Chinese New Year in London has grown up. What was once about convenience and crowd-pleasing menus has become something far more thoughtful: limited-edition feasts built around symbolism, carefully chosen ingredients, and a genuine sense of celebration. This is dining designed for sharing, lingering, and starting the year on a high note.
From rare duck centrepieces and sculpted lion buns to Mayfair glamour and quietly soulful home-style cooking, these are the places getting Chinese New Year right this year.
Belly
Belly doesn’t do half-measures, and Chinese New Year is no exception. For just five days, Omar Shah turns the celebration into a focused, indulgent ritual built entirely around duck: a long-standing symbol of prosperity, abundance, and good fortune. This is not a menu you casually stumble into; it’s designed to be planned, anticipated, and shared.
At the centre sits a whole roasted duck glazed with pink peppercorn and honey, glossy and rich, clearly the hero of the table. Around it, dishes go confidently big: foie gras fried rice, duck lumpia, adobo offal ragù, BBQ plum with beetroot XO, and sharp calamansi-laced sauces that cut through the richness. With only four ducks available per day, the experience feels rare in a way that actually matters.
Jang
Jang approaches Lunar New Year with depth, marking Korean New Year with a one-day-only dish, this is a celebration rooted in comfort and tradition rather than spectacle. The kind of meal that encourages slower eating and real conversation.
The Korean New Year Soup pairs Tteok Guk, soft rice cakes in a warming broth, with Galbi Mandu, generously filled short-rib dumplings that feel deeply nourishing. A trio of seasonal sides brings balance and lift: Jerusalem artichoke jangajji, endive kimchi, and yuzu lotus pickle. It’s thoughtful, restorative, and elegant, offering a calmer way to welcome the new year.
HUŌ
HUŌ (alongside sister restaurant ULI) celebrates Chinese New Year with confidence and flexibility. Inspired by the Year of the Horse, the limited-edition menu focuses on prosperity, momentum, and fresh beginnings, interpreted through a modern Chinese and Southeast Asian lens.
The Dim Sum Basket anchors the experience, combining Chicken Siu Mai with XO sauce, Prawn and Truffle Har Gau, and Aubergine and Spinach Dumplings: precise, balanced, and clearly composed. Crispy Duck Spring Rolls add familiarity, while Whole Dover Sole with soy, ginger, and scallions brings understated luxury. Available for both lunch and dinner across locations, this is festive dining without formality.
Xi Home Dumplings Bay
Xi Home Dumplings Bay offers one of the most culturally rich Chinese New Year celebrations in London. Welcoming the Year of the Fire Horse, the Northern Chinese ‘Golden Spring Feast’ menu is built entirely around symbolism, with each dish tied to a specific wish for the year ahead.
The‘Squirrel’ Sea Bass with Plum representing abundance, the Braised Pork with Abalone and Hawthorn symbolising prosperity, the menu feels intentional, rooted in the Chinese Traditions. The standout, however, is the hand-crafted Lion Dance Buns: sculpted, custard-filled, and matcha-infused; designed for gifting, sharing, and spreading good fortune. They are as joyful as they are meaningful, and produced in limited quantities for a reason.
MiMi Mei Fair
MiMi Mei Fair favourite presents a four-course sharing experience complete with bespoke GREY GOOSE® mini cocktails and a wishing tree installation. It’s celebratory, polished, and unapologetically glamorous. The menu moves confidently from a Dim Sum Basket to Rock Oysters with Sichuan sauce, before escalating to Wok-Baked Lobster and Fortune Crispy Norfolk Pork layered with pineapple and pomelo. Everything is designed to sit at the centre of the table and be shared slowly. Running for over a month, this is Chinese New Year dining you can return to, not rush through.
Hainan House
Founded by Sunny Wu, the Hainan House restaurant is rooted in Southern Chinese home-style cooking shaped by lived experience rather than rigid regional rules. The result is food that feels personal, balanced, and deeply comforting.
For Chinese New Year 2026, seasonal specials are introduced alongside the à la carte menu, allowing guests to build their own celebration. Traditional techniques: steaming, braising, poaching, wok-frying, keep flavours clear and composed. This is a quieter, more intimate way to mark the new year, focused on nourishment, warmth, and genuine hospitality.
Hakkasan Mayfair
Hakkasan goes big. The Mayfair flagship transforms with cascading textiles, hand-painted messages, animated horse projections, and live lion dance performances that bring the space to life.
The limited-edition sharing menu, created in partnership with Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Champagne Billecart-Salmon, is designed around connection and abundance. Highlights include Fortune Money Bags filled with king crab and scallop, grilled Australian tenderloin with red peppercorn and pomegranate, wok-seared sea bream with kumquat and calamansi soy, and a golden mandarin dessert that closes the meal on a celebratory note. It’s confident, theatrical, and built for gathering.
Yauatcha
For Yauatcha, its Soho and City locations mark the Lunar New Year with limited-edition menus and celebratory dishes designed to be shared, lingered over, and returned to more than once.
Expect refined dim sum elevated for the season, auspicious ingredients woven into familiar favourites, and desserts that lean heavily into gold, citrus, and prosperity symbolism. The room itself always feels lively during this period, buzzing, social, and unapologetically festive,without tipping into chaos.
Yauatcha is the kind of place you go when you want Chinese New Year to feel polished but joyful. It’s ideal for long lunches that turn into dinners, group celebrations that still feel chic, and marking the new year with confidence rather than excess.
Hutong at The Shard
If Chinese New Year calls for a sense of occasion, Hutong delivers it, altitude included. High above the city in The Shard, this Northern Chinese restaurant leans into the theatrical side of the celebration, pairing bold flavours with one of London’s most dramatic dining rooms.
Chinese New Year menus here traditionally focus on abundance and strength, with rich, warming dishes designed for sharing. Think generous plates, confident seasoning, and an atmosphere that encourages celebration rather than restraint. The panoramic views add to the sense that this is a moment worth dressing up for.
Hutong works best for evenings that feel deliberate: celebrations with friends, milestone dinners, or anyone who wants Chinese New Year to feel grand, symbolic, and slightly cinematic. It’s London celebrating Lunar New Year at full volume, in the best possible way.
The best Chinese New Year meals aren’t just about auspicious ingredients: they’re about generosity, symbolism, and starting the year with intention. London’s strongest celebrations understand this, delivering menus that feel festive without being gimmicky, indulgent without being careless.
Whether you’re carving into a rare duck feast, gifting lion buns, or sharing lobster in Mayfair, one thing is clear: Chinese New Year dining in London has never felt more considered, or more enjoyable.
