If Valentine's Day has yet to become a universally-recognized tradition in Hungary, the concept of "Lovers' Day" has certainly become a familiar annual ritual for many Budapest restaurants. Each year, the weeks before February 14 see our email in-box flooded with special VD-themed menus from mostly upscale eateries hoping to cash in on the trend. But at least for this year, we've decided to hit "select all" and then "send to trash." Yes, that's right - we're breaking up with the whole idea of the "Valentine's Day Dinner," and here's why.

Aside from the general silliness and crass commercialism of the "holiday" as a whole, these BP VD dinners almost never seem to match the hype. In fact, the ones we remember going to have been among some of our worst local dining experiences, with overwhelmed servers struggling to keep up with tables full of grumpy couples. Probably the most grossly botched high-end meal we have ever suffered through in Budapest was a Valentine's Day dinner at the otherwise quite recommendable Chez Daniel. Though at least it gave us something to bond over.

Meanwhile, the menus themselves are usually either irritatingly cutesy-wootsy, or otherwise not serious, and in a bad way. Not to pile on our fine French friend, but what to make of his "tradition" of forcing different set menus on men and women who show up to share a meal? Or even worse, men and men and women and women?

And the prices… Well, this is what it's all about, isn't it? While we don't have anything against our hard-working colleagues in the trenches of the restaurant business trying to make a buck - and some places, like Daniel's, generally show restraint in this area - the last thing this town's dining culture needs is more high-priced gimmick food.

To be fair, there are surely some couples that will take the bait today and come home tonight feeling fully satisfied, and even more in love with whomever they went VD-dining with. But our guess is that most won't, and a few may even leave the restaurant separately.

So instead of doing what we did last year, and steering you to a bunch of high-end places with special menus for today, this time we're only going to mention two low-priced and cheerful VD options, both of which are available at the recently-opened Arena mega-mall. One is the Ft 2,890 (€11) Valentine's Day offering at the Sphinx, one of two local outlets of the Polish-owned chain of "casual" restaurants. (They also have one at Mammut in Buda.) The second is the new mall's Häagen-Dazs ice cream parlor - the first ever in Hungary - which is offering a 20% discount for couples today. Seriously, what could be more delicious, romantic and fun than taking your loved one out for ice cream at the mall? Aside, that is, from a nice home-cooked meal, and a good solid shag...