Lunar New Year at Lola Rouge Wellington

Overview

Saturday February 10 marks the beginning of Lunar New Year — the Year of the Dragon — and Wellington restaurant Lola Rouge is marking the occasion with a special set menu, complete with six courses of the best food Asian cuisine has to offer.

The menu has been designed by the restaurant's head chef Kiran Ghate, who grew up in India and began his career as a chef in Mumbai, before bringing his expertise to the Wellington food scene.

Starting strong with a shot of traditional Chinese liquor Banju, diners will then move on to the traditional Lunar New Year dish of Yee Sang — a salad of raw Ora King salmon with Asian slaw and plum dressing where diners are invited to 'toss' the ingredients using chopsticks; the higher the food flies, the more prosperous the year ahead will be.

This is followed by entrees including duck cigars and steamed money bag dumplings with lobster, scallops and ginger soy sauce before kicking into the mains: a tofu, pok choy and oyster mushroom noodle dish and spring chicken topped with a soy sauce glaze.

If you have a dessert-shaped hole in your stomach after all of that, you're in luck — with a dessert plate filled with sichuan macaroon, mango pudding and egg tarts rounding out the set menu.

At the end of the meal, diners will receive one more surprise — a lucky red envelope. Red represents happiness, wealth, fortune and good luck — something diners might need when opening up their special gift. Each envelope contains a voucher, ranging from an extra cocktail on the house to a free night's stay at Naumi Wellington, the hotel Lola Rouge calls home.