Six ways to spend Galentine’s Day 2020 with your gal pals

Pamper yourselves at the House of Elemis

Start your Galentine’s Day as you mean to go on, by indulging in a spa experience with a difference. The therapists at the Elemis townhouse in Mayfair not only offer a range of face, body and biotech treatments, but carry out individual skin assessments – ensuring the treatments you and your gal pals receive are in tune with your complexion from a dermatological point of view. Book in to the speed bar if you fancy a quick treatment before shooting off, while if you’ve more time on your hands, revel in two hours of luxurious pampering in the penthouse, where you can enjoy an hour-long treatment of your choosing then make plans for the day ahead over a glass of English sparkling wine.

Raise a glass to sisters doing it for themselves…

If you and your gal-pals are planning on making a night of it, we know just the venue at which you can fully reject the patriarchy, show your support for women bossing it in the drinks industry, and have a dizzyingly good time. The bar in question is Doña in Dalston and the all-female team behind this sultry cocktail den know just what to do with a bottle of mezcal. In fact, they know how to brew the smoky Mexican spirit, too, and use their own brand – Dangerous Don Mezcal – to lace several of their drinks.

The basement bar on Newington High Street is the love child of Dangerous Don founder Thea Cumming and the brains behind London Mezcal Week Lucie Massey. Together, they’ve created a bar that’s feminine (plush interiors in hues of red and pink), quirky (with lampshades askew and retro glassware) and spiritual (it's scented with incense and there are vague plans to host yoga classes in the bar during the day).

Doña’s cocktail menu is short and confident. The best, a mezcal margarita, is not even on the menu. It’s short, sharp, rimmed with chili salt and pure joy to drink. Whatever else you try, go off grid and raise a glass to your friendships with one of these.

...Or raise a fork to female empowerment

2020 is already proving a big year for women in the restaurant world. In January, Selim Kiazim and Laura Christie – aka the powerhouse duo behind Turkish restaurants Oklava and Kyseri – have taken the latter and converted it into Oklava Bakery & Wine (no explanation needed). If you’re planning a Galentine’s brunch, you’ll be hard-pushed to find a more on-trend place to host it than this. Be sure to try the luscious Medjool date butter toastie at breakfast: whipped feta on toast, fruits poached in rosemary brown butter and eggs with house-cured pastirma. Those visiting post 12pm, meanwhile, might want to make the most of the low-intervention wine list, which focuses on small, regional producers in Turkey, Armenia, Lebanon, Georgia and Greece.

Planning dinner with the girls? Take your appetites to Core by Clare Smyth in Notting Hill and celebrate your female friendships at the first restaurant by Smyth, the ex-Gordon Ramsay chef who nabbed the title of the World’s Best Female Chef in 2018 as well as two Michelin stars. While the restaurant itself is relatively casual (no tablecloths here), the food is fine dining at its most interesting. The 10-seat communal dining table offers a chance to get to know some fellow foodies, while its positioning in front of the kitchen will wrap you up in the action. (Advance booking essential.)

Swap reality for fiction at the Prince Charles Cinema

The Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square is the proud home of novelty screenings in London and this charmingly shabby venue is pulling out all the stops this Valentine’s Day. Planning to avoid romance at all cost? Thursday 13 February is your night. Take your seats at 6:15pm for Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird, then stick around for Olivia Wilde's Booksmart at 8:30pm. Both stunning films were their (female) director’s debut in the role and both pointedly prize female friendships over romantic relationships.

If you and the girls can handle a little soppiness, there’s Nora Ephron's 1993 romcom Sleepless in Seattle (Friday 14, 6:20pm), followed by the world’s best-loved French film Amélie at 8:45pm. Then on Saturday 15, you’ll want to come armed with snacks a-plenty because the cinema is showing Richard Linklater’s superb and conversation-led Before trilogy back-to-back. The films descend on Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) at different points in their relationship.

Take your seats for the perfect antidote to Valentine’s Day

You’ll find none of the soppiness and mush associated with the most romantic day of the year at Greenwich Theatre this Friday. Instead, you can take your seats for a ‘Valentine’s burning of an 18th-century rom-com’ in the form of Polly (The Heartbreak Opera). Devised by Marie Hamilton and Sharp Teeth Theatre, the show is a gritty and contemporary adaptation of John Gay's Polly, his banned sequel to The Beggar's Opera, featuring techno, tracksuits and, er, palm trees.

In the words of director Stephanie Kempson: 'This musical is pure fun, pure story and pure enjoyment. We want people to fall in love with intersectional feminism and empowerment, so that they never, ever, ever mutter the phrase "it's political correctness gone mad" ever again in their lives.' Hear, hear.

Sing for singledom at Jihwaja

Few activities in life offer quite the same release as screaming the lyrics of your all-time favourite songs into a mic, surrounded by your closest friends in a karaoke booth. And when it comes to karaoke, the cheesier the better. If this sounds like your kind of night, we recommend Jihwaja in Vauxhall. With booths doubling up as your very own private dining room – where you can enjoy a Korean feast and fruit-infused spirits before you sing – Jihwaja is a hidden gem of London's karaoke scene and is sure to impress your girlfriends.