It was Friday night, we had a long week, and we needed a good date night. Don’t get me wrong, we do date night on a regular basis. I mean, we don’t have kids, and if we want to go to a movie at 9:30pm on a Tuesday, we just do it. But I felt like we needed a fun night out of the house actually spending time together, so we got dressed, jumped in the car, and went to Downtown Pensacola. There are a TON of restaurants in Downtown Pensacola, but we decided to stick to just one block of Palafox to not get too overwhelmed with all options.
V Paul’s Italian
Formaggi e Salumi | V. Paul’s
Our first stop was V Paul’s because I came across a photo of their cheese board a while back, and I almost died when I realized that it was only $10.50! If you aren’t super adventurous with cheese, this is one of the safest cheeseboards for you. Personally, I love crazy, smelly cheeses, but John doesn’t and he loved all of these cheeses and meats. This board was made with gouda/cheddar family cheeses, cured meats, peppers, sundried tomatoes, pesto and crostini, and these AMAZING candied nuts.
We didn’t want to get too full here because we wanted to be able to enjoy the rest of the places, but I wanted to order most of things on their appetizer menu {and the rest of the menu}. Since we knew that we weren’t staying long, we sat at the bar, and we had an incredible bartender, Jacob. He was super attentive, told us all about the dining events offered by V Paul’s, and even introduced us to the owner of the restaurant. And as much as we wanted to stay and hangout, we had to keep wandering.
Khon’s on Palafox
Ginger Salad | Khon’s on Palafox 
Pork Dumplings | Khon’s on Palafox 
House Ramen | Khon’s on Palafox
I had already made a reservation at Khon’s, and I was very thankful for it when we walked in. This is a super cute restaurant, but it doesn’t have the largest dining area. The bar was really full and there were maybe 10 tables, so definitely make a reservation!
I continued on the appetizer path with my Ginger Salad and Pork Dumplings, and John went with the House Ramen. This was one of the most intense house/ginger salads I’ve ever had. Usually it’s like 4 pieces of lettuce with subpar dressing from a bottle with 1 single cucumber piece, but this was no standard house salad. There were cucumbers, peppers, carrots, crunchies, great dressing, everything that you want in a salad! This salad plus the dumplings {also incredible!} was easily enough for a meal for me, and John had to take half of his ramen home because there were so many noodles. So we packed up the leftovers and were off to our next stop.
Fosko Coffee Barre
Chocolate Crepe | Fosko Coffee Barre
Fosko Coffee Barre was supposed to be our fourth stop after more small plates at The Global Grill, but I didn’t think to make a reservation there and we couldn’t get in. Lesson learned: make reservations for ALL of the places, not just one, and give yourself an hour or so between each reservation. To be honest, we were kind of full and ready for coffee and dessert so it worked out.
Fosko has become our go to coffee shop in Downtown Pensacola, and it’s for good reason. It’s cute, but more importantly, it’s GOOD. We even wrote a whole blog post about it, and you can read more about it here. We ordered a Chocolate Crepe, a plain latte, and a brewed coffee, and found a spot to play a round of Scrabble. In case you were wondering, I definitely won. It was a perfect way to end our night wandering through Downtown Pensacola.
Pensacola Wandering Date Night Suggestions
This was such a fun way to make date night a little different, and this kind of night will likely become a standard date night for us. I also think this would be really cool to do with a group of friends, other couples, or for a first date.
Here are a few other places that we want to add to the rotation: