Love is in the air! To celebrate love’s big day, many of London’s fine restaurants are putting on feasts to spark romance with. Whether you’re looking to pull out all the stops or an intimate dinner, enjoy Valentine’s Day at one of these top-notch restaurants…
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1 34 Mayfair, Mayfair
34 Mayfair has launched a campaign ‘Love at Grand 34’, an elegant and eccentric celebration of Valentine’s Day. It starts with an floral installation outside the restaurant, and includes limited edition cocktails and dessert, and live instrumental jazz too. Pull out all stops with fresh herbaceous cocktails such as the Something Spicy with Tequila (an aromatic margarita with ancho pepper, pink peppercorn and fresh coriander and rosemary agave) and chocolate mousse that comes with a raspberry centre.
Date: Until February 14
Address: 34 Grosvenor Square (entry on south Audley Street) W1K 2HD
Website: 34-restaurant.co.uk
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2 The Seafood Bar, Soho
For a sumptuous seafood meal, The Seafood Bar is offering up a Valentine’s Day menu boasting fresh crustaceans and fish. Start with sustainably-bred oysters before sharing a whole lobster that comes with thick cut chips, and finish on a surprise dessert. As well as the usual array of fine wines from around the globe, guests can alsotoast with a celebratory glass of champagne as part of their menu. The Seafood Bar has created their very own free ‘You’re my lobster” t-shirts for the night – a not-so-subtle nod to the quote made famous by Friends -which you can wear should you not want to ruin your date night outfit
Date: February 11-14
Cost: £45
Address: 77 Dean Street, W1D 3SH
Website: theseafoodbar.com
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3 STK Steakhouse, Strand & Westminster
This Valentine’s Day treat your beau to a decadent meal at STK Steakhouse. Indulge in a night of ‘vibe dining’, where you cosy up in a plush dining booth, while djs play and you quaff cocktails and dine on top notch nosh. For the occasion, STK Steakhouse has three course Valentine’s Menu featuring a red snapper crudo, followed by a wagyu striploin (which you can also get with a colossal prawn on top or cured and roasted salmon. To finish, share a chocolate lava marshmallow cake.
Dates: February 11-14
Address: 336-337 Strand WC2R 1HA
30 John Islip Street SW1P 4DD
Website: stksteakhouse.com
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4 Temper, Soho, Covent Garden, City
This popular smokehouse is putting on a few special dishes for your romantic evening. This includes Siete Potencias (two rock oysters, aguachili negro and pickles) Get tongued (ox tongue, BBQ sauce, green sauce, fried shallots and black tortillas) and Eat your heart out (ox heart antichucho, aji panca peanut and aji amarillo, giant corn an burnt sweet Romaine.) Enjoy an extensive wine list, cocktails or even a glass of mezcal, as well as watching the chefs prepare your meal in an open kitchen, which is all centred round a giant fire pit. Perhaps not a romantic discussion point, but good to know all the same; meat is sourced from small farms and butchering on the whole animal is done in-house. This reduces the environmental impact as mass-farming systems are avoided and the cattle’s meat goes further.
Date: Specials available February 11-14. City venue closed on Feb 12 & 13.
Address: 25 Broadwick Street, Soho W1F 0DF
2 Angel Court, 30 Throgmorton Street EC2R 7HJ
5 Mercer Walk, Mercers Yard, Covent Garden WC2H 9FA
Website: temperrestaurant.com
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5 Frog by Adam Handling, Covent Garden
Award-winning chef Adam Handling’s flagship restaurant offers up seasonal five or seven-course tasting menu, which for Valentine’s Day, comes with a rose to take home. The restaurant has an open kitchen which means you can watch the chefs at work, preparing the likes of veal sweetbread tortellini, salt-chamber duck with artichoke and miso; and caramelised white chocolate, bergamot and buckwheat. A vegan menu is available. If you want to keep the evening going, head downstairs to the newly refurbished Eve Bar for Valentine’s Day cocktails.
Cost: Five-course £125; seven-course £150; wine pairing additional
Address: 34-35 Southampton Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 7HF
Website: frogbyadamhandling.com
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6 Lina Stores, Soho, City & King’s Cross
A bustling, slightly chaotic den of a place, Lina Stores plates up classic antipasti and pasta dishes that leave you wanting more. Tuck into golf ball-sized ricotta and spinach gnocchi covered in a tomatoey sauce; 30-egg yolk tagliatelle with parsley and sharp grana Padano cheese; or Sicilian casarecce tangled with prawns, chili and tomato. If you want the same excellent Italian dishes, but with a bit more room to move, try the restaurant’s King’s Cross or Bloomberg Arcades locations.
Address: 51 Greek Street Soho W1D 4EH
20 Stable Street, King’s Cross N1C 4DR
19 Bloomberg Arcade, City EC4N 8AR
Website: linastores.co.uk
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7 The Palomar, Soho
Another bustling space, The Palomar has bar and table seating and a flavour-packed menu brings together flavours from Israel, North Africa, Spain and the Levant. Sharing plates include zucchini tahini with candied walnuts; white bean m’sabacha with lamb brisket, harissa and a pickled egg; glazed octopus with kohlrabi, date and harissa molasses and spinach labneh; and prawns with slow-cooked leek salad.
Address: 34 Rupert Street, Soho W1D 6DN
Website: thepalomar.co.uk
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8 Blue Door Bistro at The Montague on the Gardens, Bloomsbury
The AA Rosette awarded restaurant is offering a four-course Valentines Menu that comes with a welcome cocktail and starts with fresh oysters with as bloody Mary shot. The seasonal European-style menu, taken in a richly decorated room filled with mahogany panelling and mirrored glass, includes dishes such as truffle-baked Camembert with caramelised onion, salmon and scallop Scotch egg with red pepper and chorizo sauce, Chateaubriand to share and carved on the trolley, prawn stroganoff or butternut squash tortellini.
Date: February 12-14
Cost: £80 pp
Address: 15 Montague Street, Bloomsbury WC1B 5BJ
Website: montaguehotel.com
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9 Jose Pizarro at the RA, Broadgate Circle & Bermondsey
Add a Spanish twist to your celebration at one of José Pizarro’s bustling restaurants rustling up top-notch Spanish nosh and keeping the cava flowing. The Spanish chef’s Bermondsey restaurant is plating up a romantic (and hefty) eight-course tasting menu (£75) for the the affair (Feb 11-14) that features oysters with apple vinaigrette; Ibérico ham; toasted bread dressed in garlic, olive oil and Catalan tomatoes. You’ve also got prawn and pork Catalan-style canelón, rib eye steak on the bone, and fried monkfish with parsley aioli for the mains. To finish, the restaurant is offering strawberry and blueberry ice cream and chocolate truffles which you can pair with a chocolate espresso martini. For a smaller treat, the RA (throughout February) and Broadgate Circle (Feb 11-14) locations are offering two oysters with green apple and cider vinegar with a glass of cava for £12.
Address: 94 Bermondsey Street, Bermondsey SE1 3TQ
Royal Academy of Arts, 6 Burlington Gardens, Piccadilly W1J 0PE
36 Broadgate, EC2M 2QS
Website: josepizarro.com
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10 Aquavit, St James’s
Love is in the air at Nordic Aquavit London with a selection of sharing specials designed for two. Dishes include cep and onion crusted chateaubriand with celeriac and truffle purée, green beans, pancetta and red wine jus (£90), with the option to add a Västerbotten cheese gratinated lobster (£65) for a spot of surf ‘n’ turf. Other dishes include whole roasted dover sole with burnt leeks, dill, fennel, white wine sauce, grilled lemon and crispy oyster (£85), plus red velvet cake with mirror glazed raspberry mousse and white chocolate crumb (£22). All dishes serve two.
Date: February 11-19
Address: St James Market, 1 Carlton Street SW1y 4QQ
Website: aquavitrestaurants.com
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11 Fenchurch Restaurant, Sky Garden
Dine in the clouds at Fenchurch on level 37 of Sky Garden. Choose from a delicious five-course lunch (£95pp) or seven-course dinner (£135pp) tasting menu complete with a glass of champagne. Dishes include roast XL scallop with Cornish crab beurre blanc, celeriac, and granny smith apple; venison Wellington for two, served with garlic buttered greens and pomme purée; and the ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ dessert of Yorkshire rhubarb, white chocolate, pistachio and rose. Menus available from 12-14th February exclusively, including vegetarian with wine pairings at a supplementary charge.
Date: February 12-14
Address: 1 Sky Garden Walk, City EC3M 8AF
Website: skygarden.london
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12 English Grill at The Rubens, Victoria
The English Grill is putting on a lavish affair for love’s big day, starting with canapés and a glass of champagne in the luxurious New York Bar. Guests are then welcomed into the English Grill, which holds two AA Rosettes to enjoy a sumptuous seven-course bespoke menu. Feast on the likes of lobster bisque, Orkney king scallops and steak Diane, as well as cream baked Alaska for dessert.
Date: Friday & Saturday, February 11-12, from 5pm
Cost: Friday £145 pp; Saturday £175pp
Address: 39 Buckingham Palace Road SW1W 0PS
Website: rubenshotel.com
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13 Chameleon, Marylebone
Set in the heart of Marylebone, Middle-Eastern Chameleon is the perfect spot for a romantic evening. The venue’s Greenhouses are the ideal for an intimate experience – meals can be enjoyed in a heated, ‘outdoor’ space, decorated with arranged vines and flowers hanging from the ceilings. To mark the occasion,chef Elior Balbul has created a limited-edition three-course Valentine’s Day menu, which includes aubergine carpaccio, grilled baby Jordan marrow, lamb sirloin and chocolate pistachio dacquoise. Singer-songwriter Bethan Wye will provide the soundtrack to your Valentine’s Day with a live performance on the night.
Cost: £89 pp
Address: 1 Marylebone Road, Marylebone NW1 4AQ
Website: chameleon.london
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZTwyQ4o5B6/
14 Isola by San Carlo, Marylebone
Speak the language of love with a little help from the recently opened Isola. With swoon-worthy sorbet hued interiors, a menu inspired by the southern Italian islands and a bijou selection of limited-edition Valentine’s cocktails and desserts, there’s plenty to wine and dine your lover with at Isola. This includes the Pucker Up (£13.50), a blend of warming Kings Ginger liqueur, bitter Aperol, Italian lemon and raspberry; and Isola’s hand-crafted chocolate melting bombe dessert (£12.95) filled with creamy gelato and a gold-dusted cherub, served with hot salted caramel sauce.
Address: St. Christopher’s Place, 3-5 Barrett Street, Marylebone W1U 1AY
Website: sancarloisola.co.uk
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZTwyQ4o5B6/
15 The Northall, Corinthia, Westminster
Elegant and sophisticated, The Northall is offering a four-course menu to swoon over. Executive Chef André Garrett’s has prepared a menu (£120pp) that celebrates British seasonal produce and kicks off with canapés and an amuse bouche of miso custard, port wine and parmesan cream. For a starter, you’ve got either dressed Devon crab cocktail with bibb lettuce, caviar, and cashew; or Norfolk quail laqueé with pickled beetroots, black garlic, and apple. This is followed by a fish course and then either a Rhug Estate Wellington with goose liver, kohlrabi, and sauce grand veneur; or pot-roasted herbed Guinea hen with sand carrot purée, grilled hispi cabbage and roasting jus. Finish up with a raspberry, lychee and rose-based sharing dessert, and you’ve got yourself a smashing feast. A vegan menu also available.
Date: Friday, Saturday & Monday, February 11-12,14
Cost: £120pp
Address: 10a Northumberland Avenue, Westminster WC2N 5AE
Website: corinthia.com
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16 Butler’s Restaurant at The Chesterfield, Mayfair
For a Valentine’s Day meal of classic British fare, head to fine-dining Butlers Restaurant in Mayfair. You can order from the a la carte menu, which features several pie choices – chicken, truffle and chestnut mushroom; smoked haddock, parmesan and chive; west country lamb and mint for example – as well as steak and fish. Upgrade your dinner to include a box of chocolate, a long-stemmed rose, a cocktail each and Valentine petit fours.
Cost: Valentine’s Day upgrade £60
Address: 35 Charles Street, Mayfair W1J 5EB
Website: chesterfieldmayfair.com
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17 Benares Mayfair
Charm your loved one with a touch of Michelin magic with Benares’ eight-course tasting menu, in an elegant, refined setting. Executive Chef Sameer Taneja has created a menu that includes new and much-loved Indian dishes that draw on culinary styles from across the subcontinent. New dishes on the menu include strawberry and scallop ‘raw curry’, langoustine tartlet, tandoori lamb chops, herb-fed chicken yakhani pulao and liquid street snacks alongside chocolate textures for dessert.
Date: February 12-14
Cost: £124/£114 (vegetarian)
Address: 12a Berkeley Square, Mayfair W1J 6BS
Website: benaresrestaurant.com
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