These NYC Restaurants Have Special Lunar New Year Menus
Attention East Asian food fans: Celebrate Lunar New Year with traditional flavors at these NYC spots.
The Institute of Culinary Education's campuses are located in New York City and Los Angeles, two culinary capitals of the world. In order to deepen our students' understanding, we create comprehensive guides surrounding the culinary industries in these cities. Though this guide was created with culinary students in mind, it's a resource for anyone seeking restaurants serving Lunar New Year foods in New York. So enjoy — tag us on Instagram if you dine at one of these recommendations. Happy Lunar New Year!
If you thought the festivities and revelry of the new year were over, we have some good news for you: Millions of people around the world are preparing for another round of celebrations to honor the Lunar New Year. For many East Asian cultures, Lunar New Year is a time to say goodbye to the year prior and usher in a fresh start.
This year – the year of the wood snake according to the Chinese zodiac – the biggest single day of jubilation within the two week-long celebration falls on January 29.
For many, the festivities in New York’s Chinatown, owing to gregarious lion dances and pebble-sized firecrackers that slap the streets with a rat-tat-tat sound, define the holiday. Lunar New Year, however, is celebrated throughout East Asia, and countries from China to South Korea to Malaysia mark it with observances and ceremonies unique to their culture.
Still, there is one universal belief that permeates all Lunar New Year celebrations: East Asian food is central to the festivities. Food not only brings people together, it symbolizes a prosperous and healthy year ahead.
For those living in NYC, the city’s panoply of global cuisines makes finding traditional Lunar New Year dishes from a variety of cultures easy. Here are 10 NYC restaurants serving celebratory Lunar New Year’s menus.
Manhattan Restaurants Serving Lunar New Year Menus
177 Prince St, New York, NY 10012
The best Lunar New Year celebration calls for a table full of food and a big gathering of friends and family. Pinch Chinese in Soho is a longtime favorite for their Peking duck set menu, which is perfect for a crowd. Pinch is also offering a special menu for Lunar New Year from January 25 to February 2, which will include dishes like black garlic tiger shrimp and lucky year rice cakes. The restaurant’s wine program, led by award-winning wine director Miguel de Leon, is known for its high-quality list and excellent food-friendly pairings. Note: all orders for the Peking duck must be placed 72 hours in advance via email. Make reservations on Resy.
204 E 13th St, New York, NY 10003
Soothr (pronounced “sood”) has been one of Manhattan’s top destinations for regional Thai cooking since it opened in 2020. While Songkran is Thailand’s official new year celebration, at least 10 percent of Thailand’s population is Thai Chinese, so Lunar New Year is also a widely celebrated occasion. At Soothr, guests can ring in the new year with special menu items like whole fried branzino with soft tofu and ginger scallion bean sauce. Noodles, which symbolize long life, are another new year’s must, and since Soothr is a noodle shop, any of their signature bowls make a worthy new year’s feast. Book reservations on OpenTable.
56 W 22nd St, New York, NY 10010
China boasts many regional cuisines, and luckily, New York has a wide sampling of them. Take Grandma’s Home, for example, the first US outpost of a China-based chain that specializes in the cuisine of Hangzhou, a central coast city south of Shanghai. For Lunar New Year, Grandma’s Home is offering both à la carte and prix-fixe menus ($78/pp) with special dishes like lobster with sticky rice and a sizzling clay pot with dumplings, shrimp and winter bamboo. They’re even mixing up a special cocktail for the occasion — “river snake blessings” with shochu, elderflower, cucumber and lime. Book your reservation on Resy.
434 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10024
Last year, Malaysian chef Simpson Wong came out of semi-retirement to open Kancil on the Upper West Side. As the pioneering chef behind restaurants like Cafe Asean and Chomp Chomp, which introduced New Yorkers to chef-driven Southeast Asian cooking in the early aughts, Wong’s return is a welcome addition to the city’s Malaysian culinary landscape. For Lunar New Year, Wong is preparing a special menu of symbolic festive dishes. There will be whole steamed fish, a symbol of prosperity, and yusheng, a traditional Southeast Asian dish consisting of myriad julienned ingredients, which are tossed together to invite abundance into the new year. Make reservations on Resy.
942 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10025
In Vietnam, Lunar New Year is known as Tết. Bánh Vietnamese Shop House on the Upper West Side is cooking up a $199 multi-course Vietnamese feast for the occasion, which will be available for pick-up only. Bánh earned a spot as one of New York’s top Vietnamese restaurants for serving dishes not commonly seen on menus in New York when it opened in 2021. The Lunar New Year meal, which guests can pre-order online, includes mains like braised pork belly and a half-roasted chicken. Sides and accompaniments include spring rolls, red sticky rice and various pickles. It’s enough to feed two to three people, and includes dessert.
Brooklyn Restaurants Serving Lunar New Year Menus
329 Van Brunt St, Brooklyn, NY 11231
Red Hook Tavern is technically an American restaurant known for its dry-aged burger, but Executive Chef Bun Cheam hails from Cambodia and, for the past few years, has been developing a Cambodian-inspired Lunar New Year feast. This year, he’ll offer signature dishes like seared five spice duck breast, salt and pepper prawns, and several noodle dishes for a long, happy life. The à la carte specials will run January 29 to February 2. If you’ve never had a Red Hook Tavern burger before, fret not, it will be available alongside the Lunar New Year menu. Book your reservation on Resy.
609 Dean St, Brooklyn, NY 11238
Newcomer Nin Hao in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn focuses on the Fujianese cuisine of Southern China, though its menu also includes many dishes that are now ubiquitous throughout China (like Taiwanese-style salt and pepper calamari and sizzling cumin lamb chops à la Xinjiang). For Lunar New Year, owner Evan Toretto Li is planning specials like ginger scallion live scallop, braised sea bass, and sauteed rice cakes with pork. Dishes will be available January 28 to February 12. Book a table on Resy.
Queens Restaurants Serving Lunar New Year Menus
135-11 38th Ave, Flushing, NY 11354
Maxi’s Noodle started as a small Hong Kong-style wonton noodle shop in Flushing, Queens in 2019. The no-frills operation has since expanded to a second Queens location and, most recently, a small storefront in downtown Manhattan. This is in no small part due to owner Maxi Lau-O’Keefe’s al dente duck egg noodles and juicy shrimp wontons in broth; it’s an authentic taste of Hong Kong in New York. Maxi’s isn’t running a specific Lunar New Year menu, but a simple bowl of these noodles — for good health and a long life — is an easy and affordable way to celebrate. Walk-in only.
And for dessert…
5 Bleecker St, New York, NY 10012
A Lunar New Year celebration isn’t complete without something sweet. To celebrate Seollal (Korean New Year), C as in Charlie’s chef Eric Choi has developed a special dessert in partnership with Korean pastry chef and owner of Korean confectionary company Rice Blossoms, Jennifer Lee Ban. The dessert, called gyeongdan, consists of colorful rice cakes in flavors like matcha, raspberry, black sesame, cocoa and injeolmi (soybean powder). It will be available at the intimate but lively Korean American restaurant January 30 and 31. As a bonus, the restaurant will give diners one dollar for every order of the dessert. Reserve on Resy.
150 E Broadway, New York, NY 10002
To further forecast a sweet year ahead, consider pre-ordering a cookie box from The Little One, a Chinatown bakery owned by Eddie Zheng and Olivia Leung, who also happen to be ICE alumni. Zheng and Leung grew up in Chinatown, and while their bakery specializes in Japanese sweets like kakigori, they use ingredients that are popular throughout East Asia in most of their bakes. This year’s Lunar New Year box includes pandan coconut milk jam sandwich cookies, mandarin meringues and Ovaltine chocolate chip cookies, among others. Message the business on Instagram to order.
