Date night in Toronto that isn’t dinner and a movie
Dinner and a movie is a fine date. It is also two hours of not talking to each other, followed by an hour of talking about the movie. If you want a night where you actually find out something about the person across from you, put them under a bit of pressure. Here are seven Toronto date ideas that do exactly that, roughly in order of how much they will test the relationship.
1. Solve a mystery in the streets
We are biased, obviously, but hear us out. City Sleuth is a timed outdoor puzzle adventure through downtown Toronto: your phones become the case file, a pin drops on your map, and when you physically arrive a puzzle scene unlocks. Eight to ten stops, about three kilometres, two to three hours of walking, arguing and eventually agreeing. It is the rare date where you are a team against something rather than two people evaluating each other over bread.
Book a Premiere weekend if you want to compete for medals, or an Open Play ticket if you want to go whenever the forecast cooperates. A team of two is a very good team.
2. The long walk with a destination
Pick a neighbourhood neither of you knows and walk to it. Kensington to the Distillery. Roncesvalles to the lake. The rule is no phones for directions, and whoever gets you lost buys the coffee at the end. Cheap, unstructured, and it produces the kind of conversation that only happens when nobody is sitting down.
3. A market with a mission
St. Lawrence Market on a Saturday morning, with a budget and a challenge: each of you buys three ingredients for a dish the other has to cook that night. It is a scavenger hunt with dinner at the end, and it tells you a lot about how someone shops.
4. Board games in public
Toronto has more board game cafés than most cities have bookstores. Pick one, order too many snacks, and choose a game neither of you has played so nobody has home advantage. Competitive people: choose a cooperative game. You will thank us.
5. The ferry, off-peak
The Toronto Islands on a weekday evening in late summer are a different place from the Islands on a Saturday. Take a picnic, take the last ferry back, and time the skyline for sunset. It is the least original idea on this list and it still works every time.
6. A class you are both bad at
Pottery, pasta, salsa, bouldering. The point is not the skill. The point is watching someone be cheerfully terrible at something and deciding you like them anyway.
7. Late-night dessert, no dinner
Skip the meal. Meet at nine for dessert somewhere you would never justify after a full dinner. Short, sweet, and if it is going well you can extend it; if it is not, you were only ever committed to a slice.
The honest ranking
If we had to pick one for a second or third date, it is the mystery. Nothing else on this list makes two people cooperate against a clock in the real world, and nothing reveals character faster than a clue that is right in front of you both and only one of you can see it. Find a game.