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Subscribe Where to Celebrate Lunar New Year in Melbourne
Kick off the Year of the Horse with feasts and fun festivities for the Lunar New Year in Melbourne.
Lunar New Year is right around the corner, and 2026 arrives under the sign of the Horse, a symbol of wisdom, magnetism and forward momentum. The Year of the Horse carries an energy that is spirited and elegant all at once. It favours bold moves, social tables, colour in abundance and celebration that feels alive.
In Melbourne, that energy translates beautifully. Banquets grow more lavish, lanterns glow brighter, lion dances thunder through streets, and dining rooms brighten with shared plates and champagne toasts. From bountiful feasts to immersive cultural moments, the city is ready to honour the season in full flourish.
Here’s where to welcome the Year of the Horse in style.
Lunar New Year in Melbourne: Eat & Drink
A Seven-Plate Menu Celebrates the Year of the Horse at Juni
If Lunar New Year calls for fire, colour and a table crowded with friends, JUNI delivers. From 17th February to 1st March, the Exhibition Street favourite presents a $88pp, seven-plate feast honouring the Year of the Horse. A tableside-tossed prosperity salmon salad sets the tone, followed by crayfish dumplings, hot-and-sour barramundi, lychee-bright sweet-and-sour pork and XO-laced fried rice, before mango and coconut desserts. Generous, spirited and made for sharing in the heart of the CBD.
136 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
The Waterside Hotel
Flinders Street goes auspicious from 13th to 17th February as PAST / PORT at The Waterside Hotel leans into Lunar New Year with a feast built for fortune. A $68 Prosperity Platter lands generously and entirely shareable, while the tableside Prosperity Toss Salad folds Hiramasa kingfish, cured ocean trout and sesame-yuzu plum into a ritual of abundance. There’s also the Sera Phoenix cocktail — mandarin-laced and flute-served — a bright toast to the Year of the Horse.
13th to 17th February
508 Flinders Street, Melbourne
ST. ALi
ST. ALi marks the Year of the Horse with momentum. Its limited Lunar New Year Festive Blend threads Costa Rican and Kenyan beans into a bright, cherry-laced cup that moves effortlessly from espresso to milk. At South Melbourne, a Signature Lunar drink — beetroot, orange and blood orange coffee cream — arrives in striking red. Energetic, celebratory and brewed for forward motion. We love!
12-18 Yarra Place, South Melbourne
Lunar New Year at Crown Melbourne
Crown Melbourne welcomes the Year of the Horse from 16th February to 3rd March with a vibrant program of dining and celebration. Feast your way through the season at Silks, Conservatory and 88 Noodle, each unveiling Lunar New Year–inspired menus. Expect refined regional Chinese cuisine, abundant buffets and street-style favourites, alongside dazzling entertainment and festive flair.
Crown Riverwalk, Southbank
62 Rose Street, Fitzroy
The Westin Melbourne
At The Westin, Lunar New Year arrives on a silver tier. A three-level high tea nods to reunion and prosperity, balancing delicacy with indulgence — savoury bites below, polished sweets above, tea poured with ceremony. Add a sparkling upgrade and let Collins Street feel momentarily celebratory. At $91pp, it’s a graceful toast to the Fire Horse.
205 Collins Street, Melbourne
Moonhouse
Moonhouse greets the Fire Horse with a dinner-only $88pp procession that moves from seafood crudo to wagyu dumplings, crab-stuffed money bags and market fish, before stretching into longevity noodles and XO-laced indulgence. There’s lobster for those inclined. Dessert lands cool and green with apple, honeydew and matcha — a composed finale to a spirited table.
Thursday 19th to Sunday 22nd February, 5:30pm to late
282 Carlisle Street, Balaclava
Yum Sing House
At Yum Sing House, tradition takes centre stage. A prosperity-style Yee Sang sets the tone, followed by a $108pp banquet that threads prawn toast, Murray cod and Ma Lai Gao through the evening. On Friday, a lion dance sweeps through the room, scattering colour and applause in equal measure. A fitting welcome for the Fire Horse.
22 Sutherland Street, Melbourne
Lunar New Year High Tea at Dorsett Melbourne
From 15th January to 22nd February, Dorsett Melbourne reunites with T6 Patisserie for a Lunar New Year high tea layered with mandarin and jasmine mousse, mango pudding, char siu milk buns and sesame prawn toast. Chinese teas flow, iced blends cool the afternoon, and scones arrive warm. From $90pp, with exclusive sittings on 21st and 22nd February.
From 1st to 9th February
615 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Hawker Hall
From 16th February to 3rd March, Hawker Hall marks the Year of the Horse with tables built for revelry. An $88pp banquet delivers auspicious dishes at lunch and dinner, while Mondays tempt with $2 skewers — satay, black pepper beef, salt and pepper squid — and lion dances at 7pm on 23rd February and 2nd March. There’s also a Hennessy Golden Horse cocktail to toast prosperity properly.
Until 3rd March
98 Chapel Street, Windsor
Lunar New Year in Melbourne: See & Do
Lunar New Year at Queen Victoria Market
Queen Victoria Market greets the Year of the Horse in a wash of red and ritual. On Friday 20th February at 10am, a Lion Dance sets off from Mary Martin Bookshop in String Bean Alley, threading through the sheds in a burst of colour and percussion. Lanterns line Queen Street, while Lucky Cat installations watch over the Meat & Fish Hall and centreway — a morning steeped in spectacle and good fortune.
Friday 20th February, from 10am
String Bean Alley, QVM
MC Takeaway Is Turning Lunar New Year Snacks Into Collectibles
Melbourne Central is flipping the takeaway script for Lunar New Year and O-Week with MC Takeaway, a playful pop-up where “ordering” your favourite festive snacks results in plushie keepsakes instead of actual food. Spend $88 in-centre and redeem a limited-edition collectable, cooked up by plushie “artisans” in a cafe-style setup opposite Sephora. It’s part nostalgia, part New York-style activation, part student-season chaos.
Running 17th to 27th February
Melbourne Central
Visit The Glen or Box Hill Central for Fun Festivities
The east welcomes the Year of the Horse with colour, lanterns and a little retail luck. From late January through mid-February, The Glen and Box Hill Central fill with family-friendly rituals — horoscope readings, wishing trees and prize-packed claw machines for those feeling fortunate. At Box Hill Central, lantern installations glow overhead, while sweet stops like BonBon’s Bakery keep celebrations delicious. Lion dance performances unfold across 14th to 16th February, bringing percussion, prosperity and plenty of applause.
The Glen, 235 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley
Box Hill Central, 1 Main Street, Box Hill
Federation Square, Melbourne
A Lunar New Year Concert of Fire and Flourish with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
On Saturday 21st February, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra welcomes the Year of the Horse at Hamer Hall with a program of sweep and spectacle. Conductor Li Biao leads Beethoven’s Seventh and Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto, while Mindy Meng Wang reimagines Butterfly Lovers on guzheng. A luminous, cross-cultural celebration that carries the new year skyward.
Saturday 21st February, 7:30pm
100 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Lunar New Year at NGV Melbourne
On Sunday 22nd February, the NGV International marks the Year of the Horse with a full-day celebration that moves from spectacle to stillness. A dragon dance ripples through the Great Hall, Beijing opera commands the stage, and guzheng melodies drift across the galleries. Mahjong tables, paper-folding, children’s tours and red envelopes add ritual and play, while dumplings and bubble tea keep spirits high. Culture, colour and good fortune, all under one iconic roof.
Sunday 22nd February
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road, Southbank
Chinatown, In Full Gallop
Little Bourke Street doesn’t do subtle in February. It goes scarlet, loud and gloriously overcommitted. The Millennium Dragon snakes through the crowd from 11:45am, cymbals crash, lions leap and 100,000 devotees press in for luck, noodles and spectacle. Hidden bars buzz behind red doors, dumplings steam, DJs spin. It’s culture with percussion — theatrical, delicious and entirely impossible to resist.
Free event (dragon procession starts at 11.45am in front of the Chinese Museum)
Sunday 22nd February
Chinatown Melbourne, Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
A Midnight of Lanterns at Quang Minh Temple
At Quang Minh Temple, Lunar New Year’s Eve is both reverence and spectacle in equal measure. Across 16th to 17th February, more than 5,000 visitors gather to pray, light incense and watch dragons coil beneath fireworks. Funded by Maribyrnong’s Festival City Program, this free Tet celebration honours Vietnamese tradition with colour, percussion and community — a luminous welcome to the Year of the Horse in Braybrook.
16th to 17th February
Quang Minh Temple, 18 Burke Street, Braybrook
Now that you’ve sorted out where to celebrate Lunar New Year in Melbourne, why not add these thrilling events to your social calendar? Looking to explore further afield? Take a trip away and stay at one of these unique Airbnbs, spend a weekend exploring gorgeous Daylesford, or the ever-popular Mornington Peninsula.
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