A second chance to celebrate a fresh start, Sydney celebrates Lunar New Year with epic banquets, luminous lanterns and cultural performances galore.
In the Chinese calendar, we're moving into the Year of the Snake, and there are plenty of buns and dumplings, prosperity tossed salads and extra-long noodles to chow down on this Lunar New Year, as well as cultural experiences like lion dances, tea ceremonies, contemporary art exhibitions, and markets.
Here are the best menus and food specials, and celebrations and events in Sydney for Lunar New Year 2025.
Lunar New Year Celebrations And Events
The Chinese Garden Of Friendship
Pier Street and Harbour Street, Darling Harbour | Wednesday 29 January–Sunday 9 February
Image credit: Darling Harbour | Supplied
The Chinese Garden of Friendship will kick off its Lunar New Year festivities on 29 January running through to 9 February. There'll be paper art installations by expert paper engineer Benja Harney, red envelope giveaways filled with chocolate coins, traditional tea ceremonies, one-on-one Chinese zodiac readings with Feng Shui master Mina Zheng, and brush painting and calligraphy workshops. And don't miss the Twilight Garden Party on Friday 31 January and 7 February with a spectacular performance by the contemporary jazz band Zodiac. Entry to the garden is $12 per adult and $8 per child.
Parramatta
Parramatta Square and surrounds | Saturday 1 February, 4pm–9pm
Image credit: City of Parramatta | Supplied
The streets of Parramatta will be alive with art installations, live performances, cultural workshops and street food to celebrate Lunar New Year. Parramatta Square will be aglow with lanterns, entertained with high-pole lion dancing, and filled up with delicacies from street food stalls serving everything from noodles and dumplings to bubble tea and mochi doughnuts. You can even get involved in Chinese calligraphy, horoscope readings, games, and more. Check out more info here.
Sydney Lunar Streets
Dixon Street, Haymarket and surrounds | Saturday 1 February, 5pm–10pm
Image credit: Visit Haymarket | Katherine Griffiths
There’s nowhere better to spend the Lunar New Year than Chinatown. The curtain raiser for Sydney Lunar Festival 2025 is the Sydney Lunar Streets party, where there will be heaps of market stalls and food trucks offering Asian dishes and a packed entertainment schedule that includes lion dancers, K-pop troupes, and live DJs.
Darling Harbour And Darling Square
Tumbalong Boulevard, Haymarket and Darling Harbour | Wednesday 29 January–Sunday 9 February
Image credit: Darling Harbour | Supplied
Darling Harbour’s bringing in the Year of the Snake with a bunch of events on both water and land. They’re hosting dragon boat races in Sydney Harbour from 7–9 February, jet pack shows over Cockle Bay on 1 and 8 of February, fireworks throughout February, lion dance performances, and a bunch of banquets around the precinct.
Darling Square Festival
Darling Square, Haymarket and surrounds | Wednesday 22 January–Sunday 16 February
Image credit: Darling Square Festival | Supplied
A major Lunar New Year Festival is taking over Darling Square with cultural performances, lantern displays and heaps of festive food and drink offerings. In honour of the Year of the Snake, there’ll be live snake shows on Saturday 8 and 15 February from 10am–12pm, with free personalised fans handed out on Saturdays from 4pm–7pm and live singers and roving entertainment from 5pm, with a special celebration on Hay Street on Saturday 31 January from 6pm–7pm.
Food specials include spicy karaage dishes by Dopa Donburi & Dessert and Gimme One Fried Skewer, a family-sized munch box from Dapur Sate, mango-jam stuffed black sesame doughnuts from Shortstop Coffee & Donuts and more. View more information here.
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Sydney Fish Market
Corner Pyrmont Bridge Road and Bank St, Pyrmont | Wednesday 29 January
Image credit: Sydney Fish Market | Supplied
With seafood playing a significant role in traditional Lunar New Year celebrations, there’s no better time to swing by the Sydney Fish Market, which is decked out in red lanterns to mark the occasion.
Lion dancers will be performing from 2.30pm on Wednesday 29 January and there's a kid-friendly dumpling class from 10am–12pm, with market is open all weekend so you can pick up seafood to prep your own prosperity toss salad at home, or grab a festive feed from the retailers on site.
Market City
13 Hay Street, Haymarket | Saturday 1 February
Image credit: Market City | Supplied
To mark the Lunar New Year, Market City will come to life with an immersive Street Festival with market stalls, acrobatic lion dances on 3-metre high poles in the Centre Court, lucky red envelope giveaways, themed dishes from Fuji Seafood Restaurant and The Dolar Shop Hot Pot, family-friendly calligraphy workshops, custom-designed inflatable snake decorations and more—with some of the fun even continuing until Sunday 16 February, check out what’s on here.
Lunar New Year Menus And Food Specials
The Bob Hawke Beer & Leisure Centre
8-12 Sydney Street, Marrickville | Wednesday 29 January–Sunday 2 February
Image credit: Hawke's Brewing Co. | Nikki To
Hawke’s Brewing Co. and in-house retro Chinese restaurant The Lucky Prawn have gone all out this year, hosting a Lunar New Year Banquet for lunch and dinner, featuring faves like prawn toast, wontons, XO pippies and snake beans. There’ll be live entertainment from the Jin Wu Koon Lion Dancers on Thursday 30 January at 7pm and Sunday 2 February at 3pm, as well as a special edition of their monthly yum cha sesh from 11am–3pm on 2 February packed with Cantonese classics like sang choi bao, sweet and sour pork and special fried rice. Plus, try Hawke’s Lucky Lager made using cooked rice from the Lucky Prawn kitchen, pouring on tap all weekend at the public bar.
Song Bird
24 Bay Street, Double Bay | Monday 27 January–Monday 10 February
Image credit: Song Bird | Supplied
Double Bay’s three-storey Cantonese restaurant Song Bird is hosting a $148pp 8-course Chinese New Year banquet crafted by restauranteur Neil Perry and Head Chef Mark Lee. Packed with top-quality traditional ingredients and bold flavours, each course is designed to bring good fortune for the year ahead.
Dishes include crisp lobster and scallop money bag dumplings signifying riches, Peking Duck mandarin pancakes for good luck, blue swimmer crab with Shanghai noodles for longevity, and tangyuan sticky rice balls with black sesame custard for family unity and togetherness—available for lunch Friday to Sunday or dinner all week, with a special lion dance performance on Wednesday 29 January. Reserve your spot here.
The Lunar Feast at Fat Noodle
The Star, 80 Pyrmont Street, Pyrmont | Tuesday 4 February, 6pm–10pm
Image credit: Fat Noodle | Supplied
Renowned chef Luke Nguyen is hosting a $128pp six-course Lunar New Year feast at Fat Noodle for one night only including a lychee and kalamansi mocktail on arrival, and dishes like fatt choy yu sheng with Australian king salmon and Kaluga caviar; braised pork ravioli with yam taro and lotus chips in Luke’s special-recipe stock; golden king prawn fried rice with egg floss and a Vietnamese coffee bavarois infused with Kahlua and coconut gelato.
The Star’s other venues also have exclusive Lunar New Year 2025 offerings like a $138pp Lunar New Year Banquet Buffet at Harvest Buffet, a decadent sashimi platter at Sokyo for $888, and more, alongside LED dragon and horoscope installations and lion dance performances throughout the venue—check out everything that’s on at The Star here.
Lilymu
3 Parramatta Square, 153 Macquarie Street, Parramatta | Saturday 25 January—Sunday 2 February
Image credit: Lilymu | Supplied
Parramatta Pan-Asian restaurant Lilymu is putting on a $108pp Lunar New Year Banquet, where guests receive a $20 dining voucher in a red pocket for future visits. Standout dishes include spicy dumplings with black vinegar; mapo eggplant with arare crackers; tuna takai with XO and nasturtiums; roast barramundi with ginger and shallot; and beef short rib with gochujang and perilla. There’ll also be lion dance performances from noon on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 February.
Lana
Level 1/5-7 Young Street, Circular Quay | Thursday 30 January–Saturday 15 February (excluding Friday 14 February)
Located in the historic Hinchcliff House, Lana is effortless, modern Italian dining punctuated with Asian flavours. Executive chef Alex Wong has devised a $188pp multi-course feast for Lunar New Year 2025, with a line-up featuring marinated scampi crackers with yuzu and green mango; scallop ‘silk’ with nduja XO, spring onion piadina topped with konbu mascarpone, sea urchin and caviar; prosperity salad packed with Ora king salmon, a top-tier wagyu rump cap in white pepper sauce; and silken tofu budino made with yogurt, coconut, lychee and rice congee.
Spice Temple
10 Bligh Street, Sydney CBD | Monday 5–Sunday 18 February
Image credit: Spice Temple | Supplied
Iconic CBD Chinese restaurant Spice Temple is ushering in the Year of the Snake with a one-off banquet menu. Available at lunch and dinner for $159pp, the Lunar New Year menu features raw tuna with spicy orange oil for prosperity, pork and prawn-filled money bags representing wealth, roast pork belly with aged black vinegar sauce signifying success, and red ingredients that symbolise joy, with a rose, raspberry and chocolate lollipop inspired by love, as a sweet end. Book here.
The Fullerton Hotel
1 Martin Place, Sydney CBD | Monday 27 January–Sunday 2 March
The Fullerton Hotel is celebrating with a prosperity-inspired Lunar New Year Afternoon Tea at The Bar starring colourful creations like rambutan coconut verrine, a decadent black sesame mousse roulade, chilli crab cannelloni and pecking duck wraps, priced at $78pp including tea or coffee, $88pp with a flute of Chandon sparkling wine or $98pp for two hours of free flowing prosecco—available from 12pm to 4pm daily.
There’s also a special lion dance on Friday 31 January from 1pm to 2.30pm, limited-edition cocktails for $25 like a red lantern martini, and three festive delicacies at The Place restaurant including a $28 eight treasure handcrafted dim sum basket, $48 XO pipis and a Fullerton prosperity salad toss ‘lo hei’ for $88.
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Main image credit: Darling Square | Supplied
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