Where To Get Your Lunar New Year Feast In NYC

It's New Year's Day today for the more than a billion people around the world who follow the lunar calendar, and I think we all can agree that the outgoing Year of the Rat was, uh, considerably less than auspicious.

So, hell yeah, welcome Year of the Ox! And while there's no big Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade this weekend, nor those wonderfully raucous Lion Dances of "Super Saturday," we can, and will, definitely still celebrate with a feast or three. 

To that end, here's an extremely non-exhaustive guide to some of our favorite restaurants around town honoring the Lunar New Year. Some are open for takeout and delivery only (all the better for eating during virtual celebrations), others also offer outdoor seating, and some are even inviting diners back inside, in accordance with the 25% capacity rules. But no matter how you choose to celebrate, know that you'll be supporting small businesses, and eating some really great food.    

There will possibly be some unofficial, confetti-cannon revelry in Manhattan's Chinatown this weekend, so it's worth a wander there if you're in the mood for a bit of outdoor, socially distanced fun. Choices of restaurants in the neighborhood are legion, of course, but some of our favorite spots include the venerable Hop Kee and both Wo Hops on Mott Street, which serve soul-comforting versions of such American-Chinese classics as Moo Shu Pork, Sesame Chicken with Broccoli, and Moo Goo Gai Pan.

Over on historic Doyers Street, the once-notorious "bloody angle," the century-old Nom Wah Tea Parlor is still attracting crowds with a full menu of dim sum favorites, and Nom Wah Nolita, the restaurant's fast-casual, dumpling-centric offshoot on Kenmare Street, is also open and eager to feed you. Throughout the pandemic, Doyers Street has done an excellent job of maintaining its Open Streets program, banning vehicles and setting up tables outside, so even if the wait at Nom Wah is too long for your taste, there are are other very good options with comfortable seating on the block, including Taiwan Pork Chop House and Tasty Hand Pulled Noodles.  

Jing Fong, the legendary dim sum palace on Elizabeth Street, is back open and serving an impressively lengthy menu as part of its new "patio dining" operation. Also on Elizabeth you can get some of the best soup dumplings in town—splurge for the porky Black Truffle ones—at Shanghai Asian. For more excellent dumplings in the neighborhood, lower Eldridge Street is home to two big winners: Super Taste (get the Beef beauties here), and the insanely cheap Fujianese spot, Shu Jiao Fu Zhou.    

A few blocks away from the (possible) Lunar New Year revelry you'll find such treasures as Spicy Village on Forsyth Street, starring one of my personal favorite dishes in all of New York City, the fiery Big Tray Chicken loaded with hand pulled noodles. And the newish Wu's Wonton King has an expansive outdoor dining setup over on Rutgers Street, making it easy to feast on the restaurant's namesake dish, among other noodle-y and meaty delights.      

One of New York City's largest Chinatowns is out in Flushing, Queens, a bustling commercial district radiating out from the last stop of the 7 train at Main Street. Excellent restaurants abound in this area, far too many to mention here, but a good place to start any eating excursion adventure is with a plate of Wontons with Hot Sauce—more familiarly known as "Number 6"—at the legendary Roosevelt Avenue hole-in-the-wall White Bear. 

Flushing's famous indoor malls have had a rough time of it during the pandemic, but a couple of the newer models of these one-time ramshackle warrens are open for takeout orders and, presumably as of today, indoor dining. The New World Mall on Roosevelt Avenue has a terrific food court, starring Fish Dumpling (get the Fish Dumplings), Lan Zhou Handmade Noodle, and Zheng Zhou Lamb Noodle Soup. And New York Food Court, also on Roosevelt, is open for business as well. Among the delights here: Liang Pi Wang with its chewy, tangy, cold skin noodles.

Other Flushing gems include the cavernous Asian Jewels on 39th Avenue, renowned for its dim sum menu that goes on forever (and its Fried Rice with Diced Chicken and Salted Fish) and now offering outdoor dining. Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao always attracts a crowd to its upper level dining area on Prince Street, eager to slurp their way through some of the city's best soup dumplings. And newcomer Rolls Rice on Main Street puts a spirited (and quite delicious) pan-Asian twist on traditional Cantonese rice rolls.    

Some say that there are at least seven other "Chinatowns" in NYC, including vital communities in Elmhurst, Bensohurst (which one 2013 report claims has the largest Chinese population of them all), and Sunset Park, with its bustling stretches of shops and restaurants along Seventh and Eighth Avenues. A few great choices for a Lunar New Year celebration in the latter include the no-frills Yun Nan Flavor Garden, with its terrific noodle dishes, both hot and cold; the well-regarded Sichuan spot, Chuan Tian Xia; and Xin Fa Bakery, home to some of the best egg tarts—buttery, custardy, rich, delicious—you'll ever eat.           

Obviously, there are tons of excellent places to eat all kinds of Chinese and Tawainese food throughout the city, and any attempt to list even the best of the best of these would be ridiculous. But for inspirational purposes only, some of my current go-to's include the terrific vegan Sichuan fare at Spicy Moon, open in both the East and West Villages; the also vegan (and also terrific) small plates at Fat Choy on Broome Street; and the decidedly not vegan but absolutely terrific Beef Noodle Soup at Ho Foods on East 7th Street.   

The newish Milu on Park Avenue South serves superb Yunnan Beef and Mandarin Duck rice bowls in a counter-service setting. Birds of Feather, on Grand Street in Williamsburg, consistently delivers some of the best Sichuan in North Brooklyn. Public Village on Essex Street, with its full slate of outstanding noodle dishes, was one of my favorite new restaurants of 2020. And The Handpulled Noodle, on Broadway in Harlem, continues to please the locals with its Spicy Tingly Lamb Soup, among other full-flavored delights. 

Speaking of spicy, tingly lamb, the essential fast-casual chain Xi'an Famous Foods has reopened most (though not all) of its locations in Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn, for takeout only, and everything on the menu is deeply satisfying. Let's keep these alive, please. The first-rate bowls and bings of Junzi Kitchen will also make you happy, and all three of their locations in Manhattan—in Morningside Heights near Columbia, in Midtown near Bryant Park, and downtown on Vandam Street—are ready to serve.

And in the West Village, at Nice Day, Junzi partners Yong Zhao and chef Lucas Sin offer classic Chinese takeout dishes (think Shrimp Chow Mein, General Tso's Chicken, and Beef and Broccoli) for delivery everywhere below 45th Street.