Celebrate the Lunar New Year in Minneapolis with Traditional Dishes and Events
From dim sum and bánh tét to traditional dances and crafts, what better way to celebrate the Year of the Snake than with these auspicious dishes and festive events?
The Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival or Chinese New Year, is an annual celebration for many Chinese, Vietnamese, Taiwan, Korean, Hmong, and other Asian communities in Minneapolis. In 2025, the Year of the Snake begins on Wednesday, January 29 and is celebrated for the following two weeks. These fifteen days offer festive opportunities to connect with family and friends, give gifts, enjoy parades featuring traditional music and dance, and savor some Lunar New Year foods said to bring good luck and prosperity for the coming seasons.
Minneapolis is home to a diverse array of Asian communities, each with its unique cultural practices and traditions related to the Lunar New Year, so restaurant specials and celebratory events abound. Here’s where you can celebrate your heritage, or learn about and appreciate the traditions of your neighbors, with something delicious.
Peking Duck at Shuang Cheng Restaurant
Located in Dinkytown, Shuang Cheng Restaurant offers Cantonese specialties including Peking duck, a celebratory part of a Chinese New Year feast. Here, it’s served over the traditional three courses—first with crispy skin and delicate pancakes, followed by roasted duck bone and mustard green soup, and finished with stir fried duck and vegetables. (During Chinese New Year, poultry is often served complete with the head and feet intact to represent prosperity.)
Steamed Whole Fish at Tea House Chinese Restaurant
For more regional Chinese cuisine, head to Tea House Chinese Restaurant near the University of Minnesota—it’s a great bet for spicy Sichuan and Anhui specialties, including the steamed whole fish that is commonly served for Chinese New Year to bring in a year of abundance (in a common phrase in Cantonese, the last character in the phrase ‘plentiful’ sounds a lot like the character for fish, and in Mandarin, the word for fish sounds like the phrase for abundance or having a surplus).
Joyful Family Reunion Feast at Legendary Spice
Feed the whole family with this Chinese New Year special for 4 to 6 diners at Legendary Spice in Dinkytown. They’ll fill the table with spicy pickled chicken feet and red oil pig ears (for prosperity and fortune), dry pot prawns to represent treasure, their signature hot and sour beef, Thousand-Layer Pork, fermented black bean fish slices, homemade wontons, and much, much more for $188.
Dim Sum at Yangtze Restaurant
At St. Louis Park’s Yangtze Restaurant, known for serving up Hunan, Sichuan, Mandarin, and Cantonese specialties, you can enjoy dim sum, Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am to 2 pm. The weekend menu features traditional Chinese New Year dishes like spring rolls, niángāo (sweet rice cakes), glutinous rice dumplings, and lo bak go—fried turnip cakes often served at Lunar New Year celebrations because the name for the main ingredient, choi tau (white radish) sounds like “Good Luck” in Chinese.
Dan Dan Noodles and Dumplings at JUN Szechuan Kitchen & Bar
This North Loop restaurant specializes in Szechuan cuisine and boasts a menu of handmade dumplings, noodles, and buns. From Xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) and sticky rice dumplings filled with pork and shrimp to szechuan pork dumplings and spicy dan dan noodles, the menu is full of dishes popular during Chinese New Year. To ring in the Lunar New Year, noodles are traditionally made as long as possible to symbolize a long life ahead.
Bánh tét at Quang and Vietnamese Hot Pot at Jasmine 26
The season of Vietnamese Lunar New Year celebration, known as Tết, offers a chance to sample bánh tét, cylindrical sticky rice cakes stuffed with mung beans and marinated pork belly and wrapped in banana leaves. Every year, Minneapolis Vietnamese favorite Quang offers made-to-order bánh tét, available by calling the Eat Street restaurant. Since it calls for gathering around the table with family and friends over a shared pot of broth, Vietnamese Hot Pot is a common way to celebrate Tết as well. Head to East Street’s Jasmine 26 for a totally customizable hot pot experience—where you can choose your own adventure with a variety of broths, meats, seafood, vegetables, and fresh noodles.
Seollal—Korean New Year—Specials at Kimchi Tofu House
Korean New Year, known as Seollal, is a great time to try Korean specials like bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef), tteokguk (rice cake soup), kimchi dumplings, and nokdujeon (Mung bean pancakes). Kimchi Tofu House, a small but mighty eatery just off the UMN main campus, is a great spot for silken tofu stew, bulgogi, Korean ramen, bibimbap, and tteokbokki (rice cake stew).
Lunar New Year Decorations and Ingredients at United Noodles
This 15,000 square foot pan-Asian supermarket in Minneapolis’s Seward neighborhood boasts what is arguably the largest selection of Lunar New Year and Year of the Snake decorations in the Twin Cities. There you’ll find hanging lanterns, red envelopes, ingredients to make your own Lunar New Year feast, and snacks from many Asian countries and cuisines.
All-You-Can-Eat Family-Style Feast at Rainbow Chinese
Welcome the Year of the Snake with an all-you-can-eat, all-inclusive family-style feast! Your tickets include amuse-bouche, two beverages, and all-you-can-eat family-style meal with special celebratory dishes from Chef Tammy Wong. The menu includes dishes like salt and pepper fried chicken, sweet and sour mahi mahi, pork ribs, dried shrimp and sausage sticky rice, crispy leek noodles and more! This special dinner is only available Wednesday, January 29 ($150 per person).
Lunar New Year Events
January 25, 2025
Noon - 2pm
Midtown Global Market
All are welcome to join us Saturday, January 25 to celebrate Lunar New Year - Year of the Snake. We will have performances, music, kids crafts and more! This is a FREE and family friendly event.
January 25 & 26, 2025
Abeiter Brewing
Join us for our 3rd Annual Lunar New Year Celebration! We'll have some fun cultural events, great food, kids' activities, and special beer releases!
January 31, 2025
6pm - 9pm
The Luminare
The Serpent’s Charm explores the interplay between contemporary and traditional fashion, weaving cultural symbolism from the Lunar New Year to celebrate transformation, mystery, and renewal embodied by the snake as we enter the Year of the Snake in 2025. Join us for a fashion show and photography exhibition featuring emerging designers and talents of the local AAPI creative community.
February 1, 2025
11am - 2pm
Pershing Park Rec Center
Fulton's Lunar New Year Celebration is open to all ages / everyone and our event promotes cultural awareness and diversity through community building and educational activities. We will be offering food demonstrations, how to play Mahjong, arts & crafts, inclusive children's story time in English / Chinese, photo booth station, scavenger hunt, make your own marble fan and food trucks (Hana Bistro).
February 1 & 2, 2025
12:30pm - 5:30pm
Mall of America
This year is the year of the Snake, a symbol of wisdom, charm, elegance and transformation. We're here to celebrate all of it! Our annual Lunar New Year festivities are open to everyone and include artistic performances, cultural presentations and fascinating activities — plus special décor and photo backdrops to mark the occasion.
Feb 8, 2025
7pm
Orchestra Hall
The Minnesota Orchestra marks Lunar New Year, the Year of the Snake, a two-week-long festival that encourages family and friends to gather together with a performance featuring music that honors family traditions and themes of unity and health.
February 8, 2025
6pm
Northrop
The VSAM Tết Show is a student-run event celebrating the Vietnamese Lunar New Year. This upcoming New Year concludes the end of the Year of the Dragon (Rồng) and brings in the Year of the Snake (Rắn). VSAM strives to showcase this beautiful tradition to the greater community through exuberant performances including a skit, live singing performances, traditional and modern dances, traditional and modern fashion, and the Lion Dance (Múa lân).
The theme for this year's Tết Show, Colors of the Homeland, translates to Sắc Màu Quê Hương, hoping to bring audiences throughout different regions of Vietnam. Explore the cities, villages of Vietnam with the emphasis on unique cultural aspects.
