Skip to main content

Five Hot New Restaurants for Valentines Day

Picking the right restaurant for Valentine’s Day can pose a challenge. On one hand, it has be romantic enough for her but cool enough for you. You don’t want to be in some pink-hued monstrosity seated next to cloyingly happy couples. Affordability also plays a major role although it’s really more about quality than anything. If you’re going to shell out a bunch of cash, the food, cocktails and ambiance better be worth it (even if your sweetheart is priceless).

It’s become so difficult to secure a reservation at the prime spots come the big day, that it’s almost better to stay in and craft a home-cooked meal. But never fear. We’ve found five new restaurants, some still under the radar, that strike the right balance between romantic whimsy and the it factor.

Related Videos

Le Turtle, New York City

This hip Lower East Side establishment opened to much fanfare in December 2015. The French eats at Le Turtle comes courtesy of Greg Proechel, formerly of Blanca, and include veggie-heavy options such as broccoli rabe with fennel. Admire the exposed white brick walls and marble tables under pendant lights as you sip a bespoke cocktail or a glass of Bordeaux.

Nomad PDX, Portland

While not a standing restaurant in the traditional sense, Nomad PDX has become the hottest food destination in Portland in the past six months. This supper-club like spot, located inside Shift Drinks downtown, offers farm-to-table seasonal fare across 15 to 20 delectable courses in an intimate but airy setting. Dishes change regularly but expect locally raised pork and fresh fish as well as produce like chanterelle mushrooms and cabbage. Have a dietary restriction? No worries. Let chef Ryan Fox know in advance and he’ll adapt his dishes for your party. Don’t forget to bring two bottles of wine to the table. The BYOB fee is only $25 per bottle or settle for the $55 beverage pairing option.

Townhouse Detroit, Detroit

Detroit is fast becoming a food destination to reckon with thanks to restaurants like Townhouse Detroit. This expansive, greenhouse-chic venue, the sister outpost to Townhouse Birmingham, features white tufted sofas flanked by wooden tables. Entrees run the gamut from walleye and maple-cured elk to build-your-own burgers and salads. But the true star is the extensive drink list, aka “libation library,” replete with foreign and domestic whiskeys and rye and pisc0-infused cocktails. Opt for a whisky flight post-dinner and sigh with contentment.

Ticonderoga Club, Atlanta

Atlanta is one of our fave American cities and with good reason. There’s a passion for food and drink here that rivals top-tier destinations. Enter Ticonderoga Club, an Old Fourth Ward bar-cum-restaurant, sure to please all parties. While more of a drinking parlor than a restaurant, the food menu doesn’t disappoint. Think inventive American fare like dry-aged duck and the waist-expanding Chuck Wagon, the latter showcasing course after course of filling meats and desserts. But the cocktails are the standout. Bourbon, rye and sherry feature prominently—there’s even sherry offered by the bottle—and the compact wine and beer lists are well thought out.

Osteria, London

Since Valentine’s Day falls on a weekend this year, it’s no wonder many of us our taking our significant others out of town. London is just a quick flight away and while the holiday is not quite as popular there as it is stateside, you’ll still want to treat your girl to something more than a walk around Piccadilly Circus. Osteria, at the bustling Barbican Centre, is the latest restaurant to open. The official launch date is February 11 (although it has been welcoming diners during its soft opening) so there’s still time to score a reservation at this seasonal Italian restaurant by chef Anthony Demetre (Arbutus). Local art dots the wall and the space is open and inviting. It’s the perfect place for pre-theatre dining before heading to Wonder.land (Damon Albarn of Blur wrote the score) at the National Theatre.

Editors' Recommendations

Pizza Hut brought back an iconic item for March Madness — but you can’t eat it
Be still our nostalgic 90s hearts with this Pizza Hut throwback
pizza hut brings back mini basketballs for march madness 06 satx 027

The 90s have been back for a while now. In fashion, in music, and even in our favorite snack foods. Everywhere you turn, there's a TikTok or YouTube video titled "You might be a 90s kid if..." Grocery store shelves can hardly stay stocked with old-school cool snacks like Waffle Crisp and Dunkaroos, and we millennials couldn't be more ecstatic about it.

Now, Pizza Hut has jumped on the nostalgic bandwagon as well. Coming in hot just after their re-release of 1990s favorite, The Big New Yorker, is another classic Pizza Hut throwback — mini basketballs. Participating restaurants will be selling their 2023 version of mini basketballs starting March 14, just in time for March Madness. The balls feature Pizza Hut's popular catchphrase, "No One Out Pizzas The Hut," in the restaurant's signature red and black color scheme. The cost of revisiting one of your favorite childhood memories will set you back just $7.

Read more
Bubbly? Full-bodied and red? Zesty and white? Your favorite wine types, explained
All the primary types of wine (and everything you need to know about them)
Glasses of different kinds of wine

Trying to understand everything about wine all at once is an impossible endeavor. Wine is a beautifully complicated, ever-changing quiddity, and even the most decorated and prestigious wine experts in the world often find themselves confounded by its constant little surprises.
That isn't to say that, if you care to, you shouldn't become educated on the subject of wine. It's a hobby and a passion that's tremendously fun to pursue, and there's much to learn on the matter.
If you find yourself in the beginning stages of your wine education, just as in everything, you'll want to start with the basics. It's possible that up until now, you haven't put much thought into the several different kinds of wine there are, except for, say, red and white. But while there are obviously exceptions within every hard and fast rule, for the most part, wine can be broken down into roughly nine categories. Here we'll take a minute to break those categories down, explain what they mean, which wines fall into them, and, our favorite - how to drink those wines.

Sparkling wine

Read more
This NYC restaurant’s $518, 19-course tasting menu of Chinese cuisine is amazing
Chef Guo in New York is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and a feast for the senses and the palate
Chef Guo food.

Butterfly Falls in Love with the Flower.

Step inside the restaurant Chef Guo, and the first thing you'll be greeted with is a majestic model of a ginko tree, the national tree of China, complete with brightly colored golden leaves. The tree cascades over the dining room, a space filled with Chinese calligraphy on the walls and regal Indonesian Zi Tan rosewood chairs. Soft and pleasant Chinese instrumental music plays in the background, an oasis in an otherwise hectic Midtown Manhattan.

Read more