Date Night Index · Fall 2026
Real talk: a typical date night for two in Vancouver costs $177 with tax, or $199 once you tip 18%. That's dinner, a movie and transit, priced from 28 restaurants' own menus on October 21, 2026. In Victoria the same night comes to $174, or $198 with tip.
We built the Date Night Index because the number everyone still quotes, $149 for two, comes from a 2019 survey with a basket nobody published. So we wrote ours down, checked every price on the venue's own site, and show the working.
The basket is an ordinary night out: two mains, one shared starter and two glasses of wine at a sit-down restaurant, two movie tickets, and transit there and back for both of you.
$129
for two with tax · $143 with an 18% tip
Median of 9 restaurants. 6 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
$177
for two with tax · $199 with an 18% tip
Median of 13 restaurants. 6 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
$232
for two with tax · $264 with an 18% tip
Median of 6 restaurants. 2 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
$114
for two with tax · $128 with an 18% tip
Median of 5 restaurants. 3 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
$174
for two with tax · $198 with an 18% tip
Median of 8 restaurants. 3 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
$239
for two with tax · $273 with an 18% tip
Median of 3 restaurants. 1 posted their own wine price; the rest use the median glass at this level.
Dinner uses each restaurant's median main course, counted twice, plus its median starter and its cheapest regular glass of wine, counted twice. We leave out happy hour, early-bird deals, market-price dishes and plates for two. If a restaurant only does a set menu, we count two set menus.
We report three levels, low, typical and splurge, using the price tier each restaurant already has on Date Spark, and take the median dinner at each level. Tax is 5% GST on the meal and 10% BC liquor PST on the wine, and the 18% tip always sits on its own line, so you can swap in your own.
Our take: the dinner is where the money goes, so that's where to save. Two glasses of wine at a typical spot run about $28 before tax, so skipping them is the single biggest cut. Swap the movie for a free sunset walk and you save another $32.
Want help finding the free half of that plan? Our free things to do guide is full of them.
The sample is small: 28 restaurants in Vancouver and 16 in Victoria, and only 6 and 3 at the splurge level, so treat splurge as a rough guide. The restaurants come from our catalogue of good date spots, not every restaurant in the city.
Many restaurants don't post wine-by-the-glass prices online, so where one was missing we used the median glass price of similar restaurants in the same city, and we flag each case in our evidence file. Chain cinemas only show prices inside their apps, so the movie line uses the Rio Theatre in Vancouver and Cinecenta in Victoria, which probably makes it a little low. The 2019 figure used a different basket, so the gap between the two is not an inflation rate.
Suggested citation
Date Spark Date Night Index, Fall 2026: a typical date night for two costs $177 with tax in Vancouver and $174 in Victoria (prices checked October 21, 2026). https://www.datespark.ca/vancouver/date-night-cost
Journalists: the method and data are free to use with credit and a link. Email hello@datespark.ca, or see our press kit.
Good to know· 5 questions
A typical date night for two in Vancouver costs $177 with tax, or $199 with an 18% tip, based on dinner, two movie tickets and transit priced on October 21, 2026. A low-key night is about $129 with tax and a splurge about $232.
A typical date night for two in Victoria costs $174 with tax, or $198 with an 18% tip. Low is about $114 with tax and splurge about $239.
At a typical sit-down restaurant on Date Spark, two mains, a shared starter and two glasses of wine come to a median of $122.25 before tax and tip.
Every restaurant price was read on the restaurant's own website or menu on October 21, 2026. Movie and transit prices come from the cinema's and the transit agency's own pages. We never use review sites or delivery apps.
Yes. Please credit Date Spark's Date Night Index and link to this page. Email hello@datespark.ca for the method or the data.