gabe's guide to orlando date spots

Baldwin Perk — 4.5/5★ $$
A friends-themed restaurant in Baldwin Park. The food here is great, and it's a great spot for some healthy brunch. My favorite thing to get here is The Joey.

Chubby's Diner — 4.3/5★ $
Family diner on Colonial by Dean road. The place is 50's Americana themed and is super cool if you're in to that kinda thing. Another really great after-party brunch spot. They close at 2pm daily.

Townhouse — 4.2/5★ $
Family diner up in Oviedo. Good after-party brunch spot.

Cedar Halal Food and Grill — 4.5/5★ $
My favorite restaurant in Orlando. A quaint little Lebanese restaurant/grocery store off Colonial by Alafaya, this place is the real deal. You can tell the food is real because every time you go it will taste different. Trust me, I've been going every week for the past four years. There's always jazz playing in the background, and the owner is one of the kindest and most genuine people I've ever met (and a really cool dude as well). It's right by Regal Waterford theaters, so it's a great before or after movie grub spot. Even if you're not going here on a date, I'd suggest you check it out.

Bosphorous — 4.7/5★ $$
a Turkish restaurant in Winter Park. A little bit pricey, but you get very large portions. I would recommend getting the lavash as an appetizer and the Chicken Adana Kebap for a main course. It is an easy dish to split with a date.

Cappadocia — 4.3/5★ $$
A Turkish spot off of Semoran. Not as good as Bosphorous, but still good.

Perea — 4.4/5★ $$
An upscale family-owned spot in Maitland. All their recipes are family recipes, and the food there is super good. I had the chicken souvlaki, moussaka, and portokalopita. All amazing. A tad on the pricier side, but each dish can easily be split between two people.

Fogo de Chão — 5/5★ $$$$
An all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse down by I-Drive. This will be a VERY filling date. Save it for something special.

Piefection — 4.7/5★ $$
A brazilian pizza joint. Sounds like an odd combo — partially because it is. They've got TONS of interesting pizzas there. I recomend getting the corn catupiry and the greek pizzas.

BJ's — 4.3/5★ $$
An Americana restaurant (chain?) in Oviedo. Good food, but their beer selection (massive) is a reason worth going.

Muzzarella Pizza and Italian Kitchen — 4.5/5★ $$
Super good scratch-kitchen Italian food. They have calamari too!

Stasio's — 4.5/5★ $$
The single best Italian sub I've ever had. I'd recommend getting the Stasio and the rosemary chips. The hours are weird and they're closed on Sundays, but if you can make it then it's worth it.

Sixty Vines — 4.5/5★ $$
A high-scale contemporary Americana dinner spot in Winter Park. Great ambience for a date on the somewhat fancier end.

Ziggy's Pizza — 4.5/5★ $$
An incrdible pizza place near downtown. A small shop with a bar (Thirsty Topher) connected to it, the owner is always here working and the food is always fire. I'd 100% recommend the Hot Honey Pizza

Hourglass Brewery — 4.2/5★ $
A brewery with two locations — one in Milk District, and one in Altamonte. I've only been to the one in milk District, but man this place is cool. They are a local craft brewery with tons of cool and interesting beers for you and your date to try.

The Thirsty Topher — 4.2/5★ $
The bar attached to Ziggy's pizza. Tons of cool craft brews here.

Cocktails & Screams — 3/5★ $$
Overpriced craft drinks. Cool ambience. Try to get in to the sneakeasy there. The drinks are a tad pricey there, but fuck they're good. Only worth it for the speakeasy.

Manekins — 1/5★ $
Do not go here. This place fucking SUCKS. "Oooh a cool goth bar!" No. The vibe is rancid, the drinks overpriced, and the owner is allegedly an absolute fucking creep allegedly with a secret sex room where he allegedly takes the under-21 patrons.
I drank about three litres of alcohol on a bar crawl in Sanford, I step in to Manekins and I immediately stone cold fucking sober. DO NOT GO HERE!!

Claddagh's — 4.4/5★ $
My go-to Irish pub, which is right across the street from the Hourglass Brewery in Milk District. This pub is a very unique spot as it is owned by a group of local musicians who specialize in traditional Irish music who loved to play there. This place is run out of pure love for the Irish pub, and you are hard-pressed to find people as passionate about a place as this. They've got a really good selection of British and Irish beers here and I would definitely give this place a go.

Fiddler's Green (a.k.a. Fidds) — 4/5★ $
Another Irish pub, this time in downtown Winter Park. Because of its proximity to Rollins College, you're going to get a lot of college-aged people here. They occasionally have live music.

Baldwin Park — 4.5/5★
Specifically Harbor Park, this is a huge and cool park I love to take people for a walk.

Harry P. Leu Gardens — 4.5/5★
I've actually never been here. I've been meaning to go for ages, but I've heard from my friends that this place is absolutely incredible. They claim it as one of the most beautiful gardens they've ever been to.

Bok Towers — 4.5/5★
a bit far out of Orlando buck Towers is a massive garden/art installation? I really don't know how to describe this place, you kind of just need to look up pictures. Very beautiful. I recommend this place.

Carl T. Langford Park — 4.6/5★
A out in Milk District. Largeish, tons of walking and some cool gazebos.

Dickson Azalea Park — 4.6/5★
Right across the street from Carl T. Langford. Goes kinda underground/under street level. Cool scenery, creeks, and slight urbex vibes.

Costco Business Center — 3.9/5★
Did you know that are more than 10,000 cities in the entire world? How about of that 10,000, there are only 34 cities with a special mega-Costco? Did you know that Orlando is home to one of these mega-Costcos?
The Costco Business Center is a Costco for, well, businesses. Want cases of Monster, 20 gal jugs of gucacmole, 15 lb tubes of ground beef, whole pigs, or massive jars of candy? The Costco Business Center has it all. You and your date will likely buy one or none of the items here, but it is truly a unique experience. This fucking Costco is like no other.

Enzian Theatre — 4.5/5★ $
A locally run theater here in Orlando. They show a lot of cool and interesting movies. Watch out for their Freaky Friday movie showings that they do, where they play a random lowkey cult-classic on some random Fridays.

Church of Scientology Orlando
Yessir we have a Church of Scientology here in O-town. I've always wanted to take a date here, ask for a tour, and see how long we last.

Start at Stardust for some coffee 5 or 6pm coffee. Drink and talk for a while, then cross the street to Park Ave CDs. Spend some time there. Ask if she's hungry and when she says yes, say you know a good Viet spot and take her to Ánh Hồng or Vietnamese Cuisine. If she doesn't like Viet, Domu in East End Market is a 5 minute walk down the street. It's not as good as the flagship Domu, and make sure you tell her that so you can secure the Dr. Phillips spot as another date.

Go to Bosphorous for food, then walk up and down Park Ave. There's tons of cool little spots there to peep in and explore. Once done, head south towards Rollins. Once on the campus, head southeast towards the lake. There will be stairs and a pool on your way down. Stay by the lake for a bit, chat, hold each other, be cutesy. Once you're done, you can take her home, see what's going on at Austin's that night, or head to Ravernous Pig or Fiddler's Green for some drinks.

Go to Austin's at 10pm on a thursday for jazz night. At some point, dip and head to Spatz a few hundred feet down the road for some beer and pool.