Fine Dining at Home: A Date Night Menu and Cocktail Plan

A restaurant date night at home only works if one of you isn't cooking through it. That means a menu built around waiting rather than timing, and drinks that don't need making from scratch mid-course.

Done properly it beats a restaurant: better music, no booking, and nobody's watching the clock for the next sitting.

Honest note: we design and print our cards, badges, prints, candles and party decorations in the UK. The drinks cabinet and the cocktail machine are recommendations from elsewhere.

Start with a cocktail, not a glass of wine

• The drink is what separates a date night from a Tuesday. An automatic cocktail making machine measures and mixes a drink at the push of a button, so guests serve themselves and the host isn't stuck behind a table with a jigger all night.
• One aperitif each before you sit down, somewhere that isn't the dinner table.
• Keep it short and dry: a martini, a negroni or a spritz.
• Set it all up before they get home. A drinks cabinet with doors and drawers is what turns a collection of bottles into a bar: bottles stay upright and out of the light, the tools hide in the drawers, and the top gives you a surface at the right height to build a drink on.
• A digestif after pudding, poured on the sofa, closes the evening properly.

A three-course menu for two

• Starter cold and made in the afternoon: burrata, a cured fish plate, a good soup.
• Main in one pan, finished in the oven. Steak, duck breast or a whole roast fish.
• One side only, done well. Dauphinoise, or greens with butter and lemon.
• Pudding bought. A proper tart from a good bakery beats a stressed soufflé.
• Cheese for two, one wedge, with something sweet on the side.

Setting a table for two

• Sit at a corner rather than opposite ends. Restaurants do this deliberately.
• Two candles, low, unscented near the food - Shop the range
• Cloth napkins and the good glasses, even for a Tuesday.
• One small vase, nothing tall enough to talk around.
• A hand-written menu card. It's daft and it works every time.

Light and sound

• Big light off, lamps on, candles lit before they walk in.
• A playlist long enough to outlast the evening, set at conversation level.
• Phones in another room, both of them, agreed beforehand.
• Dim the hallway too. Walking from a bright room into a dark one kills the mood.
• A print you both like on the wall behind the table - Shop the range

Timings that keep you both at the table

• Everything but the main is finished before they arrive.
• Aperitif at 7.30, sit down at 8, main out at 8.45.
• One trip to the kitchen between courses, not five.
• Washing up doesn't happen until the morning. That's the rule.
• Pudding and a second drink on the sofa rather than at the table.

Occasions this works for

• Anniversaries, Valentine's night and birthdays when you don't fancy a restaurant.
• The night after a big life event, when going out feels like too much.
• A card on the table, written that afternoon - Shop the range
• New parents who can't get a sitter. This is the version of a date night that still happens.
• Cheap date night ideas - Read the guide

Shop anniversary cards

How to write it so it lands

• Only the main course should still need you.
• Aperitif away from the dinner table.
• Washing up waits until morning.

Where to shop next

• Party items
• Greetings cards
• Scented soy candles
• Funny wall art
• Pin badges
• Luxury dinner party ideas at home
• How to host a cocktail party at home
• Living room home bar ideas
• New Year's Eve cocktail party at home
• Christmas cocktails to make at home
• Party essentials: drinks kit, masks and candles
• How to make the perfect home bar
• Garden bar ideas for a British shed
• Christmas drinks party ideas
• Summer garden party ideas
• Dinner party games for adults
• 40th birthday party ideas at home
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• New baby cards
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What should you cook for a fine dining date night at home?

A cold starter made in the afternoon, one pan-to-oven main like steak, duck breast or whole roast fish, one good side, and a pudding you bought. The aim is a menu where only the main course still needs you once the evening starts.

What cocktails suit a date night at home?

Something short and dry before dinner - a martini, a negroni or a spritz in summer - and something sweeter or darker afterwards, like an espresso martini or an old fashioned. Make them away from the dinner table so the evening has two locations.

How do you make dinner at home feel like a restaurant?

Sit at a corner rather than opposite ends, use cloth napkins and the good glasses, keep the candles below eye level, turn the big light off, and leave the washing up until morning. Small, cheap changes do more than expensive ingredients.

How far ahead should you prep?

Shop the day before, make the starter and lay the table in the afternoon, chill the glasses an hour before, and have the main ready to go in the oven when you sit down with the first drink.

Do you sell the drinks cabinet or the cocktail machine?

No. We design and print greetings cards, enamel pin badges, prints, candles and party decorations in the UK. The cabinet and the automatic cocktail maker are recommendations from elsewhere - only the things linked to our own shop are ours.