Suggest a romantic meal to anyone and the menu will feature the usual suspects, recipes and combinations that Casanova himself would have sworn by.

The seductive qualities of fresh oysters, classic complimentary tastes like strawberries and Champagne, chocolate and red wine, beer and ice cream. What?! Wait.

Breaking from tradition may not necessarily mean take-away in front of the TV or shunning Valentine's Day altogether. This year you can "treat yourself'' and your loved one to something uniquely different.

The Red Oak bar and restaurant, just off Clarence Street in the city, has only been brewing for a short time but has already won accolades worldwide for the quality and depth of its beer range.

Red Oak master brewer, David Hollyoak, has been brewing since the age of 14 — non-alcoholic ginger beer at first — and he has had to past the strictest quality control: his sisters, who don't like beer.

This has forced him to come up with some inventive combinations of beer such as the Belgian Chocolate Stout, a dark and creamy brew containing a hint of coffee amongst the sweet, sweet taste of chocolate.

Just like wine, every beer has a distinctive aroma. Unlike wine, when you taste a boutique beer you have to swallow to fully appreciate it. Without drinking heartily of the Raspberry Framboise Beer, it will be hard to realise that it contains two full handfuls of fruit, as all of Red Oak's fruit beers do.

It's not only the beers that are different at Red Oak, you'll notice the establishment doesn't have a typical 'pubby' feel. Instead, it is mostly given over to a restaurant managed by co-founder Janet Hollyoak and head-waiter Simon Beveridge (a homonym of a name that suggests he was born to work in a beer hall). If you aren't sure what food goes with what beer, and you are tempted by everything on the menu, the degustation menu is designed for you.

This will give you a sample of many of their beers and the appropriate food that matches it. But it won't fill you up, so you'll have room left to try out the newly released beer ice-cream and the special Valentine dessert taster.