Posts Tagged ‘Dinner’

14 Delicious Ways to Celebrate Valentine’s Day in the Big Apple

Valentine’s Day is a day to share your love. But it’s more than that – it’s a wonderful chance to share a great meal, a cocktail and an evening out. New York City celebrates with special menus and romantic touches designed to make both of you say ahhhh and yum.

Here are 14 exciting choices where you can slip into romance on February 14.

DINNER

Courtesy Gabriel Kreuther

Gabriel KreutherMidtown West

Two Michelin-Starred Gabriel Kreuther presents a spectacular evening of French-inflected Alsatian cuisine. The fine dining experience is as romantic as it comes in the softly lit, art-adorned dining room. For Valentine’s weekend, you can celebrate your love with a special “The Gorgée d’Amour” cocktail, a mix of Hennessy VSOP, Greenhook Old Tom gin, rhubarb, Rockey’s Milk Punch and Byrrh Grand Quinquina.

Courtesy Gabriel Kreuther

Then you’ll be treated to a five-course tasting menu with indulgences for both meat and seafood lovers: Crown toro hamachi crudo, perigord black truffles with four cheese raviolis, roasted Maine lobster cassoulet, spice-rubbed Brandt beef tenderloin and a cocoa nib tart. As unusual as the menu, Gabriel Kreuther’s wine pairing has been specially curated to enhance each dish.

Courtesy Kumi

Kumi – Midtown West

A new import from Las Vegas brightened with Chef Anastacia Song’s inimitable New York style, Kumi offers Japanese-Korean fusion cuisine at Le Meridien New York . On Valentine’s Day, you’ll begin your evening of passion with a “Kiss Me Kumi” cocktail, a potent combination of plum wine, melon, raspberry, lemon and Cava. After toasting to your devotion, the celebration continues with a presentation of small plates from spicy tuna tartare with truffle oil to Hondashi rice and vegetables. The main attraction at the lavishly decorated restaurant  is a chef’s selection of sushi and rolls accompanying green-tea smoked chicken, ginger Gochujang glazed salmon, sesame watercress and greens. Pace yourself as you’ll want to save room for dessert and perhaps an after-dinner drink like the silky matcha vodka concoction. Vegan and vegetarian options are available.

Courtesy North Miznon

North Miznon – Upper West Side

For pure romance, North Miznon has the setting and the “couples” thing down pat. Israeli Chef Eyal Shani offers specials enticements for two in the romantically lit sit-down restaurant. The six-course holiday menu begins with two “couples” of East Coast oysters and another twosome, a choice of a duo of lamb chops or a duet of the “best cuts of the cow.” Shani has a following from Israel to Manhattan and it’s understandable when you see the rest of the menu with starters including golden fresh focaccia, diamond turnips in golden sauce, and local scallop grilled in its shell. If you’re not a meat eater, there’s halibut in a paper envelope. For dessert, couples can choose from a couple of desserts: apple crumble with Ronnybrook vanilla ice cream or a medley of chocolate treats. Vegetarian and kosher options are available.

Courtesy Lucciola

Lucciola – Upper West Side

If atmosphere is what you’re looking for, you have two amazing choices at Lucciola on Amsterdam Avenue. The main dining room is a valentine to Emilia-Romagna, exuding romance with dim lighting and an old piano in the corner. A wall of wine bottles adds another taste of Italy. You can make your evening even cozier by booking one of the restaurant’s heated bubbles where you snuggle together in privacy surrounded by alpaca blankets. For Valentine’s Day, Lucciola is offering a three-course prix fixe menu with lavish choices like spaghetti with Hokkaido sea urchin or tagliatelle Wagyu filet with black truffle. The wild alpine strawberry tartelette is a perfect red-toned sweet to end the meal.

La Devozione Courtesy Giada Paoloni

La Devozione – Chelsea

It’s true amore in Chelsea Market this Valentine’s Day.  New York City’s newest pasta destination, La Devozione by Pastificio di Martino, turns a traditional heart-infused Valentine’s Day into an exciting oval-shaped celebration at The Oval, a 30-seat pasta bar surrounded by shelves of pasta. The evening’s indulgence is a nine-course pasta tasting with caviar, uni, lobster and other aphrodisiacal ingredients. You’ll watch the chef prepare each dish, personalized for you. Choose a traditional Italian wine or amaro to complement, or elevate the evening with a Champagne pairing menu. For a bespoke experience, La Devozione is offering concierge service to arrange transportation, music to play during dinner, and flowers. This is truly a one-of-a-kind dining experience that your sweetie will remember for a long time.

Courtesy Vestry

Vestry – SoHo

Shaun Hergatt’s new Michelin-starred Vestry is sure to wow your sweetie with the restaurant’s elegant design and Valentine’s Day “menu of aphrodisiacs.” The usual love-inducing suspects are included but Chef Hergatt’s penchant for drama and creativity is unmistakable – there’s Wagyu beef, Berkshire pork belly with foie gras, wild mushroom soup with black truffle, Kaluga caviar with potato blinis and crème fraîche, and much more. The prix fixe feast finishes with a sweet dessert for two, Baked Alaska surrounded by rose petals.

Courtesy Lindens

Lindens – SoHo

You would never imagine that there are cabins for dining in the back courtyard of the Arlo SoHo hotel. Lindens goes après ski with these individual “rooms” for two and a special Valentine’s Day dinner. The modern American restaurant adheres to a “nature within the city” ethos, now reflecting the winter season with comfort dishes including kabocha squash ravioli, roast chicken, hanger steak and luscious lemon & bourbon donuts. A wine pairing is available.

Courtesy Lure Fishbar

Lure Fishbar – SoHo

You may not have booked a cruise for Valentine’s Day, but the yacht like design of SoHo’s popular Lure Fishbar seafood restaurant can transport you to the Adriatic or even the Maine coast. Everyone knows that oysters have aphrodisiacal superpowers, especially when combined with a bottle of pink Champagne. Lure Fishbar takes this concept to new heights with its seafood tower, dressed up with rose petals for the evening. The Valentine’s Day menu continues the seafood extravaganza with fluke crudo, baked oysters, vanilla butter-poached Maine lobster, potato-crusted halibut, lemon meringue and more.

Courtesy Industry Kitchen

Industry Kitchen – The Seaport

Impress your date by booking a private glasshouse for two at Industry Kitchen and cozy up as you watch dusk settle over the Brooklyn and Williamsburg bridges. Alongside the East River, the restaurant will entice you with Chef Haffman’s special Valentine’s Day Champagne dinner. Clink glasses to the colors in the sky and enjoy the evening’s gastronomic indulgences: steak tartare, Hudson Valley duck risotto and chocolate fondue for two with red velvet cake, macarons, green apple, grapes, strawberry and pineapple for dipping.

Courtesy Serafina

Serafina – Meatpacking District, Tribeca, Broadway, Upper East Side and more

The popular Italian date night restaurant adds some holiday whimsy to their February 14 menu with heart-shaped ravioli on a special menu featuring burrata to share, starters like crudo and winter citrus salad, Serafina’s signature black truffle pizza, and surf & turf.

Courtesy Serafina

A wine pairing from Serafina’s extensive collection is available to complement each course including an amaro digestif for dessert to enjoy with a decadent tiramisu for two or a Valentine-perfect red berry tart with shaved chocolate.

COCKTAILS AND OTHER LIBATIONS

Courtesy Ophelia

Ophelia – Midtown East

Add a trip to the moon with a cocktail in the “Snow Globe in the Sky” atop the historic Beekman Tower at Ophelia. The Art-Deco-inspired lounge always has the right holiday touch and this year’s Valentine’s Day special is a his-and-her cocktail and sweets celebration. For him, it’s a Buffalo Trace bourbon perfect for a wintry evening with sugar, bitters and citrus oil. She gets the tiki rum cocktail, sweetened with crème de fraise, coconut cream with a contrasting swirl of Nardini amaro. The cocktails are specially designed to accompany Ophelia’s “Sweets for the Sweet” menu of chocolate-covered strawberries, heart shaped macarons, mini berry tarts, chocolate truffles and tiramisu.

Courtesy Loulou

Loulou – Chelsea

A romantic nightcap to your night on the town, a “Valentini” at Loulou will elicit Valentine’s Day sparks. Served in a heart-shaped glass, the red-hued vodka cocktail has muddled raspberries, mint leaves, lemon juice and simple syrup, with a splash of yellow chartreuse and topped with Prosecco.

Courtesy Loreley Beer Garden

Loreley Beer Garden – Lower East Side

Loreley Beer Garden goes all out on romantic décor for a three-day Valentine’s holiday. Several hundred long-stemmed red roses and 10,000 rose petals will adorn tables and floors throughout the restaurant and the heated outdoor winter garden. The Valentine’s mood becomes livelier with heart-shaped pretzels served with warm beer cheese dip to accompany your choice of brews or cocktails. Valentine’s Day brunch and dinner will keep you warm with boozy bourbon hot chocolate and Jameson hot toddies.

A VALENTINE’S STAYCATION

Margie's Restaurant Courtesy The Rockaway Hotel + Spa

The Rockaway Hotel + Spa – Queens

There’s a way to truly surprise your date on Valentine’s Day. Why not turn your holiday into a staycation by the ocean? Take the subway to Rockaway Beach in Queens where you can let loose with the Celebrate LOVE program at The Rockaway Hotel + Spa. Dinner at Margie’s with drinks and dancing on The Rooftop and a choice of the Recharge in Rockaway or Dine & Wine two-night stayovers will make you both feel like you’ve left the city for a beach holiday. Personalize your mini-vacation even further by adding chocolate-covered strawberries and scheduling a couple’s’ spa treatment.

You Still Have a Week to Surprise Your Valentine with a Great Dinner in New York City

Countdown to Valentine’s Day 2020.

Amore Italian-Style

Set in a beautiful brownstone on a tree-lined block, flower- and candle-bedecked Felidia has been a romantic favorite for diners for 38 years. For Valentine’s Day, Felidia is serving a four-course San Valentino Tasting Menu dinner at $158 per person with an optional Kaluga Caviar course. Complementing the specially designed heart-shaped ravioli (Cuore Matto) are over-the-top dishes like Wagyu beef bresaola and a Tutto Tonno platter comprised of Big Eye tuna tartare, carpaccio, avocado, burrata and Kaluga caviar. Guests will also receive a tasting of Felidia’s most coveted desserts and Italian delights.

Felidia Wagyu Beef

To be transported to Rome without buying a plane ticket, Lupa has a special $79 four-course Valentine’s Day menu that will inspire amore and oohs and ahhs. The meal begins with a choice of aphrodisiacal appetizers like broiled oysters, or carne crudo with truffle Fonduta and quail egg. More indulgent truffles can be added to the tonnarelli cacio pepe for the primo course followed by two shareable dishes, whole roasted red snapper or quail “love birds.” Red-for-romance strawberry tartufo is the perfect dessert.

Lupa Osyters

Spend Valentine’s Day in NYC’s historic Flower District at Feroce Ristorante in the Moxy Chelsea, named “Best New Italian Restaurant to Open Worldwide” by Italian food and wine magazine Gambero Rosso. Guests will enjoy  aphrodisiac-inspired specials like carpaccio di Capesante, scallops thinly sliced and served with taggiasca olives, cauliflower, and organic dill in a blood orange dressing; and saltimbocca di rana Pescatrice, roasted monkfish wrapped in prosciutto di Parma, aged for 24 months, served with zucchini and olive tapenade. The meal climaxes with a sinfully rich mousse al cioccolato e limponi, a heart-shaped chocolate mousse served with organic fresh raspberries.

Feroce Ristorante credit Will Engelmann

Fun with Names

Fish Cheeks has curated a bright seafood-centric menu with unapologetic heat to keep the sparks flowing. Spice things up with a choice of two set menus for two with favorites like the coconut crab curry, crab fried rice, and Manila clams with sweet basil. The “No Sleep” High West bourbon cocktail mixed with Mr. Blacks cold brew liqueur, cinnamon syrup and almond milk is the perfect finish (or start) to the evening.

Fish Cheeks No Sleep Cocktail credit Andrew Bui

Boqueria wants you to have fun this Valentine’s Day with special Barcelona-inspired, romance-inducing tapas options. You can express your intentions by choosing “No Commitment,” an array of à la carte signature tapas, or the prix fixe “Classic Love Story,” Chef Marc Vidal’s selection of seasonal dishes and Spanish classics. “Three Little Words” will bring you an assortment of decadent favorites like hand-carved jamon Ibérico and croquetas de pollo y morcilla while “The Grand Gesture” notches things up with ostras con espuma de patat, a grilled oysters on the half shell with potato cream; and a tarta de chocolate con nueces y café, molten chocolate cake.

Boqueria

Palais by Perfect Pie will offer a menu of special sweet and savory dishes for Valentine’s Day with fun names like the “Whole Lotta Love,” Beau Soleil oysters with American sturgeon caviar and cucumber mignonette; and the” I’d Steak My Life On It,” roasted halibut steak with spinach and romantic roasted red pepper sauce followed by Don Giovanni’s tagliatelle with chanterelles, wild mushrooms and Italian white truffles. The tongue-in-cheek meal finishes on a sweet note with the signature dessert by former White House Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses, a chocolate heart brimming with bon bons and cognac, served broken or whole, as requested.

Palais by Perfect Pie

Sweets for the Sweet

In celebration of Valentine’s Day Black Tap is rolling out the decadent Red Velvet Cake Shake, a red velvet cake batter shake with a vanilla frosted rim with red and white sprinkles topped with a slice of red velvet cake, whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle. Now that’s love.

Valentines Day Shake credit Black Tap

Intimate new East Village Bakeshop Red Gate Bakery has created swoon-worthy strawberry buttercream Oreos (an all-butter Oreo cookie made with black cocoa, sandwiched around sweet and tangy strawberry buttercream), the perfect finish to an evening of romance.

Red Gate Bakery credit Rachel Vanni

It’s All about the Drink

Cocktail bar and lounge, Ophelia, will be offering a Rose and Chocolates Soirée this Valentine’s Day. Tickets are required. A VIP pass includes a private table for two, a long stem rose, Champagne on arrival, a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne and chocolate truffles. If you want to go a little further, Ophelia has a “Proposal Package” which puts you in a private cove, covered in rose petals, and further ensures you’ll get the desired answer with a bottle of Dom Pérignon or Ace of Spades Champagne, two dozen long stem roses and a box of chocolate truffles, all orchestrated according to your personal wishes.

Ophelia

For sports-minded lovers, J. Bespoke offers a speakeasy vibe that addresses all interests. On Valentine’s Day, the cocktail lounge rejiggers its usual sports programming to show romantic sports movies all day. As you munch on fun bites like truffle fries and spicy honey pizza, you’ll sip the special cocktail of the evening, the Little Red Corvette, made with raspberry-infused vodka, fresh ginger, Aperol, fresh lime, mint leaves, jalapeno tincture, garnished with rose buds, while you watch romantic sports films like Bull Durham, Jerry Maguire, Love & Basketball, Fever Pitch and Rocky. Your date will be impressed – you enter through an unmarked brass door at the back of a coffee bar.

J. Bespoke Cocktail courtesy of J. Bespoke

Cantina Rooftop

makes sure your cocktails are served with a selection of aphrodisiacal dishes. For Valentine’s Day, Cantina will serve a special three-course meal with a pitcher of their signature margaritas or sangria for two. You’ll sip your tequila as you tuck into aphrodisiacal dishes like baked Blue Point oysters (ostiones al horno) with poblano rajas gratin and desserts like guava cheese cake with fresh fruit compote. You can keep the party spirit alive at Cantina’s after-dinner party with drink specials and music by DJ Javi.

Where to Enjoy Dinner-and-a-Movie in New York City (in One Locale)

How would you like to have dinner and a movie, all in the same place?  Not to be confused with the usual Milk Duds and Diet Coke that is your go-to movie snack, we mean having a serious dinner – think a fried calamari appetizer followed by a steak sandwich and a side of French fries, with a slice of blueberry pie — while you watch your favorite flick.   This latest trend, which is rapidly taking New York City and its boroughs by storm, is both a  modern and innovative take on going to the movies.  What started as a simple concept fostered by an indie crowd of Brooklyn (and other places in the U.S.) has expanded and may soon come to all AMC theaters in Manhattan.

Here are some of the dinner-cinemas in Brooklyn and Manhattan that have seen great success and reviews:

Nitehawk Cinema:

This triplex, first-run movie cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn features tableside food in all three of its theaters (which each feature a different film).  The dinner menu is spectacular, as is its acclaimed Brooklyn chef Saul Bolton.  A variety of small plates and seasonal selections are offered, along with  hearty entrees and a dessert selection.  No reservations are needed but it is suggested that you arrive 30-45 minutes before showtime to place your order and get a good seat.  Food specials are available, depending on the film.  Tickets are $11 for general admission, and $9 for children and seniors.  For a full menu list and movie listings go to: www.nitehawkcinema.com

Location: 136 Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211. Phone: 718.384.3980

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