How to have a non-naff Valentine's Day, courtesy of The Standard

0:03This year, Valentine's Day falls on a Saturday. Even more of a reason to celebrate. Or is it? Hi and welcome back to The Standard Podcast. I'm Tamara Colmournick. If you're new here, hit follow and give us a rating. For all the latest news, head to standard.co.uk. Coming up, how to have a non-naff Valentine's Day, courtesy of The Standard.

0:31When thinking of Valentine's Day, heart-shaped chocolates, stuffed teddy bears and fixed-price menus usually spring to mind. But fear not, today's episode will feature none of the aforementioned. You heard it here folks, the 14th of February does not have to be naff. For today's Valentine's Day edition of The Standard, I gathered our food and drink experts, Going Out Editor David Ellis, and food and drink writer Josh Barry, to get their take on where to eat and where to not eat on Valentine's Day. I also sat down with shopping editor Abashar, the queen of the gift guide for her elevated picks this February.

1:10First up, it's David and Josh. So David, Josh, thank you for joining me on the Standard Podcast for this non-naff Valentine's episode. Great to have you both. Thank you very much for having us. Hello. So I want to start by asking you both, where would you go and eat for valentine's day there is a very simple answer to this which is nowhere i'd maybe eat in my kitchen or dining room going out on valentine's day it's possibly the worst day to go to a restaurant if you go out on sort of christmas you'll have a really good time because the staff are all in a good mood you go to valentine's out on valentine's day and you're surrounded by people who never go out go out once or twice a year um who have exacting standards because of that and in a kitchen that is just turning out the same things with staff who are stressed and aren't with their loved one so in general it's just a diabolical day to go out okay we get it you hate valentine's dining josh how do you feel about going out for dinner on valentine's day where would you go what i would do that is quite nice is to go to a lovely country pub and stay there with a room so it's because you're kind of self-contained so you're not going to get any chaos it's just going to be you're in the countryside you can go for a lovely walk go to uptown farmhouse which has just opened a new bar it's roman inspired and they've got lovely london style cocktails uh it's in kent and a deal um and it's beautiful lovely brick cottage lovely gardens it's an old farmhouse yeah farmhouse whatever the problem with valentine's day is that everyone books the same places so they're going to book somewhere with a sky high view over the city or they're going to book somewhere that's very traditional french so that they can get the waiters in black tie and all of that.

2:53And it's those places that are particularly plagued by it. But I do think getting out of the centre of town, like Josh says, is a good idea because that's when you get people who've come up to town just for that one day and then the whole balance is out of whack. What if you want to stay in for Valentine's Day? This is something you can do if you can't cook. Go to Waitrose, get a pot of crab from Newland from the seafood company. that's pasteurised and ready to go make a little salad mix the crab with some mayonnaise and lemon salt and pepper, put it on the salad that's starter done, serve that with a pickpour de pinnay or something like the Tesco finest one, easy,£7.99 the M &S one's nice as well

3:36main course buy a good bit of beef from your butchers put it in the oven pretty simple take it out of the oven afterwards I think that's pretty crucial actually Make sure you take it out of the oven. Otherwise, you don't want to find yourself cramming into an oven on Valentine's Day. That sends completely a long signal. Beef is beautiful. I think it's really nice to have beef on Valentine's Day. Roast some potatoes. You parboil them, as all the dads from Basingstoke suggest. Rough them up in a colander, salt and pepper, loads of fat, duck or goose, into the oven, take them out when they're cooked.

4:11Job done. And then you want some vegetables like, you know, green beans. I think steam them. Don't really need to do anything else. Dress them in a bit of butter. You can do almonds if you like, toasted almonds. And there you are. And then buy a pudding, like a tiramisu from Waitrose or something. And that's easy. That's what you should do for Valentine's Day. I do think you hit on an important point, though, which is Valentine's is about being with the person you love, obviously. So if you're making an effort, I think that probably says as much as if you've booked an expensive meal. In fact, going out for the meal is the cop-out, isn't it?

4:41It's like I'm throwing money at the problem rather than any effort. so I'd go out, buy a decent bottle of wine, go and speak to someone who knows about it or I mean if you're desperate for a recommendation I think the Gymkhana sources are meant to be pretty good but yeah I think try the effort or just order a great takeaway of whatever you normally have and you love some of the best Valentine's Day are when you don't, you just have that come in great bottle of wine and then you just spend your time together which is far more enjoyable than having to navigate the French on a menu that you don't fully understand If people want to go out for Valentine's Day, that's sort of the vibe, isn't it, in London?

5:14It's the old school, candlelit, white linen tablecloth. So you just accept that it is a bit naff, but you're just doing it? I've never been out on Valentine's Day, so I just don't know. Restaurants that are romantic throughout the year, you might fare a little bit better. So I quite like going to the French house upstairs. It's a pub, so there's not too much pressure for Valentine's. If you are in that earlier stage, great food. It's small, cosy, so you don't have the problems of it being overrun by everyone else. Well, you could go to really traditional places like Dekis, the Polish place in Kensington, or...

5:46Ognisko. Riva, Ognisko. There's a new place, Tiella, which is lovely and very romantic. There's no fuss about the food. It's just good, service is good, wine list is all right, easy peasy.

6:06we've spoken about restaurants and dinner what about drinks where would you say is a good a good place to end up because valentine's day this year is on a saturday so i'd go to if i was going to a bar i'd probably start somewhere like three sheets the original in dalston on kingson road the cocktail mile on kingson road yeah which takes in parasol carochios red hand there's also So, you know, if you come out of Bethnal Green Station, you just head straight. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, there's Satan's Whiskers, but there's a couple of pubs on the way. There's that New Orleans bar there, which name escapes me.

6:41But there's a lot of options that kind of way, which I think are quite fun. Yeah, you could go to the Camel pub and then go to Tempo, actually. Yeah, just go to Tempo for dinner, if you like, in Bethnal Green, which is a wonderful modern Asian eatery. But again, I must say, just cook at home. Any final thoughts, David? Just, you know, my actual recommendation for Valentine's is get a card and a thoughtful gift, and that will make it more memorable. And then when you have that gift, whether it's a book, an inscription or something, you'll always remember that Valentine's Day. Meals blur into one after a time.

7:17And also the problem with it, and this is why it also gets tense, is Valentine's menus are often quite pricey. And so you have that horrible thing at the end of a meal where you've gone out and you're suddenly stung with like a£300 bill. and you think, the hell did we do this? And I think that's one of the reasons it's also, in my opinion, it's not great to go out because you end that date with a weird amount of like, oh, why did we do this? So save that great restaurant for another time because spontaneous dates are always much better anyway. We'll take a quick break. Coming up, I'll be speaking to the Standard's shopping editor and gift guide extraordinaire, Abashar, to discuss her top picks to make our loved ones feel extra special.

8:01welcome back it's time for my chat with abba so i'm with the wonderful abba the standards shopping editor hello oh hi to talk about all things valentine's gifting which is very difficult for i'd say most people so this episode is all about non-naff valentines i think we should just go straight in there what is naff if you think about any of the tired tropes that come out body wash I won't mention the um the name but I think we can all picture what kind of body wash set that might be for men or just kind of unimaginative jewelry or fragrances that look like they've been taken from the the front of the pharmacy counter you know where all the kind of discount stuff is I think you can tell straight away if thought has gone into it or not and just because you've looked at a gift guide doesn't mean that you haven't had thought behind it just means that you need a little bit more inspiration as you know shopping editor that's what I'm here for so if you did want to go classics where would you go where would you start if you wanted to do the whole roses teddy bear champagne chocolates okay so if you wanted to do like the textbook valentine's old school swooning.

9:21I mean, there's still a way to kind of get the reaction, but just in an elevated way. So for jewellery, I mean, no one's ever going to refuse diamonds. I don't care if that's a cliche. I'm happy to take them all day long. I'm also in that can. But obviously diamonds come with huge price tags, but there are other options. Lab grown diamonds are basically the same as traditional diamonds. Yeah, to the eye. Yeah, to the eye. You're still getting something that looks impressive when that box opens, but it's not going to send you into your overdraft basically. And then the same with flowers. You know, London's got so many great florists.

9:58I mean, Valentine's is probably their Christmas. You know, they're working flat out now and will be right up until the day because people always forget. We've got a whole Valentine's Day bouquet roundup. We've got 18 great options in there. Are there any florists that stick out to you? um yeah i think head over to baker street where flower station has got a rose room this year and it's just like it sounds it's a small pop-up that is absolutely stuffed with roses and of all colors and then you can pick out maybe just one to make like a simple little gesture or you can pick out a bouquet that has 200 in if you're into the grand sweeping gestures kind of thing so that's a good place to go but then you know there's so many great florists there's arena flowers really big on choosing ethical stems and they'll deliver pretty much right up until the day I think on the day itself bloom and wild is a great choice and they've got a no roses policy um so valentine's isn't necessarily all about going out you know you can stay in so do you have some fun self-care picks for us?

11:11If you're looking for kind of like a self-care moment to give to your beloved or your BFF then just again kind of luxury versions of maybe things they love or you've seen they want to try. Light therapy treatments are terrifying when you've got them on but there's a whole like cult following behind them. And you can just terrify your partner every night. I mean that's part of the whole love thing I hear isn't it? Red light Great red valentines. There you go. It's on theme. It's on theme. And then I've also put in the gift guide a really lovely candle from a brand called Discoteque. And they're all about making candles with evocative scents from the past.

11:52And this one's called Lola at the Coat Check. So it is the early 90s. It's New York. You know, it's like sweet, spicy, woody. And it's all about kind of like a hedonistic night out, which maybe you might have had in the early days of your relationship. and you want to kind of like revive that a little bit at home, then that's perfect. I love that idea. I think it is high time we talk about the other side of the coin. Okay. If there is a man in your life that you would like to spoil, make feel special, Abba, how would one go about doing that? I think boys kind of get this short straw when it comes to Valentine's.

12:33There's so much lingerie and flowers and kind of cute, cuddly, jelly cats. All kind of feels geared towards women, but menfolk deserve like a little treat too. And for them, I have another dedicated gift guide full of ideas that he'll actually want to keep. If you love him, but maybe not his style as much, then this is a good opportunity to offer a fashion gift. Ami Paris's button down. It's just a classic. You can wear it with everything. and it's Valentine's appropriate because their logo is like a tiny little A, the tiny little heart on top. So that can be the nod to Valentine's, but that is actually their logo.

13:13So it won't feel kind of inappropriate to wear beyond February 14th. Also like gourmet food or if they're foodies, Grind has had like an excellent collaboration with Snoopy this year for, I think it's 50th anniversary and it's so cute. So foodie gifts, Was there anything on your list that really stands out as something that you think guys would really like? I think it depends how serious he is about his chefing skills. But there is a bottle of extra virgin olive oil from the Citizen of Soil. Those marketing people know where I live. My mother's maiden name. I'm so influenced to buy this oil. Like I'm actually desperate to try it.

13:58I mean, it's a stunning bottle. You know, it looks like a bottle of wine. This is good for kind of people that are teetotalers as well. I guess it feels like a celebration because it's in that bottle. But actually you open it and then that could just be on your countertop. You can just be drizzling it on whatever creations are coming off your stove. And also they have a subscription. So if you could do a one-off bottle, but if you really want to show your love, sign them up for a year. Then they'll remember every month how great you are. Just fill up a bath with it. Just fill up a bath, dunk yourself in.

14:34So say you don't want to get someone something physical, or if you're not with your partner or whoever you're dating on Valentine's Day, you want to get them something that can be used all year round. What experience type gifts would you recommend? I am obsessed with two things. one of them is an art pass which kind of unlocks the door to all of the UK's museums and kind of galleries and things like that and I think you know living in London you tend to kind of overlook these things because you just think oh go anytime and this kind of really encourages you to go so you can get single memberships or a couple memberships so that's great but my all-time favorite is probably as an experience gift is every man membership because i'm obsessed with that place it's really brought back kind of the glamour of cinema whereas you know in an age where people are kind of like streaming and downloading box sets and films and staying indoors this gives you a reason to go out and so i think a membership starts at under 100 pounds for like the lowest tier and members can take someone for free on a Monday.

15:46So that can be your new date night. So I think that's a really great kind of gift idea for someone that really loves cinema or they want to kind of bring date night back a bit more of a staple in their relationship. Yeah, memberships are great. I recently bought me and my girlfriend a National Trust membership. Oh my gosh. For context, I'm 30 years old. I'm not 80. Listen, there are some stunning venues to visit. But you know what? We're having these really lovely weekend walks. Oh, there you go. And so I would actually recommend that as something. Yeah, that's a great idea. Love language, quality time.

16:26Yeah. Leaving the house. Yeah. Leaving the house in itself is just very well done, especially in January, February time. So very good. Yeah. What about something that's maybe a bit more lively or taps into kind of nightlife? Obviously Glastonbury isn't on this year. A festival ticket would be like, yeah, I mean, you have my heart then. Because it shows that not only have you realised that I'm going to miss a big event that's in my kind of line up normally, but you've gone to the effort of finding another replacement festival, same vibe that I like. So it's not only a gift to open and be excited about on the 14th but it kind of runs all the way through until those festival gates open and so it's like a double whammy gift.

17:17Or concert tickets or gigs. Yeah, concert gig tickets. Obviously Harry Styles is going on tour or comedy, kind of anything that you know taps into their interest they've said that they liked. So overall, what would you say are your top tips for a non-naff Valentines? I think really try not to do all the hallmark stuff unless, you know, it's kind of what they want. But like lean into any little thread that you can pull that you know that they would like that would make them make their heart melt a little bit. just spend time with the person I think but a little bow wrapped something never hurts either spoken like a true shopping editor thank you so much for coming on the podcast Abba thank you for having me and that's the standard for all the latest news head to standard.co.uk if you'd like to get in touch email us at podcasts at standard.co.uk we'll be back here tomorrow morning see you then you