just as good as Indian takeout), but we’ve also included less standard recipes with red meat or fish that will really impress. Try our Arctic char with pistachio gremolata, our creamy steak fettuccine, our coconut curry salmon, or our filet mignon for ideas. They’ve got all the sit-down steakhouse flavor, without the price tag.

If you’re looking to make a night out of cooking dinner together (we highly recommend this date idea!), try one of our more involved recipes. Check out our homemade pizza, our dragon roll sushi, our Korean fried chicken, or our ginger pork pot stickers for ideas. You’ll get to see your date’s fine motor skills at work, learn a new skill together, and eat a delicious meal together (no matter how good or badly it turns out 😉).

The best part of these recipes? Leftovers. We know, we know, many of these recipes make 4 to 6 servings. You could halve them and have just enough for two, or do what we do and make extra!

Want more ideas for impressing your date? Try serving a fun cocktail or the perfect bottle of wine with your meal—check out our guides to both reds and whites. And don't forget about dessert!