How much does a first date dinner cost in Beverly Hills?

Plan for $120 to $180 a couple before wine at Il Pastaio, Funke, and AVRA, and $250 to $400 a couple at Cipriani, Matsuhisa, and The Belvedere. The first-date order that reads right is two starters or two pastas to share plus a single bottle in the $70 to $110 range, not a tasting menu and not a pairing flight. The shared plate is the point. It gives the table a low-stakes thing to do together while the conversation finds its feet, and it keeps the cheque from turning the evening into a financial event before anyone has decided there will be a second date.

Which Beverly Hills first-date restaurant is quietest for conversation?

The Belvedere at The Peninsula Beverly Hills and Il Cielo's candlelit garden on Burton Way are the two quietest first-date rooms in the city. Both run soft, low light and a retreating service register, and both let a table hear each other lean in without raising a voice. Matsuhisa's booth seating is the third option for a quiet two-top. Skip the high-energy scene rooms for a first meeting: Spago and Mastro's run loud and built for a crowd, which makes the early conversation work harder than it should.

What should I wear on a Beverly Hills first date?

Smart casual at all seven rooms, leaning dressier at Cipriani, The Belvedere, and Matsuhisa. No jacket is required at any of them, and no shorts or athletic wear reads as acceptable at any. Il Pastaio, Funke, and AVRA run the relaxed-but-considered register where a clean collar or a tailored knit lands right. The single rule is to dress a notch above the room rather than below it, which the Beverly Hills floor reads as effort made for the date rather than indifference.

How far in advance should I book a Beverly Hills first date?

Two to three weeks for a weekend table at Il Pastaio, Cipriani, Matsuhisa, and The Belvedere; same-week for a Tuesday or Wednesday at any of them. Funke and AVRA run larger rooms and hold midweek inventory closer to the date. The Tuesday booking is the operational lever for a Beverly Hills first date: the rooms run quieter, the kitchen is unhurried, and the early-evening seating lands the dinner at a clean decision point. Book through Resy or OpenTable on the morning the 30-day window opens for any Saturday.

Where should I sit for a first date in Beverly Hills?

On a banquette or in a booth, with the two covers angled toward each other rather than squared across a wide table. Matsuhisa's booths, Cipriani's perimeter banquettes, and Il Cielo's garden two-tops are the three configurations that break the across-the-table eye-line. Type "banquette or booth preferred, two covers" in the reservation note. The Beverly Hills floor reads the note at the afternoon walk-through and pre-allocates the seat rather than handing you a random centre two-top when you arrive.

First Date Beverly Hills

Best First Date Restaurants in Beverly Hills 2026

Q: What is the best restaurant in Beverly Hills for a first date?

Il Pastaio on North Canon Drive, by a clear margin. The Drago family's pasta room has run a warm, conversational floor for nearly three decades, the price is defensible for a first outing, and the order writes itself: two pastas to share, starting with the pumpkin ravioli in brown butter and amaretti. The room is loud at lunch and calmer at the early-evening seating, which is the one to book. For a darker, more grown-up room, Cipriani Beverly Hills on Camden Drive is the second pick.

First Date · Beverly Hills · 7 tables ranked · Updated May 2026

By Diego Marín, Contributing Editor, Americas · Published April 8, 2026 · Updated May 22, 2026

The pasta cook at Il Pastaio works an open alcove off the dining room, rolling pumpkin ravioli by hand while the early tables fill, and a couple at the corner two-top can watch the work, point, and have something to talk about before the menus arrive. That is the whole Beverly Hills first-date problem solved in one room. A first date is a conversation, and 90210 is full of rooms that fight the conversation rather than carry it. The city's dining map splits cleanly on that axis. A small set of warm Italian rooms, a candlelit garden, a hotel dining room with a retreating floor, and a sushi counter with proper booths hold soft light and conversational acoustics. A much larger set of see-and-be-seen scene rooms runs loud, bright, and built for a crowd that came to be looked at. The first date belongs in the first set. The seven rooms below are it, ranked on whether two people who have just met can actually hear each other think.

How we ranked these

The Americas bureau visited all 7 of the rooms on this list in person between Q1 2024 and Q2 2026, three of them on dedicated first-date-flagged bookings (a two-cover party, a decibel reading taken at the table at the 19:00 and 20:00 peaks, a light-level note at three points in service, and a banquette or booth requested in the reservation field). We weight conversation-easy acoustics /30, soft lighting /20, side-by-side or booth seating /20 (whether the room offers a two-cover that breaks the across-the-table eye-line), retreating service register /20 (whether the floor runs the table without forcing engagement), and reservation accessibility /10. Ties broken on whether the kitchen offers an easy shared-plate order. This ranking was last reviewed May 22, 2026 and is scheduled for re-review in December 2026.

The ranking

1. Il Pastaio — Italian Pasta · Golden Triangle

400 North Canon Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · about $60 to $90 per person · the Drago family, opened in the 1990s

The Drago family's warm pasta room and the most forgiving first-date order in Beverly Hills: two plates to share. Book the early table.

The Drago brothers, Celestino chief among them, have run Il Pastaio on North Canon Drive for close to thirty years, and it remains the easiest first date in the city. More than twenty pasta shapes are made on the premises each morning by a cook stationed in an open alcove, and the pumpkin ravioli with brown butter and amaretti has survived every food cycle of the last two decades intact. Mains and pastas land around $60 to $90 a head, which is a defensible spend for a first outing that may not have a second. The service has the Italian quality of making a table feel like regulars within ten minutes, and the room is warm without the financial-event weight of a tasting room. The single tactic that matters here is timing. Lunch is packed and loud with the media-and-lawyers crowd; the early-evening seating is calmer and the better date. Reserve through Resy and request the corner two-top.

2. Cipriani Beverly Hills — Italian · Camden Drive

362 North Camden Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · about $120 to $180 per person · the Cipriani family, Harry's Bar lineage

Green velvet, flattering light, and a jazz café that lets the night extend itself. Reserve a banquette and let it run.

The Cipriani name runs back to Harry's Bar in Venice, and the Beverly Hills room a block off Rodeo brings that lineage in full: green velvet, polished Dolomiti marble, and a lighting scheme calibrated to make everyone in the room look their best, which is a real first-date advantage. The Carpaccio alla Cipriani, the thin-sliced raw beef Arrigo Cipriani developed at Harry's Bar, is the dish to start, and a Bellini is the correct opening drink. Expect $120 to $180 a head. The structural edge here is the Jazz Café, which runs live on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday until 1 a.m., so a dinner that is going well has somewhere to go without leaving the building. Book a perimeter banquette through the restaurant directly and take the Friday if the date can carry the music.

3. Matsuhisa Beverly Hills — Japanese-Peruvian · La Cienega

129 North La Cienega Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 · from about $120 per person · Nobu Matsuhisa, opened 1987

The original Matsuhisa, booths built for two, and the black cod that started a global empire. Take the booth.

Nobu Matsuhisa opened the original Matsuhisa on La Cienega in 1987, and the room that launched the global Nobu empire still cooks the Japanese-Peruvian plates that made it famous: the miso-marinated black cod and the yellowtail sashimi with jalapeño, both on the menu since the early years. RFK scores the kitchen 9.2 for food, the highest mark on this list. The reason it ranks as a first date rather than purely a destination is the seating: the booths are sized for two and angled for a quiet conversation, and the floor runs an unhurried, retreating pace. Plan for $120 and up a head, more if you let the omakase run. The room is dressier and more grown-up than the pasta rooms above, which makes it the right pick when the date is with someone older or when the evening wants a sense of seriousness. Book through the restaurant two to three weeks out and request a booth.

4. Funke — Handmade Italian · Beverly Hills

Civic Center Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · about $70 to $110 per person · Evan Funke, opened 2023

Evan Funke's hand-rolled pasta in a room that holds a conversation, cacio e pepe included. Try it once early in the dating.

Evan Funke built his reputation on hand-rolled pasta and a no-shortcuts kitchen, and his multi-level Beverly Hills flagship, opened in 2023, brought that discipline to 90210. The cacio e pepe and the hand-formed shapes are the order, and the kitchen treats them with the same seriousness Funke brought to his earlier Venice and Hollywood rooms. RFK scores the kitchen 8.8 for food. Expect $70 to $110 a head before wine. For a first date the advantage is the format: pasta is shareable, universally loved, and unintimidating, which takes the pressure off an evening that already has enough of it. The room runs warmer and quieter at the early seating than at the late peak. Book the 18:30 through Resy and order two pastas to pass across the table.

5. AVRA Beverly Hills — Greek Seafood · Beverly Drive

233 North Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 · about $90 to $140 per person · whole-fish marketplace · MICHELIN-recommended

An 11,000-square-foot Greek-island room and a fish market you choose from together. Pencil it in for the warm-weather date.

AVRA occupies 11,000 square feet on North Beverly Drive and reads as the Greek island itself rather than a California room with Greek references: alabaster walls, glass-dome skylights, and a fish marketplace by the bar that displays a hundred whole fish on crushed ice, flown in daily from Greece, Spain, and beyond. The signature is the ritual: you choose your lavraki or branzino from the market display, it is weighed and confirmed, then charcoal-grilled whole with lemon and olive oil. The grilled octopus is among the best versions in Los Angeles. AVRA holds a MICHELIN recommendation. Expect $90 to $140 a head. The shared act of picking the fish is a genuine ice-breaker, and the room's scale means a busy night still feels like an occasion. It runs livelier than the quiet rooms above, so book the early seating and request a side banquette. Reserve through OpenTable.

6. The Belvedere — European Brasserie · The Peninsula

9882 South Santa Monica Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA 90212 · about $130 to $200 per person · Chef Luis Cuadra · AAA Five Diamond

The Peninsula's garden-lit dining room, the quietest first-date table in the city, and a Dover sole worth the spend. Book the terrace.

The Belvedere is the signature restaurant of The Peninsula Beverly Hills, which has held its AAA Five Diamond rating for years running, and Executive Chef Luis Cuadra cooks in the European brasserie tradition with a Californian relationship to produce. The kitchen keeps an on-site garden, so the herbs and vegetables in the whole Dover sole with parsnip purée or the duck breast with romanesco may have been growing a few hundred metres away that morning. Expect $130 to $200 a head. For a first date the draw is the calm: the garden terrace and the dining room both run soft light and a service team trained in the appropriate invisibility, which makes this the quietest, most flattering first conversation in Beverly Hills. The room leans formal, so it suits the date that already has a sense of occasion. Book the terrace through OpenTable and take a late-afternoon or early-evening table for the garden light.

7. Il Cielo — Italian · Burton Way

9018 Burton Way, Beverly Hills, CA 90211 · about $90 to $150 per person · candlelit garden patio · long-billed LA's most romantic room

A candlelit garden under twinkling lights, handmade Italian, and full romance for the confident first date. Reserve the garden.

Il Cielo has billed itself for decades as the most romantic restaurant in Los Angeles, and the case is the garden: a candlelit patio on Burton Way draped in twinkling lights, the kind of room that does the atmospheric work most restaurants spend years trying to engineer. The kitchen runs handmade Italian pasta and a seasonal menu, and the spend lands around $90 to $150 a head. The reason it ranks seventh rather than first for a first date is the same reason it ranks first for a proposal: the romance is dialled to maximum, which can read as a lot of pressure on a first meeting. For the confident first date, where both sides already know there is a spark, it is the most atmospheric table in the city. For a true blind first date, start somewhere warmer and save this for the second. Reserve the garden directly and ask for a patio two-top.

Avoid for a Beverly Hills first date

Spago — Golden Triangle. Wolfgang Puck's flagship on North Canon Drive is one of the best meals in the city and the wrong room for a first meeting. The energy is the point at Spago: power lunches, career-changing dinners, a bright open kitchen and a floor built for a crowd that came to be seen. On a first date that scene over-signals, and the noise makes the early, tentative conversation work harder than it should. Save Spago for the third or fourth date, or for a celebration once you already know you can talk over a busy room together.

Urasawa — Rodeo Drive. Hiroyuki Urasawa's eighteen-seat omakase temple is a three-hour, $250-to-$350-a-head act of focused attention, and it fails a first date on two counts. The counter faces forward toward the chef rather than toward each other, and the price loads a first meeting with a commitment neither side has agreed to. It is one of the great sushi experiences in America. Save it for an anniversary once the relationship can carry both the format and the cheque.

Mastro's Steakhouse — Canon Drive. Mastro's runs live music nightly and a room full of Beverly Hills power brokers, which is exactly what you want for a birthday and exactly what you do not want for a first date. The volume forces the table to lean in and shout, the butter cake is a celebration order rather than a getting-to-know-you one, and the whole register is built for a confident crowd rather than a quiet first conversation. Book it later, when the relationship wants a party.

Reservation strategy for a Beverly Hills first date

The lever that matters most is the night of the week. Book Tuesday or Wednesday over Friday or Saturday wherever the date allows it. The Beverly Hills rooms run measurably quieter midweek, the kitchens work the unhurried early-week pace, and the floor reads a midweek booking as a planned choice rather than a weekend default. Il Pastaio, Matsuhisa, Cipriani, and The Belvedere all run their best first-date inventory Tuesday through Thursday at the 19:00 to 19:30 slot. Saturday tables at all four go inside the first day of the 30-day window, so set a calendar reminder for the morning the window opens if a weekend is the only option.

The seating note is the second lever. Type "banquette or booth preferred, two covers" in the reservation field. Matsuhisa's booths, Cipriani's perimeter banquettes, and Il Cielo's garden two-tops all honour the flag, and the floor pre-allocates the side-by-side seat at the afternoon walk-through rather than handing you a centre two-top on arrival. At AVRA, ask specifically for a side banquette away from the open marketplace, where the room runs quieter.

The 19:00 first-seating slot is the structurally correct Beverly Hills first-date timing. The 18:00 is too early for the after-work arrival rhythm, and the 20:30 pushes a first meeting toward a late finish before either side knows whether they want one. A 19:00 booking lands the dinner at a clean 21:00 decision point, where the date either extends to a drink at the Cipriani jazz room or a walk down Canon Drive, or closes cleanly. Booking the dinner and leaving the second stop open is the Beverly Hills convention.

Frequently asked

What is the best restaurant in Beverly Hills for a first date?

Il Pastaio on North Canon Drive. The Drago family's pasta room is warm, conversational, and defensibly priced, and the two-pastas-to-share order takes the pressure off a first meeting. Start with the pumpkin ravioli in brown butter and amaretti. Cipriani on Camden Drive is the darker, dressier second pick.

How much should I budget?

About $120 to $180 a couple before wine at Il Pastaio, Funke, and AVRA, and $250 to $400 a couple at Cipriani, Matsuhisa, and The Belvedere. Two shared plates and a single bottle in the $70 to $110 range is the order that reads right.

Which room is quietest for talking?

The Belvedere at The Peninsula and Il Cielo's candlelit garden. Both run soft light and a retreating floor. Matsuhisa's booths are the third quiet option. Skip Spago and Mastro's for a first date, since both run loud and built for a crowd.

What should I wear?

Smart casual at all seven, leaning dressier at Cipriani, Matsuhisa, and The Belvedere. No jacket required. A clean collar or a tailored knit is the floor at Il Pastaio, Funke, and AVRA. Dress a notch above the room rather than below it.

How far ahead should I book?

Two to three weeks for a weekend table; same-week for a Tuesday or Wednesday. Book the midweek table over the Saturday where the date allows it, since the rooms run quieter and the booking reads as planned.

Where should I sit?

On a banquette or in a booth, angled toward each other. Matsuhisa's booths, Cipriani's perimeter banquettes, and Il Cielo's garden two-tops are the three configurations. Type "banquette or booth preferred" in the reservation note.

Featured in

Affiliate disclosure: RFK earns a commission on bookings made through partner platforms (Tock, Resy, OpenTable) marked with a "Reserve" link. Sponsored listings are clearly marked with a Sponsored badge and are not eligible for editorial ranking. The seven rooms on this list were ranked editorially and no booking partner influenced the order.