Early Valentine's Day at Corinthia Hotel London

I’m a strong believer that couples should have multiple honeymoons per year, so why not multiple Valentine’s Days too? It’s not everyone’s favourite day of the year but personally I love an excuse to buy Mr S a cute card, prepare him some heart shaped toast and head out for a romantic dinner. After seeing what a fantastic time my family and I had at Corinthia Hotel London over Christmas, the team invited us in to for a trial run of their Valentine’s Day set menu served at Massimo Restaurant and Bar. You may remember my previous visit to the hotel’s Italian restaurant when Mr S and I attended a fascinating mozzarella master class in the private dining room but this time it would be just the two of us in the romantic setting of the main dining room.

With a soaring ceiling, pendulous globes and Corinthian columns standing too attention, the candle lit art deco dining room is a real beauty.
Taking a cosy seat next to each other (isn’t it always better when you can sit together instead of across a table?) the waiter poured us a glass of prosecco each before explaining the menu.

Prosecco can often be hit and miss but the Ca’ del Bosco is a perfect aperitif and was great with a delicious and varied bread selection.
The starter was a really good tuna tartar with a light smattering of lemon zest to give it that acidic oopmh it needed.
Perfect with the accompanying Italian white wine.
The main course lobster risotto was beautifully presented with gold leaf and tasted perfectly creamy with just the right amount of bite. I will say though that with the portion size this felt more an intermediate course and after we finished we still felt like we’d have liked a proper meat or fish main.
But you can’t go wrong with a gooey chocolate dessert made up of ice cream, brownie and covered in chocolate hearts. It was a seriously good dessert and definitely not one to share no matter how much you love your other half.

And I’m not usually a fan of dessert wine but I loved this one that wasn’t too sweet. Our pre-Valentine’s dinner was over a little to quickly (perhaps this could have been remedied with an extra course?) but we weren’t ready to leave one of our favourite hotels yet.
Last time we’d visited the Bassoon Bar we spotted Victoria and David Beckham and Eva Longoria. Though there were no A-Listers there on this occasion we settled in for a night cap of Champagne Laurent-Perrier and cocktail inspired by the jazz age for Mr S.