Valentine’s Day Dining – We Found Your Meal Experience
Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Whether you choose to celebrate this holiday of love with a family member, partner, or gather a group of your dearest friends, here are some restaurant choices in the city that have menus to love. We have included a nice variety of locations and price points to suit all tastes and budgets. Make plans, make reservations and enjoy!
Sushi by Bou in the Chelsea neighborhood is the ultimate one-stop shop for Valentine’s Day. Sushi by Bou is hidden behind Espresso Bar and Floral Boutique Bosqe so you can pick up your flowers on the way to the nine-seat omakase experience. Once inside, guests are transported to the roaring ’20s with its lavish surroundings while seasoned sushi chefs expertly guide you through the Japanese culinary tradition of the Omakase experience. Selections such as Hamachi (yellowtail), Botan Ebi (spotted prawn), Ikura (salmon roe), Hotate (scallop), O-Toro (fatty tuna), Unagi (bbq eel), and their signature Wagyuni (‘surf and turf’) can be enjoyed either in the 30 minute (12 pieces) or 60 minute experience (17 pieces), or Butter Poached Maine Lobster Risotto. Finally, for dessert, diners may sweeten the mood with either its Chocolate Babka Bread Pudding or Toasted Almond Pavlova.
CASA TuLuM which recently opened in the South Street Seaport, will be offering an exclusive Valentine’s Day five-course tasting menu priced at $150 per person. Beginning with a complimentary glass of champagne, the menu will entail: Happiness is Guac & Chips, with roasted pineapple, red onions, mint, habanero, and pomegranate seeds; CASA TuLuM is Calling – Let’s Go, fideo with angel hair spaghetti, salsa verde, Chipilo cream fresh, and cotija cheese; Don’t Worry, You’re in Tulum, panucho with a homemade blue corn mini huarche, grilled prawns, and Pibil-Xnipec; This Place is a Real Beach, with a choice of Robalo Rosado, wild sea bass, pink mole pine nuts, and mezcal, or Proteina, grilled ribeye with malbec-chili ancho reduction, and asparagus; and for dessert, You Had Me at CASA TuLuM, with a choice of Tres leches power or Mayan warm chocolate cake. CASA TuLuM will also be offering a limited a la carte menu. For Valentine’s Day dinner, the restaurant will be hosting three dinner seatings: at 5 p.m., 8 p.m., and 10 p.m. with a limit of 20 tables available per seating.
Sama Street in Greenpoint Brooklyn is offering a prix fixe Valentine’s Day on menu on Tuesday, February 14 for $55 that is sure to sweep your sweetie off their feet. The menu includes three courses, the Halwa dessert, and a choice of any Sama Street cocktail like the Major Tom (gin, shochu, lemongrass, ginger, chili, coconut cream, cherry tomato, fish sauce) or the Lucy Liu (chili oil washed tequila, lychee, coconut, vanilla, lime). Sama Street’s menu is full of Asian flavors and designed for sharing, so you and your date can choose six dishes to make a romantic tapas spread of everything you want to try together! Sama Street is a window into Asia through craft cocktails and small bites. Experience authentic ingredients, dishes, and flavors from corners of Asia.
Bell Book & Candle is bringing romance to their underground escape in the West Village with an irresistible Valentine’s Day menu priced at $90 per person. For $230 per couple, your meal will also include a bottle of L’Heure de Nuit Cava Brut Rosé or a bottle of Cremant de Bourgogne Brut with a three course dinner. For $270, couples can enjoy the evening with a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Champagne with their multi-course meal. Diners will start with an amuse bouche of oysters and caviar followed by a first course pink salad with watermelon, radish, radicchio, grapefruit segments, and mint leaves, or lobster bisque. The main course includes grilled mahi or grilled beef tenderloin with potato puree, broccoli rabe, and bernaise sauce and a dessert platter of assorted sweets to cap off an epic evening.
Mermaid Oyster Bar is conveniently located in the heart of the theatre district for a meal and drinks before or after the show. The restaurant offers a delicious array of the finest seafood along with menu items to suit many tastes and styles. In addition to their a la carte menu, the specials for Valentine’s Day include Long Island fluke crudo with passionfruit, habanero, lime and smoked salt; Maine sea scallops with cherry-pomegranate glaze, heirloom carrot puree and toasted pumpkin seeds; and fire roasted filet mignon with lobster-yukon potato hash and black truffle butter.
Steak Frites Bistro, the newly opened restaurant located in Hell’s Kitchen, will be serving a special prix-fixe menu for two, priced at $85 per person. Starting with a complimentary glass of champagne, highlights from the menu feature: first course options with a choice of salade vert, onion soup gratinée, or pâté de campagne; main course offerings of either a bœuf en croute, a prime beef tenderloin, flakey pastry, mushroom duxelles, and red wine sauce, or a buttered poached lobster, with pommes Anna, leek fondue, and sauce Américaine; and dessert options such as raspberry souffle, with dark chocolate and a Chambord ganache, or a selection of cheeses and garnishes. Steak Frites Bistro will also be offering exclusive specials for the occasion; as an appetizer, a dozen Kushi oysters with a Yuzu mignonette for $45; and for main course, a dry aged duck bigarade, with honey and lavender, Swiss chard, and Tokyo turnips for $48.
La Devozione’s Michelin Recognized, intimate 30-seat chef’s counter, The Oval at Chelsea Market invites loves to express their devotion to each other for Valentine’s Day with a seven-course “Bacco Tabacco e Venere” menu, which will be offered from Friday, February 10 to Tuesday, February 14. Designed for an amorous, luxury indulgence, the menu is priced at $250 per person and driven by La Devozione’s passion and devotion to pasta. It will take guests through a memorable viaggio throughout Italy and all that surrounds it that begins intensely and passionately with flavors from the depths of the sea, found in Linguettina con Astice e a sua Bisque al Mandarino, linguettina in lobster bisque with mandarin zest. The culinary journey continues with bucatini carbonara di anatra, bucatini pasta with duck carbonara, which evokes the peace and romance of the Italian countryside. The penultimate and namesake dish La Devozione, the perfect bite of spaghetti al pomodoro, is flavorful enough to elicit a memory of passing through the urban crescendo of Naples. The meal ends with bacco tabacco e venere for dessert, rum mousse with rum and tobacco leaves. To complement the tasting menu, the team at La Devozione has created wine and Champagne pairings that range from a standard wine pairing at $95 to a premium Champagne pairing, priced at $350. Diners also have the option to add white truffle or caviar supplements to their meals for an additional $70 each.
Mollusca, a spirited and sophisticated global seafood restaurant with Italian influence in the Meatpacking District, will offer a prix fixe menu priced at $200 for two on Valentine’s Day. To start the night, the pair will receive Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut Champagne for two and a half dozen oysters. After chatting over champagne and oysters, the couple may choose from a list of appetizers such as Wagyu Gyoza or ceviche misto. Entrées include mussels served with frites and bread; choice of white wine garlic, saffron sauce, creamy vodka sauce, cacio e pepe, or condensed milk wasabi and butternut squash cappelletti; sage butter squash sauce, crème fraiche, crispy black squid ink chips To end the night is Mollusca’s lovely dessert for two.
8282 on the Lower East Side serves elevated modern Korean cuisine. With couples in mind, the affianced couple created an innovative and delicious pre-fixe menu that is wallet-friendly but does not compromise in quality and taste. The pre-fixe menu being offered at $75 per person is divided into snacks, a choice of entrée, and a choice for dessert. Highlights from the entrée section include: Kanpachi with apple sauce, young yellowtail, pickled cucumbers, gochujang oil, almonds, pickled kumquats, and Iberico presa with mook, grilled pork shoulder, mook (acorn jelly), ssamjang, gochujang vinaigrette and a dessert choice between sorbet or Injeolmi ice cream. 8282 has an amazing cocktail program by mixologist Katrina Sobredilla (formally of Cacio e Pepe UES, Reifs Tavern) to compliment the cuisine who embraces the art of hand-crafted cocktails with each drink she creates.
Top photo: Bigstock
