SFGuide
11 Exciting Lunar New Year Specials To Check Out
photo credit: Jeremy Chiu
This year, we won’t be ringing in the Lunar New Year with big family gatherings or parades through Chinatown, but there are still ways to celebrate the year of the Ox and support local restaurants at the same time. Tons of restaurants across the Bay are offering meal sets, poon choi, and even a Lucky Candy-inspired cake - here are 11 to check out. Or take this as an opportunity to order from your local Chinatown businesses - they need our support now more than ever.
The Spots
The Cantonese restaurant will offer colorful prosperity toss salads starting Feb. 13th. Theirs comes with carrots, daikon, crispy noodles, and salmon sashimi (you can also order a version with shredded chicken). If you’re looking for dessert, Harborview has four kinds of cakes (two types of sticky rice, water chestnut, and turnip) that are ready to be reheated and crisped up at home. Check their online store to order for pick up.
The Chinatown bakery has entrees, desserts, and poon choi - a traditional new year dish filled with auspicious ingredients like abalone and dried mushrooms - available for pick up or delivery. Call, email, DM, or order online at least two days in advance.
La Cocina, the incubator kitchen for WOC-owned food businesses, is selling special food boxes for Lunar New Year. It’s filled with products from local Asian-owned businesses, like coconut pandan cookies from The Baking Endeavor, turkey momos from Bini’s Kitchen, and Vietnamese braised pork with egg from Noodle Girl Restaurant. Order here by Friday, Feb. 5th for pick up or delivery on the 10th.
For the new year, Dragon Beaux is offering a prix-fixe menu that serves six to eight people (or alternatively, you, six to eight times). It’s $368, and comes with a lot of food - including a chef’s choice BBQ meat platter, braised abalone, sautéed lobster, and fried rice. They also have poon choi in two sizes (five servings for $198 and $368 for ten). Order by phone or online for pick up or delivery.
If you’re looking for celebratory desserts to ring in the year, B. Patisserie’s annual Lunar New Year menu is available from Feb. 12th-28th. It includes everything from black sesame kouign amann and milk tea cake to mango pudding with evaporated milk. Pre-order here starting Feb. 8th, or stop by to pick up.
The Asian-American cocktail bar in Oakland is celebrating the year of the Ox with a few special cakes: yuzu black sesame, almond hojicha, salted egg yolk, and one inspired by Lucky Candy. Cake orders must be placed a week in advance here (pick up only).
For braised pork belly, garlic noodles, porchetta stuffed with mushroom sticky rice, and black sesame mochi cakes, order from the Vietnamese pop-up (note that pre-orders open on Feb. 8th at noon, and will probably sell out quickly). Their Lunar New Year menu serves four to five people, costs $150, and is available for pick up or delivery.
Palette Tea House has two different options for Lunar New Year: the Longevity feast, which is $138 and serves four, or the Harmony feast ($198, serves six). You’ll get things like longevity noodles with lobster, sizzling black pepper short ribs, vegetable stir fry, and a fried coconut milk custard. Order here for pick up between Feb. 11th-21st.
Oakland-based chocolatier Kimberly Yang is making incredibly cute ox-shaped chocolates for the new year. They’re filled with sesame praline and crunchy honey caramelized sesame bits, and are currently in low stock - so get your orders in before it’s too late.
Yank Sing’s new year dim sum platter serves four and costs $138. It comes with a big assortment of 13 different dim sum dishes, from siu mai and honey walnut prawns to longevity noodles and sesame balls. You can order now on Tock for pick up (at their Rincon Center location) or delivery from Feb. 10th-14th or 17th-21st.
The new-ish Vietnamese restaurant in the Richmond is combining their Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day specials into one dinner for two, which you can pick up or have delivered on Feb. 12th, 13th, or 14th. It includes a scallop carpaccio, dungeness crab noodle soup, beef stew, and a slice of highly-coveted Basuku cheesecake. Order online (there’s a limited amount of dinner sets, so best to order early).
