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Ah, Valentine’s Day. Presumably everyone in a relationship has by now had the usual song-and-dance of trying to work if their partner actually thinks Valentine’s Day is a load of old tosh or not. Either way, there’s no way to be sure until the weekend rolls round. If you suspect your beloved will spend all of Sunday in a sulk because you took their apparent disdain for V-Day at face value, it’s not too late. Here's a list of last-minute things to do this weekend:
Fall into a love story
One Aldwych’s luxurious 30-person cinema is screening 'Doctor Zhivago', an Oscar-winning historical romance set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution. Tickets cost £55 each and include a three-course dinner and a glass of champagne. Alternatively, is there anything more fun than listening to other people’s romantic misfortunes? Kit Lovelace’s Romantic Misadventures is a free comedy night where lovelorn speakers share their most heart-wrenching (and hilarious) tales of lost love and misplaced lust. It’s happening tonight at the Manhattan’s Project at POND Dalston. Arrive early to make sure you get a seat, especially if you’re wearing heels. Nothing kills the mood like sore feet.
Emily Gibson
Say it with flowers
Pop down to Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday morning and treat your beau to a bunch of their favourite flowers without all the bells and whistles. Flowers as pure and raw and your unadulterated love. And, obviously, a lot cheaper. Of course, it’d be rude to get someone up that early without the promise of food, so best to make some fancy lunch plans too. Try posher-than-your-average pub The Marksman , or 100 Hoxton, which is just a romantic stroll away.
Throw a dinner party
If you've got cash to splash, eschew the traditional V-Day set menu and hire in your own private chef from La Belle Assiette, who’ll cook up a fabulous dinner in your own kitchen (and clean up afterwards). It gets much cheaper per person with 4-6 people, so get your BFFs round to share the love (and the cost!). Or, you could always crash someone else’s dinner party (ahem, by ‘crash’ we mean ‘buy a ticket, turn up at the appointed time and behave yourself’). Grub Club still has a few seats remaining for this weekend’s supper clubs, including a Nordic brunch, a seafood supper and a drag queen-hosted fried chicken feast… with a quiz.
Cuban-Chinese eggs from Asia de Cuba
Go bottomless
Work up an appetite – we don’t care how – and get thee to Asia de Cuba, whose unique fusion brunches can be enjoyed with unlimited Perrier-Jouët champagne. In addition to the never-ending fizz, £70 a head gets you a selection of sharing plates to start and a main dish from the a la carte menu, all inspired by Old Havana’s Chinatown. There's also pudding: unlimited Mexican doughnuts with caramel and Thai chili-chocolate dip. But if you prefer the kind of food you can just pick up with your hands and slather all over your sexy face, then head to PizzaBuzz, which does a pizza and two hours of unlimited fizz for £29.95 a head.
Love Hz, Lights of Soho
Light up your life
Nothing says ‘eye love you’ like a giant ferris wheel, especially one with a view of London’s glittering skyline. V-Day packages for the Coca-Cola London Eye, including champagne and Hotel Chocolat goodies, start from £33.75 per person (including a 10 percent online discount). Or there's always Lights of Soho, London’s only light art gallery. It has a special Valentine’s Day exhibition on until February 14. 'Love Hz' is open to the public 11am-6pm every day, members only thereafter. It’s free to visit, but if you fall in love with a piece of luminous artwork, you may be leaving a few thousand pounds lighter.
Still stuck? Here's a few more ways you can celebrate Valentine's Day in London.