If you ask a Gothenburger where to take someone on a date, they will not say Avenyn. They will probably not say Liseberg either, unless it is October and the Halloween lights are on. The dates that locals actually go on are quieter and more residential than the city's marketing suggests.
A walk through Slottsskogen, ending at the café
Slottsskogen is the park locals default to. It is bigger than it looks, it has free-roaming animals including the famous Gothenburg seals and a pen of elk, and there are enough paths that you can do an hour-long loop without retracing your steps. The café at Björngårdsvillan, an old wooden building near the park's main entrance, is the standard ending point. Coffee, a kanelbulle, a bench outside if it is dry.
This is a Saturday-afternoon date for people who have lived here a while. It costs almost nothing and it works in any season except deep winter.
Dinner in Olivedal, not on Avenyn
The restaurants locals book for an actual date are mostly in Olivedal, Linné, and the streets around Vasagatan. Bhoga has a Michelin star and is the splurge answer. Sjömagasinet out in Klippan is the seafood splurge. For more normal nights, Tvåkanten on Kungsportsavenyen, Familjen on Arkivgatan, and Restaurang 2112 in Olivedal are the names that come up.
For a date that feels like a date but does not require a month of saving, Bord 27 on Lilla Bommen and Toso on Magasinsgatan both punch above their price.
Saluhallen for the lazy date
Stora Saluhallen at Kungstorget is the move for a date that does not want to commit to a restaurant. The hall has been there since 1889 and it functions as a market and a cluster of small lunch counters. You buy a glass of wine at one stall, a plate of something at another, and you sit at the shared tables. It is unfussy and locals use it constantly.
Kåges Hörna inside the hall is the institution. Order the räkmacka, the open-faced shrimp sandwich, split it, and you have spent under 200 kronor on a real meal.
The archipelago day trip
The move that separates locals from visitors is treating the southern archipelago as part of normal life. The ferry from Saltholmen leaves every twenty minutes, takes about half an hour to Styrsö or Vrångö, and is included in a regular Västtrafik ticket. No bridge, no booking, just a tram out to Saltholmen and a boat.
A date on Vrångö is a walk around the perimeter of the island, lunch at Vrångö Skärgårdshandel, and a ferry back. It takes most of a day and it costs the price of a transit ticket. Locals do this in summer and in winter both. The winter version, with the wind off the sea and the cafés mostly closed, is somehow better.
Coffee at the second-best café in the neighborhood
The local move is to skip the café everyone has been to and pick the next one over. Da Matteo is excellent and it is also where every guidebook sends people. Locals also go, but they go to Café Kale'i in Vasastan, Bar Bruno on Magasinsgatan in the off-hours, Alkemisten in Linné, or Kafé Marmelad in Majorna. The coffee is as good and the room is quieter.
This matters on a date because you can hear each other. A first conversation in a packed café is a worse conversation.
A swim at Aspen or Delsjön
In summer, the local date is a swim. Aspen, north of the city, is reachable by commuter train. Delsjön, on the eastern edge of the city, is reachable by bus or bike from Korsvägen in about twenty minutes. Both are forest lakes with rocky shores and water that is warmer than the sea. Bring a towel, a thermos, and something to eat from the supermarket.
This is not a date you suggest first. It is one you do once you know the person enjoys being outside and is not precious about it.
The football or hockey match
The last local move worth mentioning: a Frölunda hockey game at Scandinavium, or an IFK Göteborg match at Gamla Ullevi. Tickets are not expensive by international standards, the crowd is enthusiastic without being aggressive, and the rituals of a Swedish hockey crowd are genuinely interesting on a date if you have not seen them before.
It sorts out fast whether the person you are with enjoys being part of a crowd. That is useful information.