A Visitor's Valentine's Night in London

A visitor's Valentine's is its own particular evening

There is a specific kind of loneliness in checking into a London hotel on the fourteenth of February and realising every restaurant nearby has been fully booked for weeks. Valentine's night behaves differently to almost any other date on the calendar, tables vanish earlier, hotel bars fill with couples, and a business trip that happens to land on the wrong week can leave a visitor without much of a plan at all. The good news is that this particular problem has a very simple fix, and guests booking a companion for the evening face none of the scramble that hits everyone trying to arrange a table at the last minute.

Booking ahead, and how far ahead really is enough

The single most useful piece of advice for a visitor's Valentine's evening is to move early. Restaurants across the city take reservations for the fourteenth from early January onwards, and by the first week of February the rooms worth having a table in are usually gone. The same logic applies to booking a companion for the evening: a week's notice gives the widest possible choice, since Valentine's is naturally one of the busiest nights on the whole route and popular names are claimed quickly.

Choosing where to eat

A handful of London dining rooms handle Valentine's particularly well precisely because they are built for romance on any ordinary night, so the occasion simply amplifies what they already do. Clos Maggiore, hidden behind an unassuming Covent Garden front with a blossom filled conservatory at the back, is booked out for the night well in advance, and Rules on Maiden Lane leans happily into candlelight and red walls that have been setting a romantic mood for generations. If your own hotel has a proper dining room, a Valentine's table there solves the table problem entirely and removes any need to cross town in February weather.

For an evening built around exactly this kind of table, our dinner date booking of four hours gives you the drink beforehand, the meal itself and the walk home without watching the clock, all for one published fare rather than a night that quietly grows more expensive as it goes.

Shaping the rest of the evening

Dinner rarely needs to be the whole plan. A short walk beforehand through Mayfair or along the river gives the evening a proper beginning, and a nightcap afterwards, in the hotel bar or somewhere nearby, lets the night wind down gently rather than ending abruptly the moment the bill arrives. Luna, who lives in Mayfair and loves nothing more than pairing a good bottle with a proper theatre evening, treats a Valentine's dinner as the excuse for exactly that, and rarely needs long to settle on a wine before the starters even land.

If your own plans changed at short notice

Plenty of guests find themselves in London on the fourteenth for reasons that had nothing to do with romance, a flight schedule, a conference, a trip that simply landed on the wrong week. There is no need to spend the evening alone simply because the calendar was inconvenient. A two hour hotel visit, rather than a full dinner date, suits a Valentine's evening that came together at the last minute just as well, particularly if every table within reach has long since gone.

Companions who love the occasion

Among the auburn and red companions, warm colouring and candlelight were made for each other, and all three know their way around a proper Valentine's table. Bianka, in Knightsbridge, treats the night as an excuse to talk wine and food at length, which suits a long unhurried dinner beautifully, while a livelier evening might prefer someone drawn to the theatre district and its late suppers instead.

When the fourteenth falls on a weeknight

Valentine's does not always land on a weekend, and a midweek date changes the practical shape of the evening more than the romance of it. Restaurants are marginally easier to reach on a Tuesday or Wednesday than on a Friday or Saturday, since the date itself still draws the crowds even on an ordinary working night, but hotel diaries fill just as quickly regardless of the day of the week. If your trip happens to land on a weeknight, treat the booking with exactly the same urgency as a weekend visit would deserve, and you will rarely notice the difference once the evening actually begins.

Booking a Valentine's evening

Message the desk as early in the run up as you can manage, name a restaurant if you already have a booking, or ask for suggestions if you do not, and confirm the length you have in mind. A standard evening is held with the usual 25 percent deposit, exactly as on any other night, and every fare from the two hour visit through to the full overnight sits on the rates page for anyone planning the whole night rather than just the dinner.