As you'd expect from a restaurant that specialises in home-style Chinese food, Chinese Laundry will be ringing in the New Year with a celebration traditional in China's northern provinces – coming together to make and eat dumplings from morning to midnight. However, the pair behind it appreciate that dumpling-making might not be a skill everyone has on their CV, so they're holding masterclasses for three days over the festive period to share their expert knowledge. Guests will enjoy a two-hour masterclass, making dumplings filled with pork and seaweed, shiitake mushroom and daikon radish, and prawn and okra, followed by a drink and a two-course dinner in the restaurant.
Photograph by Issy Croker
East meets West at this new restaurant on Kingsland Road, which focuses on European ingredients cooked with Asian attitude. It's the team's first Chinese New Year in their bricks and mortar site, so they're going all-out with a nine-course collaborative feast. As well as founding chef, Zijun Meng and Ana Gonçalves, there'll be special cheffing appearances from Edgar Wallace of Koya Bar and António Galapito of Taberna do Mercado, among others. Not sure what the menu will look like? Here's a taster: iberico pork and king prawn dumplings; Hong Kong-style noodles; suckling pig brain; and sticky rice cake ragu. Oh, and you'll get a class of prosecco on arrival, too.
Time for the luxury one: head to Mayfair for the ultimate opulent celebration at 1930s Shanghai-inspired Park Chinois, where there'll be a 'Dinner Show Spectacular'. Things will kick off with a traditional lion dance, followed by a burlesque dinner show and a late-night DJ set. As for food, there'll be new year specials, with braised pork belly with yam; roasted duck with Australian abalone; and sun-dried oyster, dried scallop and seamoss. What's more, the restaurant will be selling Moët Hennessy's brand-new luxury wine Ao Yun by the glass – given it's usually £400 a bottle, we think that's a damn good deal.
In China, the New Year celebrations last for 15 days – and that's exactly how they're doing things dim sum favourite Ping Pong. The restaurant group will be serving up a special menu of seafood treasure dumplings decadently finished with edible gold glitter, as well as a tonka rob roy cocktail, served with a tiny chunk of caramel fudge.
Double the food = double the happiness, right? That's certainly the game plan at Hutong, where diners will be treated to a menu with a traditional lo hei raw seafood salad, Shanghai wontons in a chicken broth, chicken roasted in Jasmine tea, crispy lamb ribs, and spiced mince pork, to name but a few of the dishes. Phew. Better stop eating now, then. There'll also be a lion dance and live music – not to mention that spectacular view.
