Where to Take Your Sweetheart For Valentine’s Day in Boston

No matter how you really feel about Valentine’s Day, it is a big day. And since this year Valentine’s Day falls on the Sunday of President’s Day weekend, there are lots of options around Boston to celebrate the holiday memorably. 

A night of dining and dancing, perhaps a stroll under the stars to enjoy a city-scape view of Boston from the water. A Valentine’s Cruise is undeniably romantic. Odyssey Cruises hosts three Boston cruises on Valentine’s weekend. Cruises depart from lovely Rowes Wharf (Map) and  include champagne, a three course dinner with menu choices, shipboard entertainment, and  a boarding photo – so dress up!  Reservations  are a must.(888-741-0285, Friday, February 12, $79.90 per person;  Saturday ,February 13 and February 14, $114.90 per person).

Unabashedly , decadently pink, and gilded to the max,  Upstairs on the Square (91 Winthrop St., 617-864-1933)(Map) is one of the area’s most luxuriously romantic restaurants and will be hosting Valentine’s lunch, brunch, teas and dinners all weekend long.

For all the romance of French food in a comfortable, bistro setting, Petit Robert (468 Commonwealth Ave. Boston, 617-375-0699)(Map) is a charmer. Order a first course of roasted beets and soft goat cheese followed by the beef rib bourguignon with potatoes and you will think you are in the City of Light.

Pre-game Valentine’s Day by indulging in the Valentine’s Day Chocolate Bar Buffet at the Langham Hotel (250 Franklin St., Boston, 617-451-1900)(Map) on Saturday, February 13. Your sweetie will swoon-promise!

A chocolate assortment from artisan local chocolatier  L.A. Burdick (52-D Brattle St., Cambridge 617-491-4340)(Map) is the gift to give when you want to spoil your Valentine and only the very best will do.

A recreated 15th century Venetian palazzo and  a lush courtyard filled with  trees and flowers, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (280 The Fenway, Boston, 617-566-1401)(Map) is considered by many as one of Boston’s most romantic settings. The Gardner will be celebrating this Valentine’s day with a very special party, “A Venetian Valentine” on Sunday, February 14th from 6:30 PM-9 PM. There will be live jazz, cocktails, small plate cuisine and decadent desserts. Tickets are $195 per couple or $100 per person.

This year, Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day-or is it the other way around? No Matter. Head over to China Pearl (9 Tyler St., 617-426-4338)(Map) for dim sum brunch in Boston’s Chinatown for tasty dumplings and pillowy pork buns.You and your beloved will leave both fat and happy!

Not attached? Poe’s Kitchen at the Rattlesnake (384 Boylston St., 617-859-8555)(Map) is the place to celebrate singlehood with your friends during Valentine’s Day Week, February 10-February 17, with a special “Love Unleashed” menu that features entrees like “99 Problems But a Fish Ain’t One”,  a pancetta-wrapped cod on squash puree with a strawberry balsamic reduction.  Drinks have names like “Beer Goggles” and “Drink Me Pretty”. Desserts like “Feel Me Up Buttercup” and “Cupid’s Chokehold” will provide plenty of fodder for conversation!

Sensing (Fairmont Battery Wharf,  3 Battery Wharf, Boston, 617-994-9001)(Map) gets raves for its inspired blend of  contemporary French cuisine and New England ingredients.  For a special rendezvous this Valentine’s weekend, diners who purchase a bottle of Dom Perignon with dinner on February 13 and February 14 can stay the night at the Fairmont Battery  for just $10. Feeling lucky?

Image Credit:Entertainment Cruises, used with permission and PlanetEye Boston