How to Come up with Romantic Dinner Ideas

Whether you’re a hopeless romantic or have a special occasion coming up like an anniversary or birthday—you need romantic dinner ideas and fast!

A young couple leaning against a railing looking at a tablet together.

Since romance is in the eye of the beholder, we can’t tell you exactly how to impress your significant other—but we can teach you how to brainstorm some great ideas of your own. See how these helpful brainstorming techniques can get you moving int the right direction:

Build a mind map. Building a mind map is often one of the first brainstorming techniques taught in school. If you’re not sure which method this is, it’s when you write your main idea or topic in the middle of a piece of paper or in a digital notebook, draw a circle around it, then build ideas on the spokes surrounding it. The goal is to fill the page with ideas. You can also build a mind map by using sticky notes on a wall, countertop, or floor. Use the same concept where you start with your topic in the middle (a romantic dinner, in this case). Then build out your mind map by including broad ideas that can be narrowed down as you continue to work farther away from the center.

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Use a brainstorming board. A brainstorming board can be an excellent way to organize your ideas as they come in. Create a few categories for your dinner. Your categories might be things like:

Restaurants
At home
On-the-go
Takeout

Once you’ve created your categories, come up with as many ideas for each as you can. This method is called a brainstorming board because it works best to have a large area where you can organize your ideas using sticky notes. Once you’ve come up with your ideas, create a separate area called “Favorite Ideas,” where you’ll move a few of your favorites to focus on.

A small group of people laughing and smiling in the subway station.

“If they’re a hopeless romantic who remembers everything in detail, perhaps trying to recreate your first meal together would be a great idea.”

Try rapid ideation. We don’t always have several days to brainstorm an idea. It’s possible that you’re in a time crunch to come up with an idea for a romantic dinner. Rapid ideation is a great way to force yourself to finish your brainstorming quickly. How it works is you set a timer for 5, 10, or 15 minutes and you work during that time to come up with as many ideas as you can. Once the timer goes off, you put your pen down and stop working. Next, you’ll sift through your ideas and see what’s good, bad, or ugly. You should have at least a few that are worth pursuing. If not, set your timer and go at it again.

Organize your ideas. Making a list is one of the most common ways to brainstorm because it’s a fast and simple method you can use on the go. If you’re not worried about time constraints, listing can be an ongoing process from the first moment you start coming up with ideas until the final moment you make a decision. Something we recommend with listing is using a cloud-based storage app on your phone so that you can access it anywhere or anytime an idea pops into your head. You could even share your ideas with her best friends or family or ask them to add a few!

Coming up with romantic dinner ideas doesn’t have to be a difficult process. You can create the perfect dinner by taking some time and brainstorming. Choose one of the techniques we’ve laid out for you, and you’ll be well on your way to creating a romantic evening.