Valentine’s Day is incredibly expensive and shows no signs of getting cheaper. Feb. 14 is also the second busiest restaurant night of the year, which may be why many couples opt to cook at home or order delivery. The average Valentine’s Day meal tab totaled $286.56 last year, and the National Restaurant Association estimated the cost of eating out this year to total $287 per couple. With that in mind, Seamless-ing over a couple of orders of pad thai from your couch seems like the more fiscally conservative option, right?
Wrong. This is America, after all, and spending a ton of dough on food delivery during a consumer holiday is what we do best. The Daily Dot reached out to online food delivery sites Grub Hub and Seamless to get the numbers on Valentine’s Day meal deliveries and found that for some couples, staying in was no cost-cutting measure.
Twin lobster tails, rib-eye steak, and other upscale menu items hitting three-figures abounded. Online orders of crème brûlée were 78 percent more common on Valentine’s Day this year than the past four Sundays, according to Grubhub data. Valentine’s Day sushi rolls were 110 percent more common, while orders of chocolate lava cakes spiked by 101 percent.
Grubhub and Seamless also gave The Daily Dot the most expensive Valentine’s Day meal orders in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia. Here’s a look at the most costly menu items people ordered for delivery on the most romantic night of the year:
New York City
The “Nolita Plateau” from Ken and Cook, $150
An epic seafood platter that consists of 1 lb. of lobster, seaweed salad, crab salad, four clams, four langoustines, 12 oysters, 20 mussels, eight pieces of crawfish, four shrimp, 20 sea snails and fresh horseradish.
“The Royale” from Smith Midtown, $125
Another epic seafood platter that consists of oysters, clams, jumbo shrimp, tuna pike and whole lobster.
A 48-ounce double porterhouse for two from Morton’s Steakhouse, $125
A 14-inch “Velvet Circle Cake” from Piece of Velvet, $120
A porterhouse for 2 from Delmonico’s, $120
Delmonico’s is considered one of America’s “oldest fine dining restaurants” and also holds the distinction of being the first to offer a written menu.
A 40-day dry-aged rib-eye steak for 2 from Cesca Enoteca & Trattoria, $110
Philadelphia
A 50-oz. tomahawk rib-eye steak from Butcher and Singer, $125
Twin lobster tails from Butcher and Singer, $79
Surf and turf from Butcher and Singer, $79
Uzu “ultimate sashimi” for two from Uzu Sushi, $71
“Treasure boat” for two from Kabuki, $69
Sushi and sashimi for two from Akira, $69
Washington, D.C.
“Boat for two” from Kimo Sushi, $65
“Chef’s choice for two” from Ichiban Sushi House, $59
“Churrasco skewer” from Toro Toro, $59
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Photo via Consell Comarcal del Baix Empordà/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
