Affordable Dallas Date Night Spots. It feels like date night keeps getting more and more expensive. The prices at hot new restaurant openings are trending ever upward. As diners look for innovative, interesting concepts that dont thin out our wallets, industry investors seem more excited to invest in high concept eateries that cater to the comfortably well off. Case in point upcoming French bistro Bullion. Owner Bruno Davaillon told the The Dallas Morning News, I want a place where people can come two or three times a week. He also said, in the same interview, that meals will be about 8. Most of us cant spend 8. But we certainly want to enjoy the occasional classy date night. An intimate environment, something interesting to drink, damn good food Surely thats still affordable somewhere, right Here are seven restaurants and one barrestaurant crawl we wholeheartedly recommend as elegant, enjoyable and absolutely date night worthy without blowing your budget. We used a baseline of about 5. Time to text your partner or start swiping right a little harder Classy yet affordable is back. Midcentury modern aesthetic is strong at Sassetta. Alison Mc. Lean. Wine and pizza night Sassetta. Hi Line Drive Design DistrictSassettas a little loud, but its also a rare combination exquisitely trendy and surprisingly reasonable. Push through the comically huge front door to a sunlit interior full of warm colors and white clad waiters proffering fresh pizzas. A shared salad, pizza with a perfectly snappy crust and, after an appetizer, just the right size for two and a glass of wine per diner will come out to just about 5. Sassettas extensive, adventurous, all Italian wine list. EXPANDSixty Vines brings elegant and modern but affordable date night vibes to the burbs. Kathy Tran. Wine and pizza night in the burbs Sixty Vines. Dallas Parkway, Plano. Sixty Vines is another riff on the thin crust, fresh veggie pizza trend, with a surprisingly decent house label of California wines and an extensive list of vino on tap. Yes, tap. Plus, its in Plano, making this the perfect place for workers around Legacy to enjoy happy hour or a bowl of fettuccine with diced squash and a sunny side up egg yolk perched on top. One caveat Sixty Vines is loud, popular and often very busy. What it lacks in intimacy, the huge restaurant more than makes up for in first date conversation points. Oh, and a couple of bowls of pasta, a couple of glasses of wine and a portion of devils food cake with salted caramel ice cream will come out to about 5. EXPANDLima Tavernas pescado a lo macho is a big, boisterous parade of seafood, almost all of it perfectly cooked. Kathy Tran. For the adventurous eater Lima Taverna. W. Plano Parkway, Plano. Save money and time with our budget meal planning recipes and easy shopping lists. Discover easy, cheap meals youll love to plan and your family will love to eat. BudgetFriendly Plan. Slash your grocery bill to 85 a week with our delicious recipes, kitchen tips and shopping list Hi Im Erin Chase and I am on a mission to help you spend less money on your groceries Over the years, weve shared thousands of budget friendly recipes and have. Weekly Dinners On A Budget' title='Weekly Dinners On A Budget' />We have more than 7,800 recipes that can be prepared in under 30 minutes. Now, we know that not all of them are dinners, but the 30minute dinners here are the best. Now that you have your groceries, lets talk meals. The key with shopping and cooking on a budget is making your precious ingredients stretch. Use the same types of. We all want the same thing a delicious and healthy inexpensive dinner. Try our healthy dinner recipes. Each healthy dinner idea is full of nutrition without. Quick and Easy Recipe for Slow Cooker Mango Chicken. One of the most exciting Plano openings of 2. Lima Taverna plates fabulous seafood, from the pescado a lo macho stew to the often fiery ceviches. Its interior is a nostalgia filled trip to Peru, and the excellent pisco sours served at the bar certainly dont hurt. A Peruvian dinner might be a good way to find out if your date has adventurous tastes, although if not, the restaurant serves a first rate grilled pork chop, too. Either way, you will look in the know for recommending an elegant restaurant that still qualifies as an underappreciated hidden gem. Our own Robin Bashinsky cooked up a weeks worth of tasty dinners for fourfor a total of just 50. EXPANDLanzhou Dan Dan Laiman noodles, hand pulled, for 1. Nick Rallo. Noodles and a show Royal China. Royal Lane North DallasAsk, if you can, to sit at the noodle bar, where some of Dallas best dough experts are pulling fresh noodles by hand and forming dumplings from scratch. Order soup dumplings with paper thin wrappers, made before your eyes, containing pork and a scrumptious savory broth, a sort of culinary magic trick. Dont miss dan dan noodles, either, in any of the varieties. Theres other food on Royal Chinas menu, too, and its pretty consistent, but once you see the noodle makers at work, its not likely youll feel a desire to order anything else. EXPANDA sweet apple swan caps off a meal at Hon Sushi. Kathy Tran. Elegance without the crowds Hon Sushi. E. Belt Line Road, Carrollton. Apples carved into wide winged swans. Sushi rolls presented in pastoral landscapes under palm trees carved out of cucumbers. Wasabi molded into the shape of a hot pepper. Blocks of ice with parsley sprigs frozen inside. The sushi chefs at Hon Sushi are true artists, with a flair for the visual that matches their honest craftsmanship. In downtown Dallas, Hon Sushi might be prohibitively expensive and filled with suits, but its improbably housed in a Carrollton strip mall, where the foodie masses still havent found it. I can vouch for this one I went on a second date here 1. EXPANDThe Grapes martini has olives stuffed with Boursin cheese. Nick Rallo. A timeless Dallas classic The Grape. Greenville Ave. Lower GreenvilleThe Grape has been a Dallas legend and a first choice for date nights for 4. The restaurant is still getting it right, with impeccable service and seasonally rotating menus. Still, as much as the menu changes with the harvest, at least one friend of mine is addicted to the mushroom soup and gets a 4 cup every time. The Sunday brunch is peerless without being pricey, especially if your date doesnt mind burger grease running down your fingers. Chicken Sausage Gumbo. May we also recommend a special occasion splurge on the monthly Come As You Are dinner, with three specially chosen courses and wine pairings for 5. Arrive at Boulevardier before 6 3. Friday, and the good bottles of bubbly are 5. Lori Bandi. Friday night escape Boulevardier. N. Bishop Ave. Bishop ArtsHere is an essential bit of knowledge Happy hour at Boulevardier means discounted oysters. Here is another essential bit of knowledge Arrive at Boulevardier before 6 3. Friday, and the good bottles of bubbly are 5. In other words, if you and your date find yourselves leaving work early on a Friday, theres no better place to go. Oysters are allegedly an aphrodisiac, if you believe in that sort of thing. If you dont, well, Champagne gets you drunk. Carmelizing the foam of the Flip Side cocktail. Alison Mc. Lean. The Sylvan Thirty Date Night Crawl Whisk Crepes or Cibo. Divino, Jettison, Betty Ringer Ice Cream. Sylvan Ave. West DallasThe Sylvan Thirty development has done a fantastic job building a little date crawl. Start with a light bite for dinner at Whisk Crepes, the cozy Parisian caf that somehow escaped and moved to Dallas, or Cibo. Divino, the Italian market with delightful pasta and pizza. At Whisk, split a big bottle of traditional French cider at Cibo. Divino, opt for craft beers or Italian wine. But dont party too hard because youve still got to stop by one of the citys most sophisticated cocktail bars, Jettison, where the refinement of the drinks is matched only by the friendliness of the staff. If you can ever bring yourself to leave, swing by new Betty Ringer for a scoop of an ice cream flavor like Oaxacan chocolate, horchata or roasted banana pudding. Brian Reinhart has been the Dallas Observers food critic since spring 2. In addition, he writes baseball analysis for the Hardball Times and covers classical music for the Observer and Music. Web International.