by Your resolutions already broken from January 1st? Don’t worry – the Chinese Year of the Dragon enters the world on February 10, promising nobility, honor, luck and success.
Chinese New Year, also known as Lunar New Year, is the biggest public holiday in China, east and south-east Asia. Food and drink play a central role in the festivities, and special dishes are served for the new year that are rich in symbolism.
The most famous is the “prosperity toss” salad of yusheng; “yusheng” means “raw fish” and sounds similar to the Chinese word for “abundance”. The idea is that the higher you throw the ingredients into the air with chopsticks, the luckier it will rain in the next 12 months.
Dumplings are another traditional dish, as it is said that the number of dumplings eaten corresponds to one’s wealth for the following year. The Cantonese word for fish – “yu” – sounds like the word for “wish”, and is served whole as an option, as the head and tail represent good beginnings and endings. Meanwhile, a whole chicken represents rebirth, long strands of “longevity” noodles mean long life and meals often end with nian gao, a sweet glutinous rice cake that portends reaching new heights in the coming year.
Chinatown and the West End are the focus of London’s New Year celebrations, which are the largest outside of Asia. Details have not yet been confirmed but there is usually a parade from Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square via Shaftesbury Avenue, with plenty of food to be had along the way. For more dining inspiration, check out our guide to the best Chinese restaurants in London, the best dim sum in the capital and where Chinese chefs themselves like to eat.
Here, however, we’ve picked the London restaurants that offer the best Chinese New Year celebrations, from Michelin-starred dining and special menus to lion dances and wishing trees. Fire breathing, however, is optional.
This list will be updated as the Lunar New Year approaches.
Hacking
London’s Michelin-starred pair of Hakkasans are preparing to party this Chinese New Year with wishing trees, lion dances, Champagne cocktails and a New Year’s Feast menu (£128). Things kick off with “Wishes of Prosperity” a dim sum duo of lobster and cheese lantern puffs and black truffle wild mushroom dumplings preceded by “eight story” smoked duck and wild red king prawns with braised dragon noodles. The lion dance will take place at Hakkasan Hanway Place at 6.30pm on 8 February and 5pm at Hakkasan Mayfair on 10 February. Don’t forget to hang your ted ribbon on the wish tree when you leave.
How many? £128 (for two people minimum), or ordered a la carte
When? 30 January-25 February
17 Bruton Street, W1J 6QB and 8 Hanway Place, W1T 1HD, hakkasan.com
Ming House
The London center of India’s swanky Taj group is the St James’ Court hotel, whose in-house restaurant is Ming House, having established itself as one of the best Chinese in New Delhi. It’s a beautiful and fragrant space, all gold-plated ceilings and wafting incense, made even more attractive this Lunar New Year with “lucky bamboo” centerpieces and traditional red covers. It stands for special good luck for the Lunar New Year; Best of all is Yunnan lamb with celery and ginger chilli. Wash it all down with Firestorm, a cocktail made from dehydrated oranges, five spices and a fiery garnish.
How many? Chinese New Year Dishes from £24
When? 9-11 February
St James’s Court, Taj Hotel, 54 Buckingham Gate, SW1E 6AF, teachofming.co.uk
Mimi Mei Fair
As some of the restaurants pack away their Christmas decorations every year, one wonders if owner Mimi Samyukta Nair stores her wishing trees in her attic every winter, ready to be unfurled the following Lunar New Year. For the Year of the Dragon, the pair of trees are being dressed in stunning blue, green, pink and maroon colors in homage to the wooden dragon, strewn with hydrangeas and hung with gilded cages for diners to deposit the red envelopes into. in which their wishes To eat, there will be a “wealth basket” featuring a trio of dim sum followed by crispy Norfolk pork with pineapple and pomelo prawns or tiger prawns with egg white and black bean sauce; to finish, a chocolate bar is served with mandarin and pecan.
How many? Three courses, £128, including a Courvoisier Cognac cocktail
When? 1-24 February
55 Curzon Street, W1J 8PG, mimimeifair.com
London Pacific
The Singapore-based high-rise hotel over the road from Liverpool Street has a few offers this Chinese New Year. Afternoon tea will feature a collaboration between the hotel’s executive pastry chef Francesco Mannino and Bun House co-founder and Chef Z, with lamb and bamboo buns alongside sui mai and patisserie baskets. On the evening of Chinese New Year, Straits Kitchen restaurant will be serving a six-course menu starting with yu sheng bluefin tuna salad topped with wagyu steak, braised on the outside, steamed turbot and dulcey cremeux dessert.
How many? Afternoon tea, £68; six course menu, £138
When? Afternoon tea, 8 February-25 March; dinner, February 10 only
80 dogs, EC3A 7AB, panpacific.com
Gouqi
This swish Trafalgar Square Chinese is overseen by two Hakkasan alums: suave restaurant director Alan Tang and chef Chee Hwee Tong, who won the original Hanway Place Hakkasan its Michelin star. High standards of service and cooking are therefore pretty much guaranteed, but prices are also high. Still, if you can’t push the boat out on New Year’s Eve, when can you? Tables of four or more must order an eight-course set menu (£128) while smaller groups are allowed to pick and choose items such as pork belly from an excellent oyster and kumquat sauce and a yin-yang shaped coffee dessert. dragon shape. The restaurant will be decorated with red Chinese lanterns, a 10-metre illuminated dragon and firecracker displays and there will be free toys for the children. Please note that tables are served in three sittings at 5, 8 and 10.30pm.
How many? Eight courses (tables of four or more), £128; three courses (tables 1-3) around £100
When? 9-10 February
25-34 Cockspur Street, SW1Y 5BN, gouqi-restaurants.co.uk
Daddy Bao
Chinese New Year isn’t just for China: Taiwan also celebrates the Lunar New Year, and this Tooting purveyor of the island’s most famous culinary expert is going all out for the Year of the Dragon. The all-day feast menu (£60) includes venison and plum bao (tofu and plum for vegetarians) but there’s more to the menu than bao, with dishes chosen to represent good luck, from dumplings that look like ingots of gold ancient Chinese and fried. nian gao, a traditional rice cake that represents prosperity. Still hungry? Add a whole bran for an extra £15.
How many? Four courses, £60 (£50 for vegetarian/pestarian menu)
When? 11 February
113 Mitcham Road, SW17 9PE, daddybao.co.uk
Tang China
If the Dorchester location wasn’t enough of a clue that Tang China is more luxurious than the average Cantonese, sliver-plated chopsticks, embroidered napkins and wallpaper imported from China and hand-finished in situ should reflect the size of the final bill. For such a glamorous setting – one could be dining in a Jazz-era ocean liner – the fairly simple menu offers smooth versions of Anglo-Chinese favourites, but for the Lunar New Year there is a menu on respect running alongside the à la carte that offers prosperity. toss salad with raw fish, lobster with XO sauce on crispy noodles, and wok-fried whole tiger prawns. Feeling confident about finances in 2024? Order the “Five Blessings Descend Upon Your Home”, a mixed seafood, poultry and Japanese dish by yourself to share for £588. Lion dancers will be performing at dinner on February 9 and 10.
How many? Chinese New Year dishes from £20
When? 9-11 February
53 Park Lane, W1K 1QA, chinatanglondon.co.uk
Ting
Sky-high Ting, on the 35th floor of the Shard, may offer one of the best vantage points in London on New Year’s Eve, but it’s also a bobby dazzler for the Lunar New Year, although it may be harder to fire to see art. The New Year’s menu is designed to symbolize luck and prosperity: crispy duck bites with pancakes and oscietra caviar; barbecue pork belly with Chinese mustard; wok-fried spicy prawns with dried crab, crispy garlic and dried chilli. You may not be guaranteed good luck for the coming year but the comments will at least leave you on top of the world.
How many? Chinese New Year Dishes from £21
When? 9-13 February
Level 35, 31 St Thomas Street, SE1 9QU, ting-shangri-la.com
Yahuatcha
London’s pair of dim sum and Cantonese specialists, in Soho and the City, are offering an almost month-long celebration of the Year of the Dragon. The Chinese New Year menu features seven celebratory Chinese dishes based on auspicious ingredients, from chicken shui mai in the dim sum platter to Alaskan king crab in kam heong sauce with taro and dried shrimp, as well as Lucky Dragon petit gâteau, a white sesame sponge . and praline cake with kumquat compote and ginger cream. There will be a lion dance at Yauatcha City at 7pm on February 9th and 3pm at Soho on the 10th.
How many? Sharing menu for a minimum of two diners, £98; individual Chinese New Year dishes from £12
When: 30 January-25 February
15-17 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL and Broadgate Circle, EC2M 2QS, yauatcha.com
Chinese Park
Even by Mayfair standards, Park Chinois takes opulence to new levels of gold-plated, velvet-swagged opulence, making the restaurant’s larger-than-life approach to everything from interior design to culinary inspiration the perfect Lunar New Year rendezvous . Eleven days of immersive entertainment are promised from 1-11 February, including nightly lion dances, live entertainment from the in-house band and a Chinese drummer on 9 and 10 February. boiled fish maw followed by New Zealand scampi with truffle or Australian wagyu rib eye with XO pineapple sauce. Really want to show off? Pre-order “Eight Quests” roast pork tenderloin with glutinous rice, Chinese pork sausage, salted duck egg and dried shallots (£438).
How many? Chinese New Year Dishes from £18
When? 1-11 February
17 Berkeley Street, W1J 8EA, parkchinois.com
@mrbenmccormack
