Have a romantic table booked at a favorite restaurant? Do you cook up some favorites at home? Share the love… 
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I offer to both cook dinner AND clean up afterwards. And have a manhattan ready and waiting when she comes home. The actual contents of the dinner are mostly secondary to her.
Trader Joe’s is my spot for flowers. Good selection, good quality and well priced.
We used to do the rookie move and go out to restaurants on Valentine’s Day. That practice stopped about 15 years ago. These days I’ll splurge on some excellent ingredients that we normally wouldn’t buy - Astrea caviar, dry aged wagyu, lobsters, good bottle of wine and eat at home.
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i told my wife its a rookie move to go out on Valentine’s day for dinner but she insists.
We usually do sushi. but she wants fancy Korean BBQ this year so i booked Genwa. Anyone else have ideas for Fancy Korean BBQ in LA? (she feels most Asian places you don’t have to worry about Valentines day reservation craziness and crappy prix fixe dinners)
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I think AB Steak might be the “fanciest” i.e. - most expensive like Cote in NYC.
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oooh thanks for that! i’ll look into AB Steak.
Going to a restaurant on Valentine’s Day is like going to a bar on St. Patrick’s Day. It’ll be an inferior experience unless you go someplace that the masses aren’t swarming, e.g. the Gallery Bar at the Biltmore.
A place that’s booked solid every night a month in advance is a safe bet, but did you reserve three weeks ago?
You show love by ignoring this “fake” holiday completely
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my wife likes to go, we usually do sushi and there hasn’t been a problem of getting reservations and it being crowded with the “Valentine’s crowd” i would not go to any steakhouse or “romantic” restaurant for dinner on Valentine’s.
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That might work better if you’re German. In the US it was an established tradition as far back as 1850 and in France centuries before that.
Many traditions are there to be broken (and at least in France it is by far not that over commercialized as in the US)
We usually enjoy a fine home cooked meal with indulgences. Still working out the details this year. By the way, who says you have to go out on that very day. You can do a special meal out before or after…
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Yeah, but that’s true about almost EVERYTHING.
I don’t disagree
We’ll be ordering fancy sushi delivery, but only because I have to get up early the next day and don’t want to be out late enough for a celebratory dinner. I love going out on Valentine’s Day. I know all the cool kids think it’s “amateur” or “fake,” but hey! stay home, then. More tables for us. You can go out on February 17th and feel all smug about it, but no one’s gonna drop a rose on your table or throw you a free glass of champagne, so it’ll just be a regular dinner out for you.
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There is no free glass of champagne on such days (the cost of that “free” glass is baked into the overall price of the menu)
Haters gotta hate.
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Nice
There’s nothing wrong with going out on Valentine’s Day per se, but if you reserve at a restaurant that’s usually not full on that night (especially likely when it falls on a slow night like Tuesday, as is the case this year) and/or that has only a prix-fixe menu when that’s not their usual thing, you’re setting yourself up for trouble. The kitchen and servers will be doing something they’re not used to and are way more likely to screw up than on a regular night.
It’s like Restaurant Week. Just do your research and make an informed choice. I’ve been both successful and unsuccessful at this (as I have with RW).