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5 Alternative Date Ideas in Chinatown London

With Qixi festival soon approaching, now is a great time to explore alternative date ideas in places like Chinatown London. Chinatown contains many of London’s top date spots you can use when you want to impress. In a city known for its sense of anonymity, everyone likes to feel like an insider. And with these alternative date ideas set within one of London’s most interesting areas, Chinatown London, you’ll have plenty to see, discover and discuss.

1. C&R Cafe

If for you, good food is one of the markings of a good date, you’ll want to slip down Rupert Court to C&R Cafe. A humble interior belies just how good the authentic Malaysian street-style food is. It is first and foremost a café, but the meals served here are heartwarmingly delicious. From Singapore Laksa, to home made curry dishes it’s a date idea with a difference. Spice up your date night with the super spicy Kampung Style Nani Goreng.

Impress your date with: their to-die-for home-made broth in their Penang Prawn Mee.

Find it at: 4-5 Rupert Ct, West End, W1D 6DY

2. Experimental Cocktail Club

Is there any date idea more intriguing than taking your plus one to a mysterious black door in one of the many streets of Chinatown London, and welcoming them into one of the city’s hottest speakeasy bars? That’s the Experimental Cocktail Club experience, or ECC as it’s known for short. Look for a paint-chipped black door on Gerrard Street and inside you’ll be rewarded with drink concoctions that pour with smoke, old fashioned cocktails concocted from vintage spirits and plates of cheese and cautercurie to mop up the excellent drinks.

Impress your date with: knowing how to find it! You may want to do a dry run first. Look to the left of the Four Seasons restaurant on Gerrard Street.

Find it at: 13a Gerrard St, London W1D 5PS

3. Opium London

If you’re looking to incorporate cocktails and a light meal then Opium London is a great London date idea. Tucked away from the main drag of Chinatown London, there are three bars to choose from: Peony, Apothecary and Academy, all of which, have a slightly different flavour. At the Apothecary you can sit at the bar and order your own potion mix from the wall of medicinal bottles, which offer up particularly potent spirits. Academy shows you what an old Chinese family lounge might look like, while you sip on a traditional Martini. And lastly, Peony is considered the most romantic room; it’s incense-infused interior is ideal for a cosier date filled with dim sum and cocktails served in teapots.

Impress your date with: ordering the dim sum platter, which will make for great conversation – even if you can’t use the chopsticks.

Find it at: 15-16 Gerrard St, London W1D 6JE

4. Olle Korean BBQ

Meat lovers, meet your dating paradise with a table at Olle. This DIY Korean BBQ joint lets you chat over your own tabletop stove, which is great for those dates where you want some conversation starters. The staff kindly do the barbecuing for you, leaving you to sit back, relax, chat and enjoy the show. Just don’t talk so much that you forget to marvel over how wonderfully tender their wagyu beef is – the most flavoursome in town! It’s super stylish with sleek stoneware and teal finishes, and you get to watch the world go by on busy Shaftesbury Avenue outside.

Impress your date with: It’s one of Korean boyband, BTS’s favourite Korean BBQ places in London. Olle have signed photos of the band.

Find it at: 86-88 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 5AY

5. Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream

If your date idea is a stroll through Chinatown London, it’s likely you’ll end up in Newport Court at some point. Known locally as “dessert alley” this is a hotbed of different desserts from all over Asia. The latest of which, Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream, makes for a perfect date idea hotspot. Mamasons is a Filipino ice cream parlour which serves traditional Filipino street snacks like ‘bilog’, a toasted bun filled with ube, coconut or milk ice cream; as well as traditional cones like black buko (coconut charcoal) and Milo (malted chocolate).

Impress your date with: ordering the Black Buko, jet black ice cream made from the flesh of an unripe coconut and known for its superfood charcoal properties.