CityLife

Digest: Tips for Valentine's Day 2010

How will you spend Valentine's Day?

You've got to be brave – or madly in love – to eat out this weekend. The world and his wife/mistress/boyfriend will be dining but at least there are a few special menus to stare longingly at.

A good deal is to be had at Obsidian with a six-course meal for 5p shy of £50; while Radisson Edwardian Manchester’s head chef Russ Brown is serving up carpaccio of smoked venison and chateaubriand of beef with game chips as part of a special menu tomorrow and Sunday for £42.50pp or £37.50pp.

New venue Barbirolli – on the waterfront at the side of the Bridgewater Hall – has a jazz lunch and dinner on Sunday with free bubbly and chocs. There is a three-course £19.95 lunch serenaded with jazz, blues and soul and a three-course dinner, at £24.95, with live music. Dishes include sea bream and oysters on ice.

At Carluccio’s, in Spinningfields, there is a special three-course menu on Sunday with a glass of prosecco to start.

Harvey Nichols Second Floor Restaurant has a £50, five-course tasting menu tomorrow and Sunday. Dishes include Morecambe brill, young leeks and bacon foam. And if you really want to make your lover’s head spin you can pay £22 extra for a go on the big wheel and a half bottle of rose champagne.

More modestly, at Park Inn Hotel, there is a special menu tomorrow and Sunday which includes potted poussin to start and a main of slow-roasted Cheshire sirloin. The price is £32.50pp with a glass of sparkle each, too.

For those who prefer to bypass romance, try a Valentine’s hot sausage. The Shakespeare pub on Fountain Street is serving up a special Smokin’ Sausage this weekend – made of pork, peri-peri, red onion and sweet chilli!

Meanwhile, Chorlton deli Hickson And Black’s is having its launch tomorrow at noon with offers and tasting plates. It specialises in handmade cheese from Europe and locally and continental cured meats. Next month a weekend barbeque will feature meats to sample. The shop is at 559 Barlow Moor Road.

Also, watch The One Show on BBC1 at 7pm today (February 12, 2010). Food critic Jay Rayner visits to chef Robert Owen Brown at his pub The Mark Addy in Salford.

Have you found your ideal dining partner yet? Why not try our dating site Love2Love.co.uk?

Just click on the link on the right to visit.