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Valentine's Restaurant - Casual but Tasty

  • 9

Posting on behalf of my brother:

"Taking my girlfriend in to NYC this Saturday and am looking for a non pretentious (no suit and tie) kinda place, that serves outstanding creative food. Prices isn't to much of a concern although anything over 200$ would be a stretch. Not the biggest fans of seafood but besides that anything is game"

Some background from me: His favorite restaurant is the Green House Tavern in Cleveland, OH because it is creative but not too "fancy". He has already made a reservation at Craft Bar but if you guys think he has made a mistake he will change it.

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    1. re: ipsedixit

      No online reservations left for Uncle Boons on 2/15, so I'd imagine a bit of a wait. Not sure how long the wait at Ippudo would be, but I'd plan to wait at least a little bit of time.

      1. re: kathryn

        I listed both of them because neither requires reservations.

        1. re: ipsedixit

          Right, but since the OP's brother already has a reservation somewhere, sounds to me that they don't want to wait.

          Or should at least be aware of the varying reservation policies since they're not from NYC presumably....

    2. WD 50
      Casa Mono

      1 Reply
      1. re: foodwhisperer

        Very scarce availability at Hakkasan and Casa Mono.

        No reservations available at WD-50.

        Louro has some decent times left on OpenTable. 9pm and later.

        Recette has some early and late times left.

      2. Tell him to stick with Craft Bar. He already has the reservation and it is a quality restaurant that fits all of his requirements; why put pressure on himself to find another place. It's one of our favorite, go-to casual restaurants with great food and cocktails. Why do people always feel they need to find the "Holy Grail" of restaurants when they have a perfectly fine choice in hand already? Tell him to enjoy the time spent with his GF, (snowy) NYC and the moment!

        1 Reply
        1. re: ttoommyy

          Craft bar is solid and has a great wine list. At this point other options are severely limited.