Love is in the air with Valentine’s Day just around the corner—but no need to panic if you have yet to make a plan for your special someone. We’ve rounded up Bay Area restaurants hosting Valentine’s menus to celebrate love-struck San Franciscans. Red roses, teddy bears and chocolates not included.
Gitane will offer a three-course menu with dishes including a tuna tartare with avocado mousse and toasted rice crisps, braised lamb with apricots and toasted coriander, couscous salad, & pomegranate, a grilled New York steak for the entrée and for dessert, the Gypsy Pavlova. $85 per person. 6 Claude Ln. @ Sutter, (415) 788-6686.
Top of the Mark at the InterContinental Mark Hopkins
Top of the Mark is hosting a six-course dinner of romance, with dishes like an arugula salad with strawberry, figs, honey, and walnuts and wagyu with scallop, asparagus, tomato pierogi, and port wine essence. Dinner guests will be automatically entered into a drawing for a one-night stay in the hotel’s Presidential Suite. $495 per couple and includes a bottle of Möet & Chandon Rosé. Reservations are required. 999 California Street @ Mason, (415) 392-3434.
Chef Mark Liberman’s exclusively hearth-cooked food includes a family style menu with dishes like smoked Maine lobster flatbread with chorizo and white pepper, and fennel and burnt endive with creamed Meyer lemon and poppy seeds. For dessert, enjoy a chocolate, buckwheat and smoked orange zabaglione. $60 per person. 1077 Mission St. @7th, (415) 431-1826.
The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards
Chef Matt Greco offers a four-course Valentine’s dinner through the weekend, with dishes like tuna tartare with caviar, celery root crème, smoked potato chips and sorrel, or scallops with bacon, lentil, salsify and black truffle and winter citrus and pistachio napoleon with anise and coconut. $96 per person. 5050 Arroyo Rd., Livermore, (925) 456-2450.
Enjoy a 5-course menu featuring a variety of aphrodisiac-inspired dishes including oysters with a choice of gin, cucumber, and lime or bacon mignonette, poached shrimp Salad with hearts of palm, grapefruit, avocado, and greens, duck raviolo with spinach and duck egg consume and a New York steak with farro, braised oxtail, and bordelaise. For dessert, indulge in the chocolate cremeux with rum butterscotch, banana, and star anise meringue. $85 per person. Reservations recommended. 500 Hartnell St., Monterey. (831) 643-1833.
A four-course dinner at Hotel Vitale’s Americano Restaurant will feature dishes like the crab and beet salad with blood oranges and tarragon vinaigrette, a wild mushroom and ricotta ravioli with truffle, an entrée of smoked lamb loin, Merguez sausage, farro, cocoa nibs and spiced carrots for dessert, a milk chocolate budino with almond milk. $80 per person. 8 Mission St., 278-3777.
A la carte specials include a local goat cheese salad with baby Lola Rosa, grilled endive, marinated onion, Marcona almonds, shallot and golden balsamic vinaigrette, a grilled Mahi-Mahi with braised heirloom carrots, Champagne and pomegranate butter sauce, topped with Marcona almonds, Spanish olive, and fennel salsa, and a bone-in filet mignon with lobster mashed potatoes casserole. Save room for the tropical fruit crisp dessert, with pistachio sugarcane crust and homemade mango ice cream. Valentine’s items will be available a la carte. 5634 College Ave., (510) 788-4821.
Enjoy a three-course candle-lit dinner of oysters, burgers and West Marin seafood at Nick’s Cove, followed by decadent desserts by pastry chef Fernanda Hurst. $60 per person. 23240 Hwy 1, Marshall. (415) 663-1033.
Executive Chef Gaston Alfaro and Brewmaster James Costa are offering a Beer and Dessert pairing menu, available until February 17. Glasses of craft beer along with four mini-desserts like the Mavericks chocolate porter ice cream sandwich with chocolate ganache and beer vanilla sauce, paired with Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Additionally, the three-course Valentine’s dinner menu features bacon wrapped prawns with smoked gouda, a chicken marsala pasta and bleu cheese cheesecake for dessert. $20 per person for beer and dessert, $47 for dinner. 390 Capistrano Rd. Half Moon Bay, (650) 728-2739.
MKT Restaurant, Four Seasons San Francisco
MKT offers a five-course menu with highlights like oysters, scallop crudo, and roasted rack of lamb with cardoon, black garlic and mint. Indulge in the chocolate-raspberry whoopee pie, with raspberry cremeux, passion fruit ice cream and gingersnap. $160 per person. 757 Market St. @ 3rd, (415) 633-3000,
For those looking for a Valentine’s weekend getaway, consider boarding the Napa Valley Wine Train. Take a train tour through the vineyards, enjoying tastings at local wineries and multi-course meals by Chef Kelly Macdonald. Packages start at $134, Reservations required.1275 McKinstry St, Napa, 800-427-4124,
Email Alyssa.s.jaffer@gmail.com or follow @alyssajaffer.
