Lunar New Year is fast approaching, and if you’re one of those who celebrate this, the excitement is palpable! After all, there’s so much to consider and prepare for: as much as possible, everything you eat, drink, touch, wear and use should be a symbol of good fortune and happiness. 

Yes, we’re exaggerating… But only a little, we swear! The good news is – you might have questions but we’ve got answers and we’re ready to share. So, hold on to your wallets everyone; whether you’re preparing:

• • The Most Propitious Meals
  • The Luckiest Yushengs
  • The Most Auspicious Sweets and Snacks

We’ve got the recommendations virtually guaranteed to bring you good health and big wealth!

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THE MOST PROPITIOUS MEALS

Every bite brings you prosperity. That’s why you need to eat more at every meal. Deliciousness is just a bonus. A very pleasurable bonus.

Eating At Home

These takeaway options make it easier to pretend you’ve mastered Asian cooking at last. Plus, what could be more relaxing than having a feast at home in your fanciest pajamas?

Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro

Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro's Lunar New Year 2025 Takeaway Menu (styled); centre of image - Shisen Hanten Abundant Fortune Pot

With Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro being helmed by third-generation heir, you can be sure that any dish from the Chūka Szechwan Ryori specialist restaurant carries rich culinary heritage and a seamless blend of Chinese Szechwan flavours with refined Japanese techniques and ingredients. Their Lunar New Year specials are no different, and their version of pencai – the Shisen Hanten Abundant Fortune Pot ($518+) – lives up to both the restaurant’s reputation and its very auspicious name. Available only for takeaway, this is a lavish dish where pork knuckle and roasted duck leisurely unwind alongside whole abalone, Japanese scallops, live prawns and sea cucumber. Slowly cooked with a whole host of other meats, seafood and vegetables, the resulting flavour is rich, complex, nuanced – unforgettable. In celebration of the season and a nod to the idea of abundance and good fortune, Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro will also gift all buyers of the Fortune Pot with a complimentary Salmon Yu Sheng; Wok-fried Glutinous Rice with Chinese Sausage and Crispy Sakura Shrimp; and their Signature Chilli Sauce.

Available for pre-order from 31 December 2024, with delivery and self-collection available from 12 January 2025 to 12 February 2025. All orders must be placed 3 days in advance.

Bedrock Bar & Grill

Make this Year of the Snake a meaty one! Or, at least, one of your Lunar New Year meals can be – quite literally if you order the special from Bedrock Bar & Grill. This year, they present an absolute beast of an Auspicious Feast ($988++, serves 8). It begins with a Citrus-fed Wagyu Yusheng featuring not fish, but the super luxe Sir Harry Citrus-fed Wagyu where the beef has a subtle citrus aroma thanks to being constantly fed with oranges and other citrus fruit. It’s a rather cute little play on the festive association with mandarins. Then the meal thunders into the mains, which feature a 1kg Woodfire Grilled Kombu Cured OP Ribeye, a F1 Shimo Wagyu Tomahawk Steak, a Whole Baked Snapper as well as a Mangalica Pork Porterhouse! But just in case all that protein isn’t quite enough, the kitchen team pairs it with five different sides such as their rich creamy Bedrock Mac ‘N’ Cheese, Creamed Spinach and Grilled Broccolini. The meal finishes with a Grand Bombe Alaska for a grand flourish. And there’s a complimentary bottle of Bedrock x Brothers in Arms No.6 Shiraz Cabernet to toast the year too.

Due to limited availability, the restaurant requires pre-ordering the set menu at least 2 days in advance.

L-R: Bedrock Bar & Grill's Auspicious Feast; Tablescape's Prosperity in a Pot

Tablescape

Though a modern European restaurant, Tablescape pays its respect to the community with an abundant selection of celebratory dishes perfect for joyous reunions like the Roasted Duck ($128nett) – a whole Silver Hill Irish duck redolent with angelica, hoisin and five-spice. What really made our eyes light up though is the signature pencai, Prosperity in a Pot ($218nett, serves up to 6 pax) where seafood treasures such as abalone, Boston lobster, Hokkaido scallop and caviar jostle side-by-side with thick chunks of pork belly in a fragrant broth inspired by the Italian acqua pazza. Prepared chilled, the pencai can conveniently be warmed in the claypot it comes in!

Available for pre-orders now, with self-collection and delivery from 8 January to 9 February 2025. An advance order of 3 days is required.

Eating Out

Planning an evening with those aunts who have good hearts but nitpicky mouths? Trying to avoid being asked whether you’ve gained weight/got a partner/found a job/plucked your moustache hairs? Well. These places have a fabulous Lunar New Year menu which will wow even the fussiest, and keep their mouths too busy to nag.

Fireplace by Bedrock

What could be easier and more pleasurable for a Lunar New Year meal than Fireplace’s Bountiful Barbecue Platter ($238++, good for 4 to 6)? This is a prodigious platter of perfection: rich luxurious proteins that every Lunar New Year dinner should have such as Grilled Whole Red Snapper, Chilli Lime Sakura Chicken and Twice-Cooked Boneless Beef Ribs dominate while sides like Grilled Asparagus add a little freshness and balance. And when we say grilled, we mean grilled over an applewood open fire by their kitchen experts. It’s the perfect combination of contemporary culinary pleasure and traditional Lunar New Year customs. If you want an even heartier meal, the platter is part of the Prosperity Set Menu ($388++, good for 4 to 6) where a Yusheng starts the meal with a happy roar as strictly required by the luck gods; and proceeds with their own housemade Bak Kwa, the Bountiful Barbecue Platter and a complimentary bottle of Beronia Tempranillo Elaboración Especial, then finishes fresh and sweet with an Apple Crumble.

Available from 20 January to 12 February 2025; a pre-order of 2 days is required. 

L-R: Bedrock Origin's Abundance Feast (styled); Fireplace by Bedrock's Prosperity Set Menu (styled)

Bedrock Origin

Looking for something generous in a special location that would make the occasion more sensational? Bedrock Origin has an Abundance Feast ($988++, serves 8) that lives up to its name! It begins with a similarly named Citrus-fed Wagyu Yusheng featuring the super luxe Sir Harry Citrus-fed Wagyu – where the beef has a subtle citrus aroma thanks to being constantly fed with oranges and other citrus fruit – but paired with different accompaniments. The mains here are luscious, and are balanced between meat and seafood: Whole Turbot, F1 Shimo Wagyu Tomahawk, Roasted Mangalica Pork Bone-In Ribeye, and Char-grilled King Prawns. They’re joined by a delicious set of sides including evergreen delight Bedrock Mac ‘N’ Cheese, and Miso Glazed Heirloom Baby Carrots. The meal finishes with zesty dessert, The Mandarin – a special creation inspired by and looking almost exactly like the mandarin oranges that one totes around for Lunar New Year visits; a rather adorable association that allows the meal to come full circle with this creation.

Due to limited availability, the restaurant recommends making a reservation and pre-ordering the set menu at least 2 days in advance. Walk-in guests who order the menu may need to wait up to 45 minutes.

YÀN

YÀN's LNY 2025 Dine-In Set Menus (styled shot)

If you feel like having something fabulously traditional, then YÀN – with its artistic setting in the National Gallery and its superbly executed repertoire of soulful Cantonese flavours – is the perfect choice. The team is offering a whole spectrum of Lunar New Year specials (with takeaway too!) – but we’ve been seduced by their 8-course Golden Treasures menu ($288++ per person, min 6 pax, serves up to 10). The name fits the Lunar New Year mood perfectly, and there’s a generous selection of sumptuous dishes featuring some of the ingredients most prized in Chinese cuisine – such as the Braised Bird’s Nest Broth with Assorted Seafood; and the Stewed Noodles with Half Live Australian Lobster in Superior Stock. According to Chinese traditions, ensuring your table is full of the best foods augurs well for the upcoming year; and items such as noodles and lobster symbolise health and wealth. What better way to make sure you start and live the year right?

Available from 6 January to 12 February 2025

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THE LUCKIEST YUSHENGS

Yusheng in its current incarnation is believed to have originated from Singapore and Malaysia with one origin story specifically naming it as the brainchild of four Singaporean chefs dubbed the “four heavenly kings”, and claiming it was first served at Lai Wah Restaurant in the 1960s. While connoisseurs and academicians debate this, we’re just happy to be able to “play” with our food and eat it. Fulfilling our naughtiest childhood dreams? We already feel lucky!

Birds of a Feather

Making the most of its cavernous space and the gorgeous lightwells with thoughtful interior design that feels simultaneously dreamy, fanciful and serene, Birds of A Feather presents cuisine as creative and thoughtful as it looks. Head Chef Eugene See’s Contemporary Cuisine with Sichuan influences offer a fresh, refined perspective on the idea of East-meet-West and his Octopus Yu Sheng ($88++, good for 4; dine-in only) belies its simple name. Plump octopus legs are first sous-vide until just tender, then quickly torched to seal in the juices and flavour. It’s served sliced with green daikon, green radish and carrots julienned by hand; as well as endives, microgreens, housemade peanut crumbs, grapefruit segments and edible flowers. Housemade yuxiang (鱼香) dressing, ma hua (麻花) flakes and sweet chopped peanuts are served on the side, ready for the tossing ritual; so that the final result is a sweet-savoury ‘salad’ with the most delicate touch of piquant heat.  

Groups of 4 and below can order as and when they prefer from 24 Jan to 9 Feb 2025; parties of 5 and above will be required to order 2 days in advance.

L-R: Fat Cow's Signature Gyu Sheng; Birds of A Feather's Octopus Yusheng

Fat Cow

Naturally, Singapore’s favourite wagyu specialist restaurant would serve a very special yu sheng – or, perhaps, we should say gyu-sheng! From 22 January to 5 February 2025, luxe Japanese restaurant Fat Cow presents its Signature Gyu Sheng ($68++, good for 4 to 5; dine-in only) once more. The star is thin slices of Toriyama Umami Wagyu. This wagyu comes from a Japanese farm first established in 1948, and now renowned for its meticulous feeding practices that create a subtle umami flavour and refined fat in the evenly marbled beef. This delicious gyu is accompanied by ikura, chuka kurage, chuka wakame and assorted vegetables such as julienned radish, Japanese cucumber and carrots for the perfect balance between flavour, texture and – perhaps most importantly for this season – auspicious symbolism!

The restaurant requires a pre-order of two days.

Ginkyō by Kinki

From 1 to 31 January 2025, lively modern Japanese bistro Ginkyō by Kinki offers an astonishing yusheng iteration analogous to last year’s debut offering. In line with their culinary ethos of playfully blending authenticity with contemporary creativity, Ginkyō’s Abundance Yu Sheng ($88++, good for 4 to 6) is a mountain of good things – salmon, tuna and swordfish sashimi; bright orange orbs of salmon roe and flying fish roe; a careful selection of julienned vegetables; and an aromatic truffle oil and goma dressing. The Chinese word for fish sounds very similar to the word for surplus; with so much fish in this dish, there’ll be no worries about abundance this year!

The restaurant requires a three-day pre-order; simply leave a comment when making a reservation via Chope.

L-R: Ginkyō's Abundance Yu Sheng; LeVeL33 Signature Lo Hei

LeVeL33

Yusheng is often also called lo hei – which refers to how it’s tossed by diners before being eaten. The higher you toss, the “higher” your prosperity will climb. Our little idea is that the higher our starting point, the higher the toss will seem! So where better than LeVeL33, the world’s highest urban microbrewery located on the rooftop of Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1? From 2 to 30 Jan 2025, the restaurant-bar will be serving the LeVeL33 Signature Lo Hei ($88++, good for 4 to 6) that will impress with their distinctive ContemBrewery touch which incorporates beer and its brewing by-products and their conscientious, really admirable focus on sustainability. On a bed of local leaves and edible flowers, housemade Stout beer crisps, spiced nuts, pomelo and mandarin segments lie delicate, raw slices of sustainably farmed, sashimi-grade Australian ocean trout and kingfish. A refreshing housemade dressing of orange and LeVeL33 Lager adds the perfect finishing touch.

The restaurant requires a pre-order of 2 days for the yusheng. Add-ons of salmon roe and Siberian caviar are available at $48++ and $118++ respectively.

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THE MOST AUSPICIOUS SWEETS AND SNACKS

Food speaks a language, sometimes literally; nowhere is it more obvious than during the Lunar New Year where there’s – oddly satisfying – wordplay with every food item served during this season. With every bite, you’re ingesting health, wealth, and good fortune with every bite; the sweet life, so to speak. We can’t promise that the following recommendations will let you live like an emperor, but they’ll definitely leave your palate in bliss. They also make fabulous gifts!

Solo Sweets

When you want to curate your own treasure box of LNY candy and snacks one by one

AMI Patisserie

If you fancy pineapple tarts but want something a little out of the box this year, AMI Patisserie is the place to go. From 8 Jan to 2 Feb 2025, Chef Makoto Ami seamlessly brings together local Chinese customs, Japanese ingredients and his mastery of French pastry techniques into an adorable little package: the limited edition Kokuto Pineapple Financier ($39nett for 6). Pineapple has always been a rather popular fruit – thanks to its Hokkien name being a homophone for “fortune comes” in the same dialect; naturally, pineapple pastries and candy hit the heart just right during Lunar New Year. AMI Patisserie combines the fruit with Okinawan kokuto or black sugar so that its rich complex flavour is infused through the financiers and mellow out the flavours. The kokuto also happens to be a much healthier alternative to white sugar!

Available for self-collection only, with 5 days’ advance pre-order required; pre-order begins on 22 Dec 2024 and ends on 29 Jan 2025

Rempapa

Foreground: Kueh Bengka; background: Kueh Kosui

On the other hand, if you’re feeling like some sweet, sweet nostalgia would work best this year, what better choice than Rempapa’s now-classic kuehs? Still handcrafted daily from scratch with carefully sourced ingredients, these kuehs taste exactly as if your grandma – or perhaps Chef Damian’s grandma! – made it herself with painstaking attention to detail and her love for you in her heart. Their Kueh Kosui is a fan favourite with a rich fragrance that will permeate your memory and heart, but we’re also huge fans of the Kueh Bengka, a confection that’s left its mark in the food history of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and Myanmar. Made from fresh tapioca, it somehow manages to become a springy golden brown cake through the magic of sugar, coconut milk, eggs, corn flour and sheer hard work. It’s available in a box of auspicious 8, too!

Available throughout the entire Lunar New Year on the website

Bonbon Bundles

When you prefer that your sweets come ready to eat or gift in an adorable package

Baker X

Cassia Canelés, current resident pâtissiers in Baker X, is renowned for their lovely canelés, a delightful contrast of textures of a crunchy exterior and a soft, custardy interior. And from 2 January 2025 onwards, special Lunar New Year flavours will be available throughout the month, priced at $22 for a box of 4 Regular Canelés, $32.50 for a box of 6 Regular Canelés, and $20 for a box of 8 Petite Canelés. There’s the sweet-savoury Charcoal Salted Egg Canelé, rich with a golden salted egg interior; and the Pineapple Tart Canelé, filled with a luscious pineapple filling made from scratch with fresh pineapples and topped with a teeny tiny pineapple tart in a cheeky hat-tip to everyone’s favourite LNY snack. But what really caught our eye is the adorable box of 8: in line with the theme, the team playfully presents it in a bamboo dimsum basket, complete with a big bright red ribbon. The CNY Dimsum Gift Box ($38.50nett) will include both the Lunar New Year flavours as well as their signatures such as the Original, Orh Nee, Pandan Kaya and Lemon Curd.

Available at Baker X from 2 January 2025.

L-R: Baker X's CNY Dimsum Gift Box; The Marmalade Pantry's Golden Trio Collection (styled) 

The Marmalade Pantry

One of Singapore’s go-to brands when it comes to stocking up on the goodies for the festive season, The Marmalade Pantry continues to create the most enticing seasonal specials. Their Lunar New Year 2025 offerings include the Salted Milo Dinosaur Cookies ($12+ for 150g), a uniquely Singaporean take on sweet-salt flavours; and Cereal Coconut Butter Cookies ($12+ for 150g), redolent with coconut and butter, reminiscent of the most indulgent cookies of yore. But we’re here for the bundle – and what a fabulous one it is! Their Golden Trio Collection ($75+) is a gorgeous, limited edition tiffin in soft pink and a rich teal which holds their popular Petite Chicken Bak Kwa, and two new LNY flavours – a delicate Pineapple Shortbread, and the savoury-sweet Peanut Miso Butter Cookies. But if it’s only the tingkat you want, then the tingkat you can get: The Marmalade Pantry Tiffin is available for purchase on its own for $45+.

Available for order from 12 Dec 2024 to 31 Jan 2025.

ADDRESSES

AMI Patisserie: 27 Scotts Road, Singapore 228222

Baker X: Orchard Central #04-29, Singapore 238896

Bedrock Bar & Grill: Pan Pacific Serviced Suites Orchard, #01-05, Singapore 238163

Bedrock Origin: Oasia Resort Sentosa Hotel, #01-02 Palawan Ridge, Singapore 098679

Birds of A Feather: 115 Amoy St, #01-01, Singapore 069935

Fat Cow: Camden Medical Centre, #01-01/02, Singapore 248649

Fireplace by Bedrock: One Holland Village, #03-27, Singapore 275748

Ginkyō by Kinki: One Holland Village, #03-01-04, 275748

LeVeL33: Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 1, #33-01,  Singapore 018981

Rempapa: Park Place Residences at PLQ, #01-01/02/03, Singapore 409053

Shisen Hanten by Chen Kentaro: Hilton Singapore Orchard, Level 35, Singapore 238867

Tablescape: Grand Park City Hall, Level 3, Singapore 179809

The Marmalade Pantry: Multiple locations including Oasia Hotel Downtown, #01-01, Singapore 079333

YÀN: 1 St Andrew's Rd, #05-02 National Gallery, 178957