Dine to hearts' content

8-MIN READ8-MIN

Published: 12:00am, 3 Feb 2006

The town's restaurants are setting the mood for the most romantic meal of the year. And the menus are something else - laden with specials and topped with chocolates and champagne

Italian

Cinecitta is offering a four-course dinner ($480 a person) with dishes ranging from salted cod fish and sea urchin rolls with caviar emulsion, risotto with strawberries and champagne, to roasted veal loin with truffle cream sauce, and chocolate and banana mousse cake with caramelised banana. Women diners will be given a Sisley miniature Eau de Soir perfume and a hand treatment. Partners who forgot to get flowers can order from the nearby Ovo Garden ($580 for 12 stems and $720 for 20 stems).

Call 2529 0199.

For Italian flavours with harbour views, try Angelini at the Kowloon Shangri-La. A four-course menu ($680 a person) will be offered, or a la carte dining is available with a minimum spend of $1,000 a couple. Those opting for a lunch date will receive a box of Italian chocolates and a complimentary Bellini. Call 2733 8750.

Fine dining at the Four Seasons Hotel's Caprice takes the form of a five-course dinner ($1,380 a person). The meal includes crayfish and ginger consomme with ravioli of delicacies, saddle of milk-fed lamb with artichoke fondant and aromatic sage gnocchi, iced rose macaroon with fresh marinated raspberries, and a hazelnut and lemon dacquoise (meringue) with milk chocolate. Call 3196 8888.

A rustic alternative is Grappa's Cellar in Central. The four-course meal ($498 a couple) includes two glasses of sparkling wine. Choose an appetiser of stewed octopus or seared beef carpaccio with black pepper crust, followed by lobster bisque with fresh cream and cheese croutons. Three main course options offer grilled beef loin steak with new potatoes and vegetables, grilled salmon fillet with fennel cream sauce, spinach puree potatoes and vegetables, or seafood fettucine in a Chianti cream and tomato sauce. Call 2521 2322. Sister outlet Grappa's Ristorante in Pacific Place offers a menu at $688 a couple. Assorted crostini, tortellini with gorgonzola cheese sauce, veal medallions with grilled porcini mushrooms, red wine and green peppercorn sauce and potato cake, and chocolate panna cotta with fresh berries are some of the dishes on the menu. Call 2868 0086.