Chinese New Year brings a particular energy to London’s Chinatown. Red lanterns fill the streets, restaurants stay busy into the evening and a short walk can become a progressive supper of dumplings, bao, bakery treats and bubble tea.

Chinese New Year lanterns in Chinatown

The walk begins around Gerrard Street, where rows of red lanterns stretch between the buildings. The decorations transform familiar streets after dark, framing the shopfronts, restaurants and crowds in a warm red glow.

Fresh dumplings at Jen Café

Jen Café is one of Chinatown’s most recognisable informal eating places. Dumplings are prepared by hand in the front window before being cooked and served inside with hot tea.

The order is deliberately simple: boiled dumplings, a dipping sauce mixed from chilli and soy, and a mug of Chinese tea. Watching the dumplings being made is part of the experience.

Bao beneath the lanterns

One plate does not have to be the end of a Chinatown food walk. Back outside, the next stop is a warm pork bao: soft steamed bread wrapped around a savoury filling and eaten while exploring the lantern-lit streets.

Chinese bakeries and roast meats

The windows are a useful guide to what to try next. Chinese bakeries display colourful cakes and buns, while restaurant windows present lacquered roast duck and other meats ready for service.

Bubble tea to finish

The final stop is bubble tea with tapioca pearls. Sweet, cold and made to order, it provides a fitting conclusion to an evening built from several small tastes rather than a single formal meal.

Watch the Chinatown food walk

The complete film follows the Chinese New Year lanterns through London’s Chinatown, visits Jen Café for handmade dumplings and continues with bao, bakery displays, roast meats and bubble tea.