Date Ideas in Quezon City: Seven Cubao Nights by Mood

The best date ideas in Quezon City are in Cubao: browse the galleries and record shops of Cubao Expo, bowl at Paeng's Gateway Bowl, or book the tasting menu at MŌDAN. Below are seven nights sorted by mood: artsy, active, quiet, cheap, late, rainy and splurge. Each is two or three stops in or a short ride from Araneta City, ordered so that nothing closes before the two of you get there.

Artsy and active

Artsy. Spend the evening in Cubao Expo between Tuesday and Saturday. Pablo Galleries shows contemporary Filipino art until 7 PM, so begin there at 6 PM. Good Vibrations Records has a listening room and stays open until 10:30 PM. Dinner is at Bellini's, which takes reservations through its Facebook or Instagram page and closes at 9:30 PM.

For art to stand inside, Art in Island is an interactive museum of 3D art and projections, a short ride away. It is open 11 AM to 6:30 PM Tuesday to Friday and until 7:30 PM on weekends, and it is closed on Mondays. Timing and tickets are in the guide to a date at the 3D museum.

Active. Level 3 of Gateway Mall 2 has both halves of this one. Timezone Gateway 2 has arcade games, short-lane bowling, private karaoke rooms and VR, and it closes with the mall, at 9 PM from Sunday to Thursday. Paeng's has 24 lanes and six billiard tables and runs until midnight. Arcade first, lanes second, with dinner before both at Food Express, the food court on Level 3 of Gateway Mall 1. More in bowling in Quezon City.

Quiet and cheap

Quiet. This one starts at 4 PM, and two of its three stops are quiet ones. Go up to Sensory Gardens, a roof garden on Level 5 of Gateway Mall 2, while it is still light. Walk about 5 minutes to Gateway Gallery on the fifth floor of Gateway Tower, where SiningSaysay tells Philippine history through art. It is free and closes at 6 PM. Then dinner at Grace Park on the ground floor of the mall, open until 11 PM, so nobody watches the clock.

Cheap. Browsing is free. In Cubao Expo, John's Antique Shop has old komiks, typewriters and radios until 7 PM, and the vinyl shop is free to enter. Eat at Best of Luck, under ₱500 a head; one dish for scale is the Pork & Shrimp Siomai (₱168 in 2024). The restaurant is closed on Mondays. Finish with a photo at the convex mirror by the entrance. A costed version of this night is in a Cubao Expo first date for under ₱1,500.

Late and rainy

Late. Start after 9 PM, when the malls are closing. In Cubao Expo, Ichiban Takoyaki serves until midnight from Monday to Thursday and 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays. Carry the takoyaki into Cubao X Brewery, an open-air taproom with no kitchen that is open until midnight. Finish at INT.Bar, the speakeasy behind a photobooth door, which is open until 12:30 AM. If the night calls for a bouquet at 1 AM, the flower shops at Farmers Garden never close. What else is cooking at that hour is in late-night food in Cubao.

Rainy. Stay under one roof at Gateway Mall 2. Wolfgang's Premiere Lounge on Level 4 is a dine-in cinema with La-Z-Boy recliners, and dinner comes with the seat: Ticket with a burger or sandwich (₱990 in 2025). Check the screening schedule before you go. Afterwards the bowling alley one floor down is still open. The full indoor plan is in a rainy-night Cubao date that never leaves Gateway Mall 2.

Splurge

MŌDAN is Chef Jorge Mendez's modern Japanese tasting menu, served in a 12-seat room on 20th Ave. It is a short ride from Araneta City, it costs ₱1,500 and up a head, and a reservation is required. Seatings are at 5:30 PM and 8:30 PM from Wednesday to Sunday. Allow two hours for the meal.

Take the 5:30 PM seating. That puts the two of you back at Gateway before 8 PM for a drink at The Edge Skyview Bar, the rooftop pool bar on Level 22 of ibis Styles, which takes reservations. Ask how late it runs when you book.

To turn the splurge into an overnight, the two hotels are compared in hotels in Cubao for a staycation. Other tables for two are in romantic restaurants in Quezon City.

The practical parts

Walking. The stops inside Araneta City are all within a 12-minute walk of each other. Rough times: 12 minutes between Cubao Expo and Gateway Mall, 6 between Gateway and the Farmers end, and 5 between Cubao Expo and Ali Mall.

Mondays. Three of the seven moods lose a stop on a Monday. Artsy loses the gallery, the vinyl shop and the 3D museum. Cheap loses its dinner. Splurge loses the tasting-menu room, which is also shut on Tuesdays. Active, quiet, late and rainy all still work.

Budget. Costs are per person, per stop: under ₱500, ₱500 to ₱1,500, and ₱1,500 and up. Cheap, late and active sit mostly in the first range. Splurge is the only mood in the third.

Let the planner pick

These are seven fixed nights. The night-out planner builds one around your answers and swaps any stop that does not suit. Start from the Cubao date night guide for the area, or from date ideas in Manila for how the plans are put together.