Top 10 Romantic Restaurants in San Diego

On Valentine’s Day or any date night, it’s easy to leave your heart in San Francisco restaurants. Here are 10 of the best across the city, serving everything from paella in rustic surroundings to lamb-belly steamed buns in an edgy lounge-restaurant.

Diners pack SPQR’s dark, intimate dining room for chef Matthew Accarrino’s innovative pastas (perhaps squid-ink mezze maniche or cocoa spaghetti?) and phenomenal small plates like the unmatched chicken liver pâté. That’s not the only reason reservations and seats at the walk-in counter overlooking the kitchen are always hard to come by for the 50-seat dining room. It’s a handsome, inviting black-and-white-toned room that keeps things simple by boasting wine bottles and small works of art as decor. There is always buzz, but despite the small size and energy, SPQR manages to never be too loud. Another romantic bonus: learning together about new Italian wine regions and grape varietals from owner and wine director Shelley Lindgren’s masterful list.

Valentine’s Day: Five-course dinner and three-course lunch.

Paris is the City of Love, and the rustic, candlelit two-level bistro atop the Stockton Tunnel could be transported to the Left Bank and fit right in as a romantic dinner destination. Bouche is French without falling into any clichés of the genre, from the small French appellations making up the wine list to the 1 AM closing hour, which makes it the popular gathering spot after work for San Francisco’s French expat chefs. At any time of night, there is a clear joie de vivre led by owner and Provence native Guillaume Issaverdens, but it's the Mediterranean-French-Californian dishes like marinated hangar steak with charred cabbage and bone marrow jus that make Bouche a date-night favorite.

Valentine’s Day: Three courses ($70) with optional wine pairings ($35).

With a romantic cable-car-line soundtrack outside, this 22-year-old Russian Hill Spanish legend is the definition of warmth and comfort with lots of dramatic arches in a room full of brick and stucco. It is a thoroughly old-style experience complete with white tablecloths, leisurely pacing and timeless classic tapas. Since Zarzuela doesn’t take reservations, you and your love might have to linger with a glass of sangria before being seated. Once the tortillas and goat-cheese-stuffed grilled eggplant start arriving, followed by large plates like paella or the namesake seafood stew, it’s sure to be a lovely night channeling Madrid by the Bay.