The best Chinese New Year dinners in Sydney look a bit different this year.
We’ve got traditional Lunar New Year banquets from some of the city’s most beloved Chinese restaurants, but we also have some Modern Australian and even Indigenous Australian flavours being interspersed with traditional flavours.
While Chinese New Year is always a multi-faceted celebration, full of fascinating symbolism and spiritual meaning, one of the most (obviously) popular ways to celebrate CNY each year is by having a big Lunar New Year feast with family and friends. Sydney’s best Chinese restaurants typically put together exclusive Chinese New Year banquets to help push the festivities along and lead you into a auspicious year with a very satisfied appetite.
Eating well is part of why Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is so popular in Sydney. Australia is typically known for having the best Asian restaurants outside of Asia so twirling your chopsticks around spicy prawn longevity noodles, biting into delicious dumplings and filling the table with springs rolls, whole fish and cured meats is mandatory.
Sydney Travel Guide has put together a round-up of the best Lunar New Year banquet menus in Sydney so you can plan your feasting accordingly over the next two weeks. We’ve also just included some of our favourite Chinese restaurants which are always packed and full of life this time of year.
Note that CNY 2015 in Sydney starts on Wednesday, January 29 and runs for 19 days.
January 29 marks the first day of the Year of the Snake, which is the sixth sign in the Chinese zodiac. Also known as Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, the occasion is also widely celebrated by Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, Thai and Japanese cultures, despite being most readily associated with Chinese culture. And while there are many great restaurants in Sydney with serving those respective cuisines, we’ll be focusing on the some of the eight regional Chinese cuisines that help define Sydney’s complex dining scene.
The best Chinese New Year Menus in Sydney

1. Royal Palace Seafood Restaurant, Haymarket
Pan fried vermicelli with live pipies in special XO sauce, prawn and black truffle dumplings, shallot-braised e-fu noodles, live lobster with ginger. All at 10pm while Dixon Street buzzes with the energy of Chinese New Year. That’s the vibe at Royal Palace Seafood Restaurant at this time of the year. And while the hatted restaurant is a showstopper any day across the calendar, the next few weeks is when the atmosphere really steps up.
To further celebrate the Year of the Snake, the kitchen has also started preparing takeout cakes for any Chinese New Year gifts. There are four traditional types available: rice cakes, water chestnut cakes, turnip cakes and fried taro cakes.
Address: 393-399 Sussex St, Haymarket NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9211 8518
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (10am – 11pm); Friday – Sunday (9:30am – 11pm)

2. Spice Temple, CBD
Sydney favourite Spice Temple has put together a special Lunar New Year feast according to the traits represented by the Wood Snake and auspicious dishes tied strongly to traditional. Executive Chef Andy Evans has crafted these dishes to symbolise luck, prosperity, wealth, opportunity, fortune, success, reunion and love.
Expect plates of red noodles with braised beef, money bags bursting with pork, prawns and garlic chives, pipis with pork and Shaoxing wine and plenty more.
Address: 10 Bligh St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8099 7088
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (12pm – 3pm, 6pm – 9pm); Friday (12pm – 3pm, 6pm – 10pm); Saturday (12pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 10:30pm); Sunday (12pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 9pm)

3. The Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre, Marrickville
Head along to Marrickville between Wednesday, January 29 to Sunday, February 2 and head straight to the pub’s signature Chinese restaurant, Lucky Prawn. The restaurant is one of the few Chinese establishments in Sydney that’s offering a special Lunar New Year banquet menu for $89 per person (minimum 4 people).
You’ll get a great selection of the kitchen’s biggest hits including that signature prawn toast, prawn wontons, XO pippies, snake beans and blue swimmer crab long life noodles in garlic butter.
The best times to head along are on Thursday, January 30 at 7pm or Sunday, February 2 at 3pm to pair your CNY feast with high-energy entertainment from the vibrant Jin Wu Koon lion dancers.
In addition to the LNY feast, there will be Lucky Prawn’s monthly yum cha set for 11am to 3pm on Sunday, February 2 with the menu packed full of classics like sweet and sour pork, sang choi bao and special fried rice along with the best dumplings in Marrickville.
Address: 8-12 Sydney St, Marrickville NSW 2204
Contact: (02) 9069 5583
Opening Hours: Monday – Wednesday (12pm – 10pm); Thursday (12pm – 11pm); Friday (12pm – 12am); Saturday (11am – 12am); Sunday (11am – 10pm)

4. Golden Century, Barangaroo
Opening just time for Lunar New Year, Sydney’s world-renowned Golden Century reveals its new lease on life at Crown Sydney in Barangaroo. And with, three pricey Chinese New Year banquet menus each designed for tables of ten. The first, the least expensive, will fill the table with 12 of the kitchen’s finest new dishes mixed with all the classics for $1488 per table. If you want to reach even higher than that, go for the most expensive at $3088 per table with ingredients chosen to symbolise thriving careers.
Address: Crown Sydney, Level 3/1 Barangaroo Ave, Barangaroo NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8871 7171
Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday (11am – 11pm)

5. Imperial Dynasty, Hurstville
Often cited as the best Cantonese restaurant in Sydney for seafood, Imperial Dynasty is a favourite amongst both locals and the wider Chinese communities that are spread across the city. No set banquet is necessary; locals know exactly what they want when they file in around the lazy susan, packing the spinning platform with plates of spring rolls, garlic king prawns, sliced salted free range chicken and that show-stealing mud crap in spicy XO sauce with vermicelli.
Address: Level 3/2 Crofts Ave, Hurstville NSW 2220
Contact: (02) 8957 7254
Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday (10am – 3pm, 5:30pm – 9pm)

6. Lilymu, Parramatta
Parramatta Square favourite Lilymu is celebrating the Year of the Snake with a $108 Lunar New Year Banquet menu offered until Sunday, February 2. Marking the first week of the Chinese New Year will be a festive collective of exclusive dishes including dumpling assiette with layu and black vinegar, roast barramundi with ginger and shallot and beef short rib with gochujang and perilla.
All guests will also receive a Red Pocket with a $20 dining voucher for any subsequent visit to Lilymu. We recommend heading along for lunch at 12pm on either the Saturday or Sunday to catch a vibrant lion dance performance.
Address: 153 Macquarie St, Parramatta NSW 2150
Contact: (02) 7809 4952
Opening Hours: Tuesday (5:30pm – 9pm); Wednesday – Friday (12pm – 9pm); Saturday (12pm – 2:30pm, 5:30pm – 10pm); Sunday (12pm – 2:30pm, 5:30pm – 9pm)

7. XOPP, Darling Harbour
XOPP hasn’t put together a Chinese New Year menu like they have in previous years. But you can still head along and build a big, bountiful feast from the restaurant’s extensive menu (and banging wine list).
You won’t go wrong with stacks of BBQ char siu pork and live seafood from the tank, but mandatory highlights include those signature stir fried pipies in XO sauce (served with Chinese donut bread so you can sponge up the housemade sauce), wok fried lobster with spring onions, XO scallops with snow peas, and Yeung Chow style fried rice.
Address: 1 Little Pier St, Haymarket NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8030 0000
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (12pm – 10pm); Friday – Saturday (12pm – 11pm); Sunday (12pm – 10pm)

8. Song Bird, Double Bay
This is the first Chinese New Year for Neil Perry’s ambitious Song Bird in Double Bay. The prolific chef has worked with ingredients most closely associated with good luck and prosperity, cooked into dishes with luxurious flourishes like poached Sun Farm heritage chicken and tea egg with pickled cucumber, crisp lobster and scallop money bag dumplings, steamed coral trout with ginger and shallot, blue swimmer crab with XO shanghai noodles, red braised beef with chestnuts, mandarin peel and bamboo pith, and more.
The menu is offered from January 28 to February 9 at $148pp with an optional $25 add-on for a signature Chinese New Year cocktail—the ‘Eight Snakes’ with amaretto, cherry liquor, Umeshu-Chinese pear liquor and lemon.
Address: 24 Bay St, Double Bay NSW 2028
Contact: (02) 9871 9888
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (6pm – 11pm); Friday – Saturday (12pm – 11pm); Sunday (12pm – 10pm)

9. Luna Lu, The Rocks
Campbell Cove’s popular Luna Lu has teamed up with Moet Hennessy for a $250-entry night of cocktails and banquets, taking a more luxurious approach to Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations. The one-night-only event will offer a bespoke Hennessy cocktail on arrival, leading up to a four-course shared banquet with serves of Hennessy V.S.O.P and X.O throughout the night.
Entertainment will be threaded throughout the Friday night while guests sink into dishes like an upscale version of sesame prawn toast using king prawn mince on sourdough with black and white sesame, topped with beetroot mayo and flying fish roe, and golden crispy premium duck with Chinese rose wine and spices. For dessert? Fresh fruit and mochi will end the night well.
Address: 7-27 Circular Quay W, The Rocks NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 8220 8401
Opening Hours: Monday – Thursday (12pm – 10pm); Friday – Saturday (12pm – 11pm); Sunday (12pm – 10pm)

10. Arthur, Surry Hills
Quaint Modern Australian restaurant Arthur is changing direction for the next few weeks, offering a Lunar New Year banquet that tracks through unexpected blends of Chinese and Australian flavours. Think zucchini flowers stuffed with pork, bug toast with salted egg yolk and optional caviar and Szechuan kangaroo with native pepperberry.
You’ve got the choice between a $120 Chef’s Menu or the more extensive $160 Arthur Menu. Either way, you’ve got one of the more distinctive Lunar New Year banquets waiting for you at this cosy neighbourhood diner, with both menus offered from January 29 to February 17.
Address: 544 Bourke St, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Contact: 0468 991 088
Opening Hours: Wednesday – Thursday (6pm – 11pm); Friday (5:30pm – 11pm); Saturday (12:30pm – 3pm, 5:30pm – 11pm); Sunday (12:30pm – 3pm, 6pm – 11pm)

11. Capella Sydney, CBD
Lauded luxury hotel Capella is getting involved in Sydney’s Lunar New Year celebrations with a series of upscale high teas. From now until Sunday, February 16, both hotel guests and visitors can book into a luxurious afternoon tea that’s been shifted towards the occasion. Think bite-sized treats like sesame prawn toast with chilli honey, fried pork dumplings and pandan and mandarin lamingtons.
The high tea menu, set at $125pp and offered only between 1pm and 4pm, is anchored by white rabbit jasmine tea by zensation and optional add-on NV Louis Roederer Collection 224 ($25).
Address: 24 Loftus St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9071 5000
High Tea Hours: Monday – Sunday (1pm – 4pm)

12. Midden by Mark Olive, Circular Quay
Midden by Mike Olive, located in the Sydney Opera House, presents an unexpected cross between Indigenous Australian and Chinese flavours to get involved with Sydney’s Chinese New Year celebrations.
The four-courser features dishes like the Lunar Dreamtime Dumplings course with prawn dumplings, kangaroo wonton, vegetable spring rolls, and turnip cake with desert lime black vinegar, longevity stir fried noodles with bush tomato and sea succulents, and mains of either pan-seared chicken breast with Kutjera black bean sauce or crispy skin barramundi with lemon myrtle soy sauce.
Never seen these types of ingredients cobbled together? Us neither. Head along between January 29 and February 4 to catch this incredible unique Lunar New Year menu for $108pp ($88pp at lunch).
Address: Western Broadwalk Sydney Opera House Sydney, Bennelong Point NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9250 7220
Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday (11:30am – 2:30pm, 5pm – 8:30pm)

13. Pearl Dining, CBD
Pearl Dining is offering a six-course Lunar New Year banquet for $148pp as well as an assortment of blue swimmer crab, scallop and king prawn money bags for just $24. Both specials favour a more traditional Lunar New Year feast, with the banquet menu included dishes like a king salmon prosperity salad, the kitchen’s signature dry-aged double roasted peking duk and Typhoon shelter lobster.
Each table booked also enters a lucky draw with red envelopes containing either $8, $18, $88 or $118 Pearl Dining vouchers.
Address: Level 1/50 Bridge St, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 7227 6293
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Wednesday (5:30pm – 8:30pm); Thursday (12pm – 2:30pm, 5:30pm – 8:30pm); Friday (12pm – 2:30pm, 5:30pm – 9pm); Saturday (5:30pm – 9pm)

14. Sydney Opera House, Circular Quay
Chef Luke Nguyen has worked with the Sydney Opera House to curate a special Lunar New Year dinner event with each dish strongly tied to tradition. Purposed towards reunion dinners, where family and friends come together, the feast will take place against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour with dragon and lion dances creating a lively atmosphere.
Expect dishes like betel leaves with sesame seared tuna, mud crab prawn toast, glacier 51 toothfish with spanner crab and coconut prawn bisque, and slow braised pork belly with tea quail egg, pickled vegetables and master stock glaze.
Address: Bennelong Point, Sydney NSW 2000
Contact: (02) 9250 7111
Read More of our Lunar New Year in Sydney content
- Sydney will be hosting the biggest Dragon Boat Festival in the Southern Hemisphere
- We have the full schedule of all lion dance performances in Sydney for Lunar New Year