These California restaurants rank among the most romantic places to eat in the US
For those looking for a romantic restaurant in California, look no further.
Dozens of places landed spots on Yelp and OpenTable’s lists featuring the perfect date night spots just in time for Valentine’s Day.
One restaurant in particular was a big winner.
Cesarina, an intimate Italian spot in San Diego, ranked No. 1 on Yelp’s “Top 100 Date Night Restaurants 2025.”
Twelve other romantic places in California were recognized from Sacramento to Fresno and San Francisco to Los Angeles.
OpenTable also released a list of its very own date-worthy restaurants.
This list includes 11 restaurants in the southern part of the state in places such as Pico Rivera, Carlsbad, Santa Barbara and Rancho Mirage.
Both lists include diverse cuisines such as French, Mexican, Moroccan and New American.
Yelp’s top date night spots:
- Cesarina — San Diego
- Maccheroni Republic — Los Angeles
- Wolf in the Woods — San Diego
- Seven Hills — San Francisco
- Viaje — Long Beach
- The Goat & Vine — Temecula
- Siamo Napoli — San Diego
- Malama Pono Restaurant — Los Angeles
- Casablanca Moroccan Kitchens — Los Angeles
- Chez Bacchus — Long Beach
- Frog & Slim — Sacramento
- L’Ardoise Bistro — San Francisco
- The Lime Lite — Fresno
OpenTable’s top romantic spots:
- 71Above — Los Angeles
- Dal Rae — Pico Rivera
- FARM — Palm Springs
- Gary Danko — San Francisco
- Jeune et Jolie — Carlsbad
- Mister A’s — San Diego
- Musso & Frank Grill — Los Angeles
- Stonehouse at San Ysidro Ranch — Santa Barbara
- Summit House — Fullerton
- The Marine Room — San Diego
- Wally’s Desert Turtle — Rancho Mirage
Yelp created its list by looking at restaurants that had a “large concentration of reviews mentioning words and phrases such as ‘date night,’ ‘romantic,’ valentine,’ and ‘anniversary.’”
Those places were then ranked based on the volume and ratings of reviews.
As for OpenTable, it looked at more than 10 million restaurant reviews from verified diners from Dec. 1, 2023, to Nov. 30, 2024.
Many factors were considered, including diner ratings and the percentage of five-star reviews, along with whether “romantic” was tagged.
Unlike Yelp’s list, this ranking is in alphabetic order.
This story was originally published February 7, 2025 at 3:09 PM.
