Toronto restaurants serving up romantic multi-course meals for Valentine’s Day
This is the first Valentine’s Day in three years for which Toronto restaurants are offering special romantic meals to be enjoyed on site, with real servers and everything. As (sort of) fun as Valentine’s (or Galentine’s or Palentine’s) takeout has been, we’re donning our date outfits and going out on the town. Here, 13 Toronto restaurants offering limited-time menus for you and your special someone(s).
Aloette
Get a six-course, eleven-dish romantic feast at Alo’s slightly more casual sister spot. Seafood starters—oysters with horseradish cream, littleneck clams with green tomato chow-chow—lead into such manifold delights as a foie gras tart, Hokkaido scallops, beef tartare, short rib bucatini with Périgord truffle, and 10-layer red velvet cake. $150 per person.
Bampot
If your idea of romance is more cozy boho than white tablecloth, book a pillow-strewn booth at Harbord’s Bampot House of Tea. The three-course vegan meal includes a shaved fennel, black plum and shallot salad; braised leeks and purple cabbage in red wine and miso; and chocolate cardamom mousse with dehydrated strawberries and hazelnut crumble. It’s all served amid a live acoustic jazz performance. $125 per person.
Donna’s
All of Donna’s fan favourites will be available on Valentine’s Day, as well as a handful of fancy specials, including a lobster crudo with blood orange, beef tartare on toast, smoked fish fritters and rib-eye steak for two. Also, sparkling cocktails and a ‘90s “love playlist.” $20 deposit per person, à la carte prices.
The Dog and Tiger
This recently revamped pub gets bonus points for the cozy fireplaces in the dining room and on the all-season patio. The prix fixe menu of farm-to-table food includes oysters Rockefeller, tuna crudo or Fogo Island ice shrimp salad, a choice of main including beef short rib or veg-friendly beet steak, and a dulce de leche s’mores tart. To drink, biodynamic wine and all kinds of cocktails. $125 per person (alcohol not included), book directly on the website.
Wynona
Chef Jeff Bovis is cooking up a five-course feast that leans surf over turf. Dishes include brown crab pâte brisée, beet tortellini and shrimp-stuffed trout (the turducken of the sea). For dessert, a chocolate fondant tart.
Miss Likklemore’s
Creative Caribbean cuisine is this new King West kitchen’s specialty, and for Valentine’s Day, they’re serving a special three-course menu featuring some early fan favourites. Start with a choice of tempura okra, Nuff Nuff Slaw or sea bream crudo. For the main, there’s fancied-up jerk chicken, pepper pot short rib, escovitch-style branzino or charred eggplant steak. Finish with chocolate, coconut mousse or a slice of Miss Paula’s famous carrot cake. There’s even an option to add on a bouquet of flowers. $95 per person, with optional $55 wine pairing.
Toca
The Ritz-Carlton’s long-standing Italian restaurant—complete with a cheese cave—is offering a delectable three-course tasting menu. After a cod brandade and crispy chicken skin amuse bouche, mains include a hamachi-and-tuna mosaic with finger lime and pickled melons or beef tenderloin with saffron fondant and truffle-buttered king oysters. For dessert, there’s bourbon vanilla panna cotta with mascarpone and homemade raspberry sorbet. On the side: live Italian music. $155 per person.
Le Sélect Bistro
If your partner’s love language is French, you can hardly do better than dinner at Toronto’s recently revived French bistro. Start with black truffle gougères and move into a luxe four-course menu of things like pâté de campagne, escargots bourguignonne, poached halibut with beurre blanc and sunchokes, and raspberry lemon mille feuille. Not fancy enough? There’s an optional Osetra caviar add-on. $125 per person.
Ration Beverley
A romantic trip to Seville is on the menu at Ration Beverley, an ultra-creative locavore restaurant on Queen West. Though there are à la carte offerings, Ration specializes in tasting menus, the Valentine’s edition of which has not yet been released. We do know, however, that it will be a five-course Mediterranean fiesta complete with wine or mocktail pairings. $105 per person, $65 for drink pairings.
Maison Selby
Toronto’s French restaurants clearly got the Valentine’s memo. At O&B’s St. James Town bistro and cocktail bar, you get an oyster bourguignon po’ boy, pork croquette, shrimp and scallop agnolotti, baked root vegetable Dorade Royale, beef and foie with pomme purée, and a perfect hazelnut mille feuille. Pro tip: hit the basement speakeasy afterward for a nightcap. $130 per person.
Byblos
Both the uptown and downtown locations of this Mediterranean restaurant are serving a four-course “Love at First Bite” menu. The choices for each course include something fishy, something veggie and something meaty—with the exception of dessert, that is—so there’s something for everyone. $125 per person.
La Palma
This California-cool Italian kitchen on Dundas West will have a few special items alongside its regular à la carte menu from February 10 to 14—perfect for celebrating a bit early and avoiding the Valentine’s Day rush. Lobster spaghetti with chili sofrito, braised short rib with a red wine glaze, truffled cacio e pepe gougères, and mascarpone semifreddo are among the celebratory specials that will be available. À la carte prices.
Simpl Things
Parkdale’s dual-concept kitchen is switching things up this Valentine’s Day. Dinner, typically a Taiwanese affair courtesy of chef Betty Chia, will be swapped out for daytime chef Cody Wilkes’s Italian menu. There will be veggie and non-veggie prix fixe options as well as special cocktails for the occasion. $55 for veggie, $60 for meat; $45 for optional wine pairings.
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