With work threatening to take Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes to separate places on the globe this week, the couple made sure to celebrate their third wedding anniversary in advance.

On Saturday night, the pair – who tied the knot in a lavish affair in Italy on Nov. 18, 2006 – celebrated the milestone with a romantic Italian dinner at Boston’s Bricco restaurant. Cruise, 47, surprised Holmes, 30, by renting out the entire second floor of the eatery, where the pair dined on house-made pasta, Chilean sea bass (Holmes’s pick) and Wagyu steak (Cruise’s choice).

With 3-year-old daughter Suri at home, “they held hands the entire night,” Ron Leduc, director of operations for Bricco, tells PEOPLE. “They had a romantic dinner.”

The pair were ready for more romance the next night, when they stopped in Boston’s Abe & Louie’s restaurant, a favorite of the couple during their autumn stay as Cruise shoots the upcoming action-comedy Knight & Day.

Surrounded by their security team, Cruise and Holmes sat at a table in the front of the restaurant and finished their meal with two sweet treats: seven-layer chocolate cake and key-lime pie.

As for their actual anniversary, Cruise was scheduled to fly to Austria to continue shooting Knight & Day with Cameron Diaz. Holmes also has been busy with work: She is shooting the indie film The Romantics on Long Island, N.Y., where she filmed a wedding scene as the best friend of the bride (played by Anna Paquin).

“She really seems to be in great spirits today,” says a set source, noting that Holmes’s parents were with her on location. “She is in a great mood but I think you can tell she misses him.”  [source]