It’s one of the busiest (and biggest profit-generating) days of the year for the restaurant industry and this year St Valentine’s Day falls on a Sunday which means it stretches over an entire London weekend. Whether you’re looking for somewhere special to take your other half, or would usually rather dine on a doner than brave eating out during the festival of love – we’ve got a restaurant for you.
The communal table, comely staff and lack of any corners for couples to sit snogging all make Canteen a great place to go on Valentine’s weekend if you don’t want to do that whole ‘you complete me’ thing. Better still, why not make it a group night out, take a gang and order a whole roast chicken to share?
Yes, its St Valentine’s Day – but didn’t you know it’s also Chinese New Year on 14th February? Viet Grill – sister restaurant to the much-vaunted Cay Tre – is putting on a special New Year menu. Impress your date by ordering a Tiger beer to show you know it’s the Year of the Tiger; don’t ruin it by trying to serenade her with Survivor.
If the course of true love isn’t exactly running smoothly at the moment, there’s only one place to go - Galvin at Windows. Not only has the restaurant just won its first Michelin star, but the jaw-dropping view will make up for any awkward pauses in conversation. Eat, gaze out of the window, avoid contentious subjects. The rest is silence.
Valentine’s Day can be a fraught experience for anyone in a relatively new relationship. Sure you want to celebrate your new-found love, but you don’t want to scare the horses. So resist the temptation to head for the local bistro complete with gypsy accordionist and red roses for the laydeez and head for Polpo. It’s loud, buzzy and sexy – everything you could possibly want.
It’s not so much how you pop the question, it’s more how you’ll craft a story out of it to keep the kids and grandchildren entranced for years to come. So where else would you go in London to ask someone to spend the rest of their life with you than Le Gavroche? As the elder statesman of our city’s dining scene, this is one of only a few establishments you could trust with such a moment and Maitre D’ Emmanuel Landre will do all he can to make sure the answer is yes.
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