7 Cheap (But Fun!) Louisville Date Ideas For Couples on a Budget
Love can definitely blossom over a plate of Southern cooking in Louisville! This is one of our favorite cities for a date night that trades bowties for barbeque bibs and barstools. Louisville is known for its casual restaurants offering up savory, wholesome flavors. You don’t have to pay big bucks to plan a big date. In this article, we’ll cover eight cheap date restaurants in Louisville, KY that set hearts on fire!
The Eagle
1314 Bardstown Road, Louisville, KY
(502) 498-8420
Deep-fry your first-date jitters away here! The Eagle makes everyone comfortable on a date by serving up comfort food. Prepare to fall in love over fried chicken, hush puppies, collards, and shrimp and grits. We found that the Eagle Ranch Water cocktail featuring El Jimador Blanco, cucumber, honey, lime, grapefruit bitters, and sparkling water is a special treasure. The Eagle’s maple bacon old-fashioned, blackberry lemonade, and bourbon punch help to round out a conversation-worthy cocktail list that really breaks the ice on a date.
Six Forks Burger
1039 Ash Street, Louisville, KY
(502) 565-9750
Can it ever be a bad date when burgers and slushies are involved? Six Forks Burger is one of the best burger joints in Louisville. For anyone in an adventurous mood, diners can go beyond beef to try a camel burger, python burger, bison burger, or alligator burger. Six Forks Burger hooks everyone up with free sauce. While the flavor of each burger stands strong on its own, we found that there’s nothing better than adding some signature maple bacon glaze sauce, mango habanero sauce, chocolate bourbon sauce, coconut honey mustard sauce, or raspberry chipotle BBQ sauce.
Biscuit Belly
900 East Main Street, Louisville, KY
(502) 409-5729
Biscuit Belly is a great choice when looking for a way to grab a quick bite on a date. The definitively Southern menu at Biscuit Belly serves up loaded tots, fried green tomatoes, pancake corn dogs, and a “gravy train” biscuit basket with an assorted mix of gravies. Of course, people mostly come here for the legendary biscuit sandwiches. Picture fried chicken breast with Goetta sausage gravy set on a fluffy buttermilk biscuit. Sweet, spicy, and boozy biscuit sandwiches are also on the menu!
Burger Girl Diner
3344 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY
(502) 709-5454
This is the sister restaurant to the popular Burger Boy restaurant. It’s a great pick to know about when you need to grab a bite at the end of a long date because it’s one of the only 24/7 diners in Louisville. The menu offers up all of the classic diner fare people love. That includes full breakfasts, breakfast sandwiches, omelets, salads, sandwiches, and burgers. Of course the famed Burger Girl Combo that features an Angus patty on a three-piece toasted bun with a special “house sauce” was the big draw that inspired our visit. This tasty, hearty burger comes with fries and a fountain drink for about the cost you’d pay at a fast-food joint!
Lotsa Pasta
3717 Lexington Road, Louisville, KY
(502) 896-6361
Lotsa Pasta is a great pick for enjoying Italian in Louisville without breaking la banca. It’s one of the best places in the city to grab a panini, specialty sandwich, or bowl of hot soup in a hurry. Lotsa Pasta also serves incredible lasagna, manicotti, fettuccini alfredo, eggplant parmesan, meatballs in sauce, and many more very filling, very classic Italian entrées. Don’t forget to top it all off with a tiramisu, cannoli, or brownie.
Ramen House
1250 Bardstown Road (Suite 17A), Louisville, KY
(502) 896-6361
This was an incredible spot for feeling like we had stepped into an authentic Japanese marketplace. The menu actually consists of a mix of popular Korean and Japanese dishes. The nice part about Ramen House is that it has plenty of hearty options for a vegetarian date in Louisville. We found the broth and toppings to be exceptionally flavorful and satisfying on all the bowls we tried. The spicy pork bulgogi and spicy miso tonkotsu ramen with pork are great picks for those who like it hot!
Red Hog Restaurant
2622 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, KY
(502) 890-6976
Red Hog offers great food in a classy atmosphere without the high prices of some of the other pub-type restaurants around Louisville. We appreciated having the option to choose between indoor and outdoor seating. The bill can stay pretty cheap if you’re staying away from cocktails. However, we found it impossible to skip the temptation of a cocktail called the Waking the Witch that combines sage-infused vodka, grilled pineapple, Angostura bitters, and lime! The dinner menu features dry-aged burgers, smoked half chicken, pork chops, and many other filling favorites at reasonable prices. The pro tip here is to come for lunch to pay much less without losing an ounce of ambiance.
For more ideas of things to do in Louisville, check out our Louisville city page!
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