<span style=”font-weight: 400;”>If you’re noticing snake paraphernalia popping up all over the place, that’s down to the Chinese zodiac calendar. With Lunar New Year fast approaching on 29 January 2025, we’re soon to enter the Year of the Wood Snake, a rare combination that occurs just once in every 60 years. Each year, big celebrations take place all over the world – including London, where a whole host of restaurants mark the event with special menus. We’ve pulled together some of the best Chinese New Year offerings to Book in the capital for 2025.
Where To Celebrate Lunar New Year In London
Daddy Bao, Tooting
Fish lovers should head to Tooting’s popular Taiwanese restaurant Daddy Bao this Lunar New Year, where a seafood feast is being served. You’ll be treated to a six-course menu complete with an array of symbolic dishes, including the seven coloured fish salad, tossed together for luck and prosperity; a whole butterflied sea bass, which represents abundance; and longevity noodles, which are associated with long life.
When? 27 January 2025
Where? 113 Mitcham Rd, London SW17 9PE
How much? £60pp
BOOK: daddybao.co.uk
Roe, Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf’s Roe – the latest opening from the team behind Fallow and FOWL – is heralding the start of the Year of the Snake with a selection of celebratory Chinese-inspired dishes. Continuing its nose-to-tail ethos, with a focus on spotlighting British ingredients, the eatery is introducing a characteristically creative one-night-only menu. Begin with crispy stuffed chicken wings topped with Exmoor caviar, ahead of a Year of the Snake wellington made with smoked eel, seabream and citrus butter. For dessert, there’s a caramelised pineapple served with Timut pepper brioche and amanthus flower.
When? 28 January 2025, from 4pm
Where? 5 Park Dr, Wood Wharf, London E14 9GG
How much? £88pp
BOOK: roerestaurant.co.uk
MiMi Mei Fair, Mayfair
For glitzy festivities, head to MiMi Mei Fair, Samyukta Nair’s Chinese restaurant housed within a Georgian townhouse on Curzon Street in Mayfair. A feasting menu will include dishes like the dim sum ‘basket of wealth’, stir fried XO lobster, and crispy Norfolk pork – a symbol of wealth and good fortune. To conclude the meal, diners can enjoy the ‘Serpent’s Treasure’: a decadent chocolate mousse with a raspberry compote. The venue’s wishing tree will also be making a comeback, adorned with red Chinese lanterns, plus accents of emerald green and carmine red.
When? 9 January – 2 February 2025
Where? 55 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8PG
How much? £108pp
BOOK: mimimeifair.com
Din Tai Fung, Various Locations
Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung, which has outposts dotted around London in places like Covent Garden and Selfridges, is honouring the start of the Year of the Snake with a themed menu. Drawing on Huaiyang and Taiwanese culinary traditions, it features the likes of steamed fish dumplings, pork meatball soup, prawn and egg fried rice, and courgette and prawn xiao long bao – all of which represent renewal, vitality and prosperity. These can be paired with two specially created drinks: the Golden Twist Cocktail, made with rum, champagne and Laphroaig, and the Silk Garden Mocktail, which features Everleaf’s Forest aperitif, strawberry and coconut.
When? 24 January – 9 February 2025
Where? Various locations
How much? Dishes from £9.50
BOOK: dintaifung-uk.com
BAO, Various Locations
In the market for some fun prizes? Visit one of the BAO eateries, order the Lunar New Year menu and you’ll receive a red envelope containing snake-themed prizes including vouchers, and BAO x Carhartt t-shirts. Food-wise, you’ll enjoy dishes like smacked cucumber and Taiwanese sausage, followed by a prosperity tossing salad. Also known as yu sheng, this traditional salad is made with fried vermicelli, crisp vegetables and sashimi salmon, designed for the whole table to toss together – as legend goes, the higher you toss, the greater your fortunes will be. Also on the menu: honey-glazed pork and crispy bean curd, longevity noodles, and pistachio-filled BBGs (Bao Bakery Goods).
When? 20 January – 9 February 2025
Where? Various locations including Marylebone, King’s Cross and Battersea
How much? £29pp
BOOK: baolondon.com
Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge
Come hungry to this decadent ten-course feast, which is being served amid the opulent surroundings of Four Seasons Hotel London at Tower Bridge. The meal kicks off with a prosperity tossed salad featuring salmon, jelly fish and pak choi, followed by dishes including wasabi king prawn, chicken dumpling soup, wok-fried vegetables, golden oyster and sauteed enoki mushroom. You’ll then finish on a sweet note with the impressive Mei Miao dessert, inspired by the restaurant’s lucky cat statue. On two select nights, the food will be complemented by live music: a traditional lion dance on 29 January and Chinese dancers on 8 February.
When? 20 January – 12 February 2025
Where? 10 Trinity Square, City of London, London EC3N 4AJ
How much? £148pp
BOOK: fourseasons.com
Hutong
Kick off the Year of the Snake in style at Hutong, the Northern Chinese restaurant found on the 33rd floor of The Shard. Soak up unparalleled views of the city skyline while enjoying a luxurious Lunar New Year feast, complete with live entertainment including a lion dance performance and a Chinese calligrapher. On the menu you’ll find dishes like the ceremonial lo hei salad, which is tossed in the air to avoid good fortune; wagyu beef; deep-fried sea bass; and crispy poussin. Better still, £5 from each bill will go towards OneSky, a charity which provides vulnerable children in Asia with care and early learning opportunities.
When? 27 January – 9 February 2025
Where? lvl 33, 31 St Thomas St, London SE1 9RY
How much? £125pp
BOOK: hutong.co.uk
