Best romantic restaurant
If you still think a romantic meal means oak-paneled candlelit nooks and waiters named Claude, let UpStairs on the Square repaint your mental picture with a vibrant palette and a whimsical mix of patterns, with gilded this and mirrored that, and with service that smiles but doesn't intrude. And if you still think it means tableside caesars and prime rib for two, let chefs Susan Regis and Amanda Lydon reawaken the passion in your palate with evocative wild-leaf salads, pillowy hand-cut pastas, and spiced pots de crème. Once you and your darling have been UpStairs, you're sure to head straight home - and hurry back upstairs.

No wonder couples are so drawn to vistas: they literalize the feeling of being in love and on top of the world. Or, in Bostonians' case, at the Top of the Hub, from whose picture windows 52 flights above Back Bay they can drink it all in together: the skyline, the harbor, the furthest horizon - along with a bottle of Champagne or an appropriately hearty red, of course. Then again, given that the luscious desserts here border on aphrodisiacs - from fig- and apricot-mousse crêpes to fresh-baked cookies with chantilly cream - you might feel just as high at the bottom.

UpStairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, (617) 864-1933, www.upstairsonthesquare.com; Top of the Hub, Prudential Center, 800 Boylston Street, Boston, (617) 536-1775.