60 Romantic Dinner Recipe Ideas for Date Night

Making the ultimate cheese fondue from scratch is easier than you might think. Serve this perfect cold weather meal with bread cubes, apple slices, cornichon pickles, and pickled onions.

Eating fancy at home has never been so easy. Old Bay seasoning, combined with Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and a little optional hot sauce, add plenty of savory, umami-rich flavor.

A step-by-step guide to shopping and putting together the ultimate charcuterie board.

An irresistible combination of salty, crispy bacon with sugar-sweet dates and creamy cheese.

Soft, melty grilled cheese topped with herbaceous chimicurri sauce is a staple appetizer in Argentinean cuisine.

Thanks to extra-rich Kewpie mayonnaise and togarashi, a Japanese chili pepper-based spice blend, these deviled eggs are a cut above your average garden variety.

Baked feta cheese topped with fig jam and honey-glazed pecans is the ultimate date-night appetizer.

Oysters topped with a combination of watercress and parsley in a buttery sauce made with a splash of Pernod. Panko breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese make for a crisp topping that becomes golden and bubbly in the oven.

Learn how to wrap brie in puff pastry with the toppings of your choice for an easy appetizer for date night.

This abundant Italian spread of cured meat, cheese, marinated vegetables, and more is the ultimate way to kick of a meal.

Peppercorn-crusted steak served with Cognac-cream sauce is the ultimate fancy French meal to make at home.

A ribeye steak may seem like an obvious choice to cook for a romantic meal, but it’s honestly so easy that you can make it for dinner whenever you’re in the mood for a tasty steak. If you want to recreate the steakhouse experience at home, serve it up with a baked potato and a side of creamed spinach.

This impossibly tender, center-piece cut of beef tenderloin is the steak dinner of your dreams.

How to cook perfectly tender and juicy filet mignon crowned with garlic butter.

Rosy slices of tender steak served with a drizzle of buttery, herby red wine sauce.

Crispy potatoes and tender steak are seared in a cast-iron skillet and finished with a garlic-herb butter. Although we're partial to ribeye steaks, you can use any kind of steak you’d like.

Serve grilled steak with a loaded baked potato if you want to channel some steakhouse vibes, or lean into eating outdoors and pair it with a summer veggie chopped salad, grilled stuffed tomatoes, or garlic and herb butter bath corn.

This fajita salad features cumin-rubbed flank steak along with charred peppers and onions over a bed of crunchy, chopped romaine and red cabbage.

Ground coffee, brown sugar, and coriander combine to make a robust steak seasoning blend.

If you want to feel like a cowboy, this Flintstones-style cut of beef is certain to get you one step closer. Salt, pepper, a thick bone-in ribeye, and heat is all you need for one of the most impressive meals for date night.

Cioppino is a big seafood stew of briny abundance, best shared with a loved one. Serve it with crusty sourdough bread to soak up the flavorful broth.

Shrimp scampi is a classic Italian dish made from plump shrimp cooked in a buttery, garlicky white wine sauce. With just six ingredients and 20 minutes on the clock, it’s the perfect recipe to showcase how good restaurant-style meals can be if you make them at home.

This dish boasts garlicky, buttery spaghetti and easy-to-cook clams and mussels, and although it looks and tastes luxurious, absolutely anyone can pull it off.

A spicy tomato-based sauce studded with luscious pieces of jumbo shrimp and seasoned with lots of fresh oregano and garlic.

You're just 10 minutes away from a fancy addition to your romantic dinner. If you have a choice between wet or dry scallops at your seafood counter, it’s best to opt for dry.

Good-quality frozen lobster tails are pretty easy to find, making them an especially good choice if fresh seafood is hard to come by where you live. Instead of going the standard route of dipping the lobster in melted butter, spend a few extra minutes making a garlic butter and you’ll be rewarded with something extra special for your romantic dinner.

Upgrade your pasta game with sea scallops and shrimp drenched in a white wine-based sauce, served over linguine.

Break out the table linens and candles: Lobster risotto is a special-occasion dinner that’s absolutely worthy of both. This creamy risotto is studded with seafood, tinged with saffron, and brightened with chives and lemon.

Calling all seafood-lovers! This restaurant-quality crab-stuffed salmon can be made at home in under 40 minutes and tastes just like the real deal.

Start with our go-to homemade pasta recipe for this special-occasion dish. The tomato and wine cream sauce comes together in less than 10 minutes and tastes as silky and rich as any long-simmered pasta sauce.

This one-pan dinner has it all: tender chicken, a sun-dried tomato cream sauce, and a 30-minute cook time.

Perfectly cooked pieces of golden-brown, pan-seared chicken; tender, earthy mushrooms; and a rich sauce that’s the right balance of savory and sweet.

This classic French stew is the coziest thing you’ll cook.

The creamy sauce makes this one-pan chicken totally irresistible.

Juicy chicken cutlets topped with prosciutto, cheese, and sage are ready in just 20 minutes.

Everything (the chicken! the veggies! the sauce!) comes together in the same skillet.

Crispy chicken thighs and tender potatoes join forces in this lemony, oregano-rich skillet dinner.

A cozy French classic that’s really easy to whip up at home.

Braised chicken thighs and bursting-with-flavor potatoes are the stars of this impossibly easy and delicious recipe.

An easy one-skillet recipe for chicken breasts cooked in a creamy lemon garlic sauce.

You only need 6 ingredients to make this saucy pasta.

Make stuffed butternut squash filled with mushrooms, greens, and whole grains as a hearty vegetarian main.

Calling for baking the eggplant and adding in toasted breadcrumbs rather than breading the eggplant individually is a super-smart shortcut.

A brightened-up version of the classic comfort food, featuring the flavors of Greek spanakopita: spinach, feta cheese, fresh dill, and lots of lemon.

This creamy risotto is filled with tender butternut squash and flavored with fresh sage.

A cozy recipe for creamy polenta topped with a savory vegetarian mushroom ragu.

Fresh pasta that'll satisfy all of your butternut squash cravings.

Everything you love about classic eggplant Parm, stuffed into a hollowed-out eggplant shell and topped with melted mozzarella.

Beautiful stuffed shells with a caramelized onion ricotta filling, a Gruyère cheese sauce, and a cheesy breadcrumb topping.

An easy meatless pot pie filled with sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and kale that's prepared and baked in a skillet.

A step-by-step guide to making smooth chocolate fondue with all your favorite dippers. We recommend using either semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips, or a combination of both.

It’s the ultimate classic French dessert.

Finally, a bread pudding that’s perfect for two.

An Italian favorite, this beloved creamy dessert will have everyone coming back for more. Traditionally, tiramisu calls for a shot of espresso, but here we opt for strongly brewed coffee and dark rum; the dark rum highlights the bitter, complex flavors of coffee, leaving behind a hint of sweetness and subtle notes of chocolate.

This impossibly creamy chocolate dessert is ready in just 25 minutes. Top the mousse with a dollop of whipped cream and a shower of chocolate curls.

A delicious dessert mash-up that’s truly the best of both worlds. It’s an intensely chocolatey brownie topped with espresso-infused mascarpone whipped cream and dusted with cocoa powder.

A bowl of chocolate mousse is a decadent treat, but a double-layered chocolate mousse cake with a cookie crust is next level.

Made with dark chocolate, cream cheese, and a hint of espresso powder, it’s the only chocolate cream pie recipe you need.

This easy, no-bake dessert comes together in just 20 minutes.

This decadent chocolate cheesecake is a showstopper and surprisingly straightforward.