Reunion dinner 2021: Best restaurants for an impressive CNY feast in Singapore

CNY Reunion Dinners can often be fraught with the dangers of overly inquisitive relatives – but often the great Chinese New Year Menus make up for it.

Yet, it seems that every Chinese restaurant, no matter its standard, is booked out solid months before Chinese New Year even starts. This year, go for an impressive feast with the family. Here is our list of great CNY restaurants you should try this festive season!

1. Man Fu Yuan Restaurant

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Some enjoy a great classic Cantonese style dinner accompanied by exceptional service and an elegant dining area at Man Fu Yuan. As a winner of the Best Asian Restaurants Award, Man Fu Yuan serves high-end perennial favourites.

These well-known dishes include hand-crafted dim sum and fresh seafood, complemented by an array of premium tea to complete your dining experience. Be warned though, demand for Man Fu Yuan is exceedingly high and you should book early to avoid disappointment. By early, we pretty much mean right now. 

Several exciting dishes they have for their Chinese New Year Menu include the signature Man Fu Yuan Abundance Treasure pot, Signature Smoked Duck with Truffle Sauce, and Roasted Suckling Pig. You can also opt for takeaway instead if you’re having a homely intimate CNY dinner.

Note that during this festive season for their CNY menu, a special dining period applies. Therefore, if you’re looking at their regular a-la-carte menu, do come down on 18 January.

• Address: 80 Middle Rd, Singapore 188966
• Opening hours: 12pm – 3pm & 6pm – 7.45pm & 8.15pm – 10om (Weekdays), 11.30pm – 1pm & 1.30pm – 3pm & 6pm – 7.45pm & 8.15pm – 10pm (Weekends)
• CNY Menu Dates: Jan 16, 2021 – Feb 26, 2021

2. Jumbo Seafood

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Rejoice all seafood lovers! You’ll be in for a sweet treat with Jumbo Seafood’s CNY menu. This festive season, they have three different set menus available. Reunion Set Menus are for CNY eve itself, the day whereby families traditionally gather together for a reunion dinner.

Aside from this special day, the Celebration Set Menus and Festive Delights are available for longer periods of time. 

Must-tries include their Prosperity ‘Yu Sheng’ on their Festive Delights Menu.  Other selections in their Celebration Set menu include Award-Winning Chilli Crab with Deep Fried Mini Buns, and Live ‘Long Hu’ Garoupa.

Their Reunion Menus have items like Seafood Soup Braised with Fish Maw and Crab Meat. It truly is a dream come true for seafood lovers.

• Address: multiple outlets including Dempsey Hill, Riverside Point, The Riverwalk, ION Orchard, East Coast Seafood Centre, Jewel Changi Airport
• Opening hours: varies depending on each outlet
• CNY Menu Dates: Feb 11, 2021 (Reunion Set Menu), Jan 25, 2021 – Feb 28, 2021 except Feb 11, (Celebration Set Menu), Feb 1, 2021 – Feb 28, 2021 except Feb 11 (Festive Delights Menu)

3. Paradise Dynasty 

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Paradise Dynasty is the safest option for your CNY reunion dinner, especially if you want to wow your older relatives.

This famous restaurant offers Chinese New Year menus for you to choose from depending on the number of guests. Signature dishes include Prosperity Abalone Yu Sheng (a staple for Chinese New Year), Deep-fried Crispy Duck with Lotus Bun and other unique Chinese offerings. Fun fact: these dishes are named after Chinese idioms.

So when you have to greet your relatives at dinner, you have CNY greetings other than “Gong Xi Fa Cai” to impress them with!

If you’re looking for a different restaurant concept, check out other restaurants under Paradise Group – including Paradise Teochew, Canton Paradise, and millennials’ favourite Beauty in The Pot.

• Address: Changi Airport Terminal 3 #03-32, Funan #B1-01, Paya Lebar Quarter #03-08, Suntec City Mall #B1-110, Westgate #02-13, Wisma Atria #01-18
• Opening hours: 11am – 10pm (Weekdays), 10.30am – 10pm (Weekends & PH)
• CNY Menu Dates: Jan 29,  2021 – Feb 28, 2021. 

4. Taste Paradise

Here’s another contemporary Chinese restaurant from Paradise Group. Taste Paradise is a modern and award-winning Chinese restaurant located at ION Orchard.

Priding itself as an upstart in Chinese fine dining, Taste Paradise offers an attractive CNY set menu comprising fine Cantonese cuisine and Yu Sheng. Their dishes are contemporary versions of fine Cantonese cuisines.

They are also well known for their excellent Classic XO Carrot Cake (with 100 pointers from food critics), Baked Lamb Rack in Red Wine Reduction is to die for. If you are looking to have an excellent feast this Chinese New Year, you can hardly go wrong. It goes without saying that bookings must be made early.

• Address: ION Orchard, #04-07, Singapore 238801
• Opening hours: 11am – 3pm & 6pm – 10pm (Weekdays), 10.30am – 4.30pm & 6pm – 10pm (Weekends)
• CNY Menu Dates: Jan 19, 2021 – Feb 28, 2021

5. Peach Garden

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Having long been a mainstay of Chinese cuisine in Singapore, Peach Garden is as good as they are well-known. This is one of the restaurants in Singapore that has withstood the test of time and until this day continues to draw strong crowds of loyal customers despite commanding a high price for their food.

While it has long been a strongly traditional Chinese restaurant, Peach Garden’s ability to evolve and adapt is one of the key reasons that they are still going strong. 

Their exciting dim-sum coupled with exquisite presentation makes every course seem like a work of art and you can truly feast with your eyes before eating it.

Options like Yu Sheng (including vegetarian variation), Roasted Suckling Pig and Peach Garden Golden Premium Traditional Pen Cai are iconic dishes not to be missed.

While Chinese fine dining prides itself on providing excellent service, their OCBC tower branch dining experience is outstanding. The staff goes above and beyond what you would expect and it is highly impressive. If you do pay Peach Garden a visit, ensure that you leave room for dessert for their desserts are gastronomic delights for even the most jaded Singaporean palate.

• Address: OCBC Centre, Hotel Miramar Thomson Plaza, ChinaTown Point, The Metropolis
• Opening hours: varies depending on outlet
• CNY Menu Dates: Jan 5, 2021 – Feb 28, 2021

6. Jade Restaurant

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Helmed by Chef Leong Chee Yeng, Jade Restaurant offers a selection of luxurious, decadent dishes such as the Wok-Fried Boston Lobster, Braised Bird’s Nest with Crab Meat, Crab Roe, and Truffle Jus broth, your family and you will definitely be in for a treat once you are seated at your table.

If you are very partial to the idea of trying a lot of different foods, don’t miss out on their Premium Braised Pen Cai. The delicious and deep flavour of the pot includes luxurious ingredients like ten-head South Africa whole abalone, fish maw, sea cucumber and more goodies to create a uniquely delicious dish.

Another highlight of their menu is that for their Gold Rush Salmon and Abalone Yu Sheng, they serve it with the much healthier olive oil and comes with a champagne jelly. The chef also tends to showcase his artistic side with a calligraphy-like edible food painting of the zodiac animal for Chinese New Year.

• Address: The Fullerton Hotel, 1 Fullerton Square, 049178
• Opening hours: 11.30am – 3pm (Weekdays) & 6.30pm – 10.30pm (Daily)
• CNY Menu Dates: Jan 25, 2021 – Feb 26,2021

7. Try something new

Chinese New Year is celebrated in many ways across different countries. One constant, however, is that CNY reunion dinner is regarded as the biggest and most important aspect of the celebrations.

While it is nice to eat in and gather at a home to greet loved ones, a gathering at one of these restaurants will give you memories to cherish for the years to come.

These CNY reunion dinner restaurants work hard to ensure that all of the auspicious dishes are served with the highest quality. Whether you want something ultra-traditional or something modern or fusion to excite the palate, they will help make a great celebration even better.

This article was first published in Shopback.