The Resy Guide to Celebrating Lunar New Year in New York
Updated:
While we’ve just celebrated the start of 2026, in just a few weeks — on Tuesday, Feb. 17 to be exact — we’ll be commemorating the start of the Lunar New Year, specifically the year of the horse.
Lunar New Year is one of the Asian community’s most important holidays, a two-week-long celebration known as the Spring Festival. With auspicious foods and superstitions galore, it’s a wonderful time to be around a table with loved ones.
So, consider the two-week span in late mid-February as your designated time to eat your way through Chinatown’s numerous family-owned restaurants, as well as many other incredible spots throughout the city. Lunar New Year is celebrated in Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, and beyond, too, after all.
Here are some restaurants doing some exciting Lunar New Year happenings this year, as well as classic standbys always worth paying a visit.
And for more inspiration on where to dine in Chinatown all year-round, we’ve got you covered, too: From Flushing in Queens and Sunset Park in Brooklyn to Manhattan Chinatown. And if you need some additional help in Manhattan Chinatown, Welcome to Chinatown has an impressive directory.
Brooklyn
Antidote Williamsburg
Shanghainese and Sichuanese culinary traditions converge at this Williamsburg spot where you won’t want to miss out on ordering the Dongpo braised pork belly or green peppercorn fish stew.
Birds of a Feather Williamsburg
This Williamsburg sibling of Manhattan’s celebrated Café China is ideal for a crowd; you’ll likely want to order everything from the Sichuanese menu, including delicious poached wontons in chile sauce to a lovely tea-smoked duck.
Bong Crown Heights
Bong is perhaps one of the buzziest restaurants in Brooklyn right now, making it an ideal spot to ring in the year of the horse. Their menu is Cambodian in spirit, with lots of sour and fermented flavors sure to keep you interested and intrigued. Sharing the whole fish or Mama Kim’s lobster with your loved ones is a great way to commemorate the new year, too. Expect loud hip-hop on the playlist and a good time to be had by all.
Bonnie’s Williamsburg
Photo by Adam Friedlander, courtesy of Bonnie’s
Chef Calvin Eng’s heartfelt ode to Cantonese American cuisine features dishes you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else in the city: Think cacio e pepe mein with fermented bean curd and pecorino, and a cold poached chicken with golden broth.
Photo by Adam Friedlander, courtesy of Bonnie’s
Breeze Greenpoint
Breeze is where the best of two great culinary traditions — Sichuanese and Shanghainese — combine to delicious effect. That means delicate crab soup dumplings, siu with salted duck egg yolk, and hearty Sichuan beef stew.
Fan Fried Rice Bar Williamsburg
Building an entire restaurant concept on fried rice may seem bold, but one bite into Fan Fried Rice Bar’s eponymous main dish and you’ll wonder why it hadn’t been done here before. You have chef-owner Paul Chen to thank, who remixes the fried rice specialty shops of his hometown of Taipei at this Williamsburg haunt, where fluffy grains of wok-tossed rice are studded with Taiwanese flavors (see the excellent bone-in pork chop version) and New York tastes (the unmissable pastrami). Pro tip: Do yourself a favor and always get the night market-inspired sausages as a side.
For the new year, they’re offering garlic chive flower fried rice, sweet Chinese sausage, and cured pork belly on special, plus a year of the horse cocktail made with the Taiwanese spirit, kaoliang.
Entre Nous Clinton Hill
Entre Nous is hosting Chinese supper club pop-up Club Soda on Tuesday, Feb. 17, for a special menu that’ll pair perfectly with their deep wine list. Think lotus root salad, housemade dumplings, steamed skate wing in black bean sauce, and almond pudding with kumquat jam.
Tickets are available here.
Falansai Greenpoint
Celebrate Tết with Vietnamese tamales, rice paper hand rolls, pork noodles, crab curry, and “secret” sticky rice — all of which are featured in Falansai’s incredible dac biet chef’s tasting menu ($58/person). Or go à la carte and be sure to order some ginger chicken for prosperity, and savor the uniquely Vietnamese and Mexican influences you’ll find here.
Han Dynasty – Dekalb Market Downtown Brooklyn
You simply can’t go wrong with whatever you decide to order at this Sichuan specialist, a must for anyone who adores dishes like numbingly hot dry pepper chicken wings, slick and spicy dan dan noodles, and cumin-crusted lamb. This spacious location, inside DeKalb Market, also has a full bar where you can indulge in refreshing cocktails like a gingery Chengdu Mule topped with Sichuan peppercorns, so we do recommend toasting to the New Year if you so choose.
Hana Makgeolli Greenpoint
One of our favorite spots for pop-ups and excellent Korean fare and sool is always a good idea. Celebrate the new year with a sool flight and some of Hana Makgeolli’s range of anju, from pa jeon and dubu kimchi to bossam and soy-ginger glazed mushrooms.
Read more about Hana Makgeolli here.
Kings Co Imperial – Williamsburg Williamsburg
This Williamsburg favorite has been quietly hosting invite-only mahjong nights for months, and they’re opening them up to the public twice monthly just in time for the New Year. Tickets for the events are $65 per guest (plus tax) and include dinner and guided instruction. The new year’s celebration edition will be held on Feb. 18; it’s currently sold out, but you can still join the waitlist and say your prayers.
Additionally, at both their Williamsburg and Lower East Side outposts, they’re also serving a special Lunar New Year collaboration menu with chef and cookbook author Jon Kung from Feb. 17 to 22. Highlights include third culture crab rangoon soup dumplings; red-braised pork belly pot roast; Jon’s dan dan lasagna dumplings; and fish and chips with a Hong Kong-style curry sauce.
LaoJie Sunset Park
If hotpot is your thing, do consider this all-you-can-eat option in Brooklyn Chinatown. Pro tip: Load up on sauces at the sauce station.
Call (718) 431-0026 for reservations.
Leland Eating and Drinking House Prospect Heights
Photo courtesy of Leland Eating and Drinking House
From Feb. 16 to 22, Leland is transforming its lunch, brunch, and dinner menus for the entire week for the occasion: Think Fujian fried rice with Maine lobster gravy; silken tofu with fermented black bean sauce; sisig for brunch; and their signature half Peking duck sourced from the Catskills.
You can also celebrate the year of the horse by honing your mahjong skills with a verifiable master. Lenny An will teach scoring and strategy for advanced players during Leland’s vinyl brunch on Feb. 20, with a menu of dim sum favorites like sesame pancakes, pork buns, and chicken jook porridge. Tickets are $50 per person, including food and lessons.
Photo courtesy of Leland Eating and Drinking House
Lula Mae Clinton Hill
A Resy staff favorite, Lula Mae serves up Cambodian dishes like fried chicken with lime pepper dressing, spicy sticky lamb chops, and petite oysters. Cheers to the new year with one of the cocktails — the Tokyo Maw with whiskey, yuzu, and orange-star anise is particularly good.
MáLà Project Greenpoint Greenpoint
One of the city’s best purveyors of Sichuan-style dry pot is also a perfect place to feast on scallion pancakes, vegetable dumplings, and dan dan noodles, too.
Nowon Bushwick Bushwick
A burger never hurt anyone at the start of the year, especially when it’s as good as Nowon’s. Celebrate here and enjoy that, plus other Korean dishes with decidedly American twists like chopped cheese rice cakes, bacon and kimchi fried rice, and black sesame creme brûlée. This location also has a lineup of wood-fired pizzas with Korean influences, like a Kinda Korean margherita with a gochu red sauce, mozzarella, chile oil, and basil.
Sal Tang’s Carroll Gardens
It’s a collaboration between two industry heavy hitters: Wilson Tang of Nom Wah and Sal Lamboglia of Cafe Spaghetti and Swoony’s. At Sal Tang’s, the two have joined forces for a Cantonese American style spot in Lamboglia’s home base of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, serving up takeout-inspired classics like beef and broccoli and crab rangoon mozzarella sticks. So if you’d like to celebrate the Lunar New Year with some of the greatest hits of Chinese American fare, you’re in luck at this spot.
