Valentine's day restaurant in mid-south OC

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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it seems like there are a lot of people here who live in SoCal/OC area, so I was hoping for some suggestions for a Valentine’s day restaurant around Santa Ana/Irvine/Costa Mesa – ideally, some place not too loud, with great food (she likes everything, but esp. seafood, any East Asian, French/Italian and new American), nice ambiance, and logistically still available for reservations. Wine/alcohol is actually not that important. Cost is not an issue, within reasonable limits (i.e., not more than $200 per person haha, which I’m assuming is a reasonable if not truly extravagant maximum for most people…).

I was looking through Yelp and some old threads and thought of Shunka, but it seems like they don’t take reservations. Playground 2.0 looked perfect but they’re booked sadly. I’d really appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!!

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March Moderne (in South Coast Plaza) seems to be a concensus winner for best food.

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+1 but make sure you are inside restaurant, not on patio or out front. Much more romantic in my opinion. Playground is great but so loud and not really romantic at all.

I really like Pescadou Bistro in Newport Beach as well. Very french, not crazy $, owners are french. Feels like a small bistro in the south of France once you step inside. Only drawback is the strip center location.

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Also The Dock on the Newport Peninsula - actually on the water. Romantic, great seafood, pricey but much less than $200 each!

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The Ranch in Anaheim; the Cannery in Newport.

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I don’t know what it would be like on a holiday, but I like Loft at Montage. I definitely also love Marche Moderne, but I’d expect it to be booked up by now. On the other hand, it’s been years since I’ve gone out on Valentine’s Day, so I’m not really up to date on that stuff. We were just at The Ranch last weekend, and it was excellent as always. The exterior atmosphere leaves a bit to be desired, but it’s nice once you’re in the doors.

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BTW, Studio at Montage is better than Loft in terms of both atmosphere and food, but I’m not sure it’s worth the price premium and it’s probably not within your stated budget.

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wow thanks so much for all the suggestions! I didn’t think of Newport and Laguna Beach, but they’re both close, and seem like they have a lot of interesting restaurants. Yeah, it’s already getting late, when I tried to call for reservations almost all of these places are booked already, but I’ll see how it goes. If nothing else, a lot of ideas for dinner for other non-valentine’s nights…