Valentine's Day is one of the busiest days of the year for those who work in restaurants. It's also a day that many in the industry love to hate.

Second only to Mother's Day, Valentine's Day is the most popular day of the year to dine out, according to the National Restaurant Association. For couples, it can be a long-awaited night out on the town. But for servers and others in the industry who wait on them, it can be a night of dread, where expectations are high, the volume of customers relentless, and the tips often underwhelming.

"We kind of refer to it jokingly as 'rookie night.' It's a night where everyone wants to come out and dine," says Kip Mullin, general manager of Circa 1918 in Newport News, Va. Many of those customers, however, don't normally dine out at other times of the year.

"It's a somewhat different vibe on Valentine's Day than other nights," Mullin says. "Because we do about two-and-a-half to three times the business of a regular night. It's a much more expensive menu than other nights."