Lunar New Year 2023: Best Melbourne restaurants to celebrate Year of the Rabbit
Celebrate the Year of the Rabbit with these delicious, great-value Lunar New Year feasts across Melbourne.
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Celebrate Lunar New Year and the Year of the Rabbit around Melbourne at these great-value restaurants.
Panda BBQ
A riot of colour, flowers and pandas, this vast spot a floor above Bourke St goes straight for the jugular of its youthful market with Instagram lures such as swing seats and a wall of love locks. The skewer-heavy menu is equally likeable, the charcoal grill lending its smoky goodness to everything from whole king prawns to squid and fatty swatches of pork belly. Made in-house, elastic noodles ballast everything from crayfish to beef, while the Aussie-Canto classic lemon chicken kicks goals with a tangy, glossy sauce. In even better news for night owls, it’s open until 3am daily. Ring in the New Year with live music from 7pm to 9pm.
2/202 Bourke St, Melbourne; pandabbqmel.com
Master Lanzhou
Student Lu Gan opened Lanzhou Beef Noodle Bar near her university campus when she was just 20. The decision was strategic, but also a little selfish: the young entrepreneur couldn’t find the beef broth noodles she grew up with in Lanzhou’s Gansu province, so she decided to make them herself. After a swift rebrand, Master Lanzhou now has 12 Melbourne stores. Unlike other fast food joints, Master Lanzhou makes all its food from scratch; soup noodles are housemade and stretched to order, as is the bubbling broth with 18 spices and the signature chilli oil made from sesame oil-steeped dried chillies.
Melbourne CBD, Glen Waverley, Chinatown, Chadstone, Doncaster, Highpoint, Melbourne University, Melbourne Central, Eastland, Box Hill, Caulfield, South Yarra; masterlanzhou.com.au
Bak Kut Teh King
This restaurant’s titular dish of bak kut teh (“meat bone tea” – otherwise known as pork ribs in a restorative herbal broth) would no doubt win the approval of the Malaysian dock workers who are credited with its energy-packed invention. But, just saying, they might also want to take a seat in this sleek space to explore its variations – whether chicken, vegetarian or dry-cooked pork belly – and customise it with add-ons, including pork intestines or shank. Other chi balancing dishes include ginger spiked vinegar pork, while the simple fried pleasures of Chinese doughnuts are essential to mop up the sauce.
966 Whitehorse Rd, Box Hill; bktking.com.au
Shandong Mama
It seems Mama really does know best, especially when it comes to dumplings. This family-run Melbourne favourite is tucked inside an arcade in Chinatown and serves up traditional recipes from Yantai on China’s Shandong Peninsula. Seafood may be a specialty of this budget-friendly haven, but for a more parochial dish, locals may want to opt for the seafood and chicken-filled Melbourne or Aussie Lamb pot stickers. Or think outside the dumpling wrapper and go for ShanDong specialties such as pork-stuffed fried lotus roots or extra-large bao. Eat in, or take away dumplings, pot stickers and buns to make at home.
Shop 7-8 Mid City Arcade, 200 Bourke St, Melbourne; facebook.com/shandongmama.
Hawker Chan
Singapore by way of Lonsdale St, this hawker franchise replicates the Michelin-starred original with an authentically functional fit-out and the Hong Kong style soya chicken rice that put it on the global food map. The crisp-skinned chicken in its secret marinade is a juicy, complex delight; customise with noodles if rice isn’t your thing, or grab a half or whole chook to go. The simple Canto-style menu offers the same mini smorgasbord of choice with roast duck, wonton soups and a few tofu and vegetable dishes, while the crackle-hatted roast pork is guaranteed to give the chicken a run for its money.
157 Lonsdale St, Melbourne; hawkerchanaustralia.com
Benyue Kitchen
Housemade siu mai kicks things off, all plump prawn and pork meat snug in yellow wonton wrappers. Next is Peking duck, dry-aged for days and roasted until the skin is perfectly crisp and flesh tender, before being wrapped in a silky pancake with crisp cucumber and sticky hoisin. Larger plates include land, veg and sea proteins, but the most impressive, and perhaps easily overlooked, dish is the char kway teow in which fat rice noodles are covered in a bounty of veg and meaty textures. Benyue Kitchen’s brilliance lies in its simplicity – fresh ingredients, cooked moments before they hit your lips.
365 Buckley St, Aberfeldie; benyuekitchen.com.au
Tim Ho Wan
The shattery-crisp crust on the barbecued pork rolls remains a revelation at the Melbourne home of the Hong Kong-based Michelin-starred mothership, but there are plenty of other reasons to visit this buzzing joint. Like the translucent spinach dumplings – an edible work of art – or the big flavoured pig’s liver cheung fan and the slippery vermicelli roll filled with shrimp in a sweet-edged sauce. From noodles to the deep-fried section, everything on the tick-a-box menu comes in at under $10, making it the perfect place for a quick office lunch or a proper feast on a shoestring. This weekend celebrate with a Yum Cha Feast.
206 Bourke St, Melbourne; timhowanaustralia.com
And five others worth trying:
Crown Melbourne
All you can eat gourmet buffet restaurant The Conservatory, has a special Lunar New Year menu until Jan 31. Cost: $145 per adult, $72 per child.
Sip cognac at Silks in one of the two Lunar New Year x Hennesy pairings until Jan 29.
Koko has a premium pour of Penfolds 389 for $55, which comes with a red packet with special offering inside.
Old Beijing
This QV Melbourne restaurant boasts it sells the most Peking duck in the city. Put our favourite Chinese restaurant snack to the test in one of Old Beijing’s Lunar New Year banquets. Other traditional dishes include the colourful shared salad Prosperity Yee Sang, tossed tableside with chopsticks, the lucky 8 Treasure Lotus Leaf Rice, braised pork knuckles, Red Bean Rice Balls and the lucky King Island Lobster.
Albert Park Hotel
Celebrate at Happy Valley at the Albert Park Hotel with a $140 banquet menu of traditional dishes until Jan 28.
Moonhouse
Between 3-5 Feb, Moonhouse will mark the Lantern Festival (the end of the Lunar New Year) with metre-long noodles on its banquet menu and red envelopes for each guest with dining vouchers inside.
Hawker Hall
A dedicated Lunar New Year menu for $88 per person will be available until January 29, including XO rock lobster with Chinese doughnuts, crispy duck leg pancakes with orange plum sauce and scallop dumplings. There will also be live Lion Dance performances at the Windsor restaurant. Free cocktail and dining vouchers are up for grabs.
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