9 essential Valentine’s Day restaurant ideas diners will love

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Valentine’s Day is a big deal for restaurants. As the second most popular day to dine out in the year (second only to Mother’s Day) it represents a golden opportunity to get diners in the door for a romantic dinner.

Because other restaurants will also be viewing the special occasion as a prime business opportunity, you’ll want to set yourself apart. You need Valentine’s Day restaurant ideas to help you fill up your dining room on the big day. The day can be lucrative: In 2024, consumers spent an average of $185 per person—so restaurants should make the most of the yearly opportunity.

Fortunately, restaurateurs have many options available to them to make the day special. These go beyond dine-in experiences and special menu items, though those certainly are appropriate. Think outside the (heart-shaped) box and you’ll find all sorts of creative ways to spice up the day and make this the best Valentine’s Day ever. So, below, you’ll find some suggestions for Valentine’s Day restaurant promotions. Let’s check them out.

1. Craft a special Valentine’s Day menu

Some foods are simply more romantic than others. Valentine’s Day is commonly associated with luxurious menu items like lobster, oysters, scallops, wine, caviar, chocolate, and more. The reason for these particular foods goes beyond simply being expensive: These are all well-known aphrodisiacs that help make for an extra-romantic night. Noting that in your social media marketing can help garner customer attention and encourage diners to flock to your establishment.

An excellent idea is to create a prix fixe menu, i.e., a multi-course meal with an appetizer, entrée, and dessert with drinks included. This has multiple benefits:

• Customers know exactly how much they will spend
• Limiting options helps reduce selection anxiety so diners can enjoy their date night
• Simplifies inventory management and relieves stress on your back-of-house on a busy day
• Easier to anticipate revenue
• Creates the perfect marketing opportunity

Check out our full Valentine’s Day menu guide if you want help brainstorming food and drinks for the big day.

2. Encourage reservations with exclusive discounts and offers

Restaurants often see a huge influx of customers on Valentine’s Day, which can be challenging. To help manage this influx and be prepared, promote discounts for those who make reservations. Reservations will help you mitigate diner inflow since you’ll know what to expect. It will also give you a better idea of just how much inventory you need to have on hand as well as how many staff you will need to make for an excellent dining experience.

There are a number of ways you can go about this:

• Offer discounts to the first X-number of reservations made to nudge guests to book early
• If you have a loyalty program in place, you can offer discounts to program members as a reward for being regular or repeat guests
• Make your prix fixe menu a special offer and combine it with a complimentary Valentine’s day cocktail or discounted bottle of wine
• Offer themed wine pairings and tastings, especially if you’re a wine-forward establishment or a steakhouse—think popular romance movie-themed, book-themed, all rosés, or a flight from wineries run by couples

For a reservation-heavy day, you’ll want a front-of-house management system that makes reservations a breeze. You’ll also want to have as much visibility as possible so guests find you while they’re looking up eatery options.

Use Yelp Guest Manager, a front-of-house system that handles bookings and reservations, waitlist management, table management, floor plans, and takeout/to-go orders. Restaurants that start using Guest Manager paired with Yelp Ads experience up to 2.3X the traffic on their Yelp Business Page.*

3. Set a theme that matches the day and your restaurant

To make Valentine’s Day truly special, you’ll want to go the extra mile with decor and unique thematic notes for a romantic atmosphere. Try a classic red-and-pink color palette, heart-shaped decorations, and classy, romantic music. It’s tradition for a reason.

But perhaps you want to take things a different route. Plenty of single people are keen to go out on Valentine’s Day as well with family or friends. If your target market skews more that way, you’ll want to dial down the traditional aspects and make things a bit more fun and light-hearted. Consider live music or other activities, which we’ll discuss further below.

When choosing a theme for the day, a restaurateur must intimately know two things: themselves and their customers. The most important factor for a theme to feel right is for it to be authentic. You can be sure customers will want to take photos of both their Valentine’s Day meal, themselves, and the evening, so make your ambiance as fitting as possible. Then customers can share their experience and do some marketing on your behalf.

4. Personalize the experience with special requests

Couples often take the opportunity on Valentine’s Day to go the extra mile and roll out the red carpet for their partner. You can help them do this by taking special requests to make the day memorable. 

Whether it’s arranging a bouquet of flowers, reserving a specific kind of table (which Yelp’s Guaranteed Seating Areas allows), or adding a personalized message to a dessert, catering to these requests will make your diners feel truly appreciated. In the long run, that’s an excellent way to help create regulars, which are the backbone of a restaurant.

5. Host special events or activities

You already know you’ll want to find a way to stand out from the competition. So, hosting an event or activity that’s different from what other restaurants are doing is a great way to fill a niche and snatch up customers that you might not ordinarily.

V-day restaurant promotion ideas include:

• Live music (that isn’t overwhelming to the point where couples can’t talk)
• Wine tasting
• A singles mixer or speed dating event to play Cupid
• Cooking classes
• Dance lessons
• Galentine’s Day, which celebrates women’s friendship on February 13
• Valentine’s trivia or rom-com trivia
• “Girl dinner” (a combination of apps with a little bit of dessert, an undone charcuterie board, or a messy mezze platter—we explain this trend here)
• Family-friendly events (don’t forget the kiddos and older loved ones so parents can have quiet time)

6. Don’t forget the takeout

Plenty of customers will opt for a traditional dine-in experience. That’s great. But there are many others who would rather have their romantic night at home, which you can help facilitate with takeout options. There are basically two ways you can go about this.

Option 1: Traditional takeout or delivery. That is, you offer the dishes you intend to serve in-house but they can be picked up or delivered. We recommend limiting this option to those who reserve ahead so you don’t get swamped with unexpected orders and have your back-of-house backed up.

Option 2: Provide a meal kit with ingredients so customers can make their own Valentine’s Day dinner. Including an unexpected bonus like a free Valentine’s Day gift or dessert will help make the day extra special for customers looking for a chill evening in.

7. Market early and market often

All of the above suggestions make for prime marketing ideas which should be advertised early and as often as possible. We recommend beginning advertising in January to pick up reservations and fill seats.

For advertising on social media, highlight:

• Photos and short-form videos of your special menu and special offers
• Fun events like live music, wine tasting, or mixers
• Your venue, including photo walls or murals that people will be able to photograph themselves in front of
• Funny videos of your staff to highlight the personality of your restaurant

Valentine’s Day is a prime opportunity for restaurant marketing, and even customers who don’t join you on that special day may well remember you in the future. A beautiful photo of your Valentine’s Day dessert, for example, can tempt customers to come back to taste your culinary flair.

Make the most of targeted social media and email marketing. For example:

• Send special offers to customers on your email list or followers on social media
• Create a social media competition like captions or a photo contest, with the winner getting a heavily discounted meal or a free bottle of wine

• Promote gift cards for Valentine’s Day gifts via social media to your followers (perhaps at a discount)

Getting the word out there with Yelp Ads can help give a significant boost to business. Guest Manager restaurants that add Yelp Ads experience up to an 8% monthly lift in diner bookings through Yelp.**

8. Partner with local businesses for cross-promotion

Valentine’s Day isn’t just a big day for restaurants. It’s also an excellent opportunity for:

• Florists
• Spas
• Clothing shops
• Jewelers
• Bakeries

Partnering with other local businesses to cross-promote can be an excellent way to get the word out there and create that rising tide that lifts all boats.

What can this look like? You can partner with a florist who can offer discounts with a receipt or proof of purchase from your restaurant on V-Day. The same can work vice versa, where florists can tip off their customers to your establishment along with special offers. Extending your network to other businesses will ensure more eyes on your establishment and more business for all.

9. Make your service memorable

So, imagine: It’s February 14th, and you and your staff are a bit giddy with anticipation. So are your customers, most likely. What will you want your service to look like?

We can guess you want your service to be ultra-smooth. We’re talking about crisp customer service in a romantic ambiance, reservations filled without a hitch, and smiling, potentially besotted customers. Your front-of-house will need to be firing on all cylinders. We know you can do it.

To handle the influx of customers from reservation to table, you’ll want the best front-of-house management system out there. That’d be Yelp Guest Manager, which makes the customer experience a delightful one. Your staff will like it too since it simplifies their lives.

Want to see what the platform is like? Reach out to us for a free demo and we’ll show you the ropes, and pronto. V-Day is just around the corner, and your Valentine’s Day specials will be a hit. Make your service a hit too and you’ll win the hearts of your guests.

*Yelp Internal Data 2021. Based on average results from a sample study of restaurants that purchased Guest Manager and Yelp Ads for at least 90 days (in Q2-Q3 2021) versus the 90 days prior to making a purchase. Results may vary.

**Yelp Internal Data 2021. Based on average results from a sample study of restaurants with Guest Manager that purchased Yelp Ads between April – July 2021 in LA, SF, and NYC. Results may vary.