QV Melbourne celebrates the year of the horse with a Happy Horse Noodle Bar installation, animating festive Lunar New Year feasts from EatAlley, Old Beijing, Shanghai Street Kitchen, Dainty Sichuan and more.
From 16 February – 1 March, QV Melbourne celebrates Lunar New Year (LNY) with the Happy Horse Noodle Bar, special menu items across the precinct’s restaurants, as well as lion dances and cultural displays.
The Happy Horse Noodle Bar invites visitors to step inside a fictional noodle bar, capture the moment in a TikTok worthy giant noodle box, and journey through a classic Chinese takeaway menu inspired story of QV’s traditional LNY dishes and their symbolic meanings. Experience immersive photo walls, complete with AR animation: just scan the QR code, download the EyeJack app, and watch the dishes come to life. Open 10am – 10pm daily in QV Square, it’s the place to go to explore special LNY dishes from the precinct’s range of buzzing Asian restaurants.
Revel in the colour, sound and energy of traditional LNY performances hosted in QV Square at 5.30pm on Monday 16 February (LNY Eve) and Tuesday 17 February (LNY Day) and at 5.00pm on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 February (LNY weekend in the city). See lion dances, dragon dances and martial arts performances from the Chinese Masonic Society. There will also be lion heads on display for kids to discover and explore.
Special LNY dishes profiled in the Happy Horse Noodle Bar include the Signature KL Hokkien Mee from new Malaysian street food restaurant EatAlley, popular during the New Year for its symbolism of prosperity; spring rolls representing wealth from authentic Sichuan eatery Dainty Sichuan; lucky Orange Green Tea from bubble tea revolution Milksha, and good fortune dumplings from Shanghai Street Kitchen.
Melbourne Chinese dining institution Old Beijing will host a Lunar New Year banquet, featuring many traditional LNY dishes such as the rainbow salad Prosperity Yee Sang, tossed at the table by the entire group of diners, chopsticks in hand. Their banquet dish featured in Happy Horse Noodle Bar is New Year Abundance of Fish: a whole steamed coral trout. Old Beijing will also stage their own lion dances starting in QV Square to their restaurant on Artemis Lane.
Accessible through its network of laneways, QV exemplifies the quintessential Melbourne experience from food to fashion and so much more.
Recent openings throughout the precinct include cocktail bar and gaming arcade Archie Brothers (August, ‘25), Thai inspired dessert and brunch cafe Homm Dessert (October, ‘25), New York style bar, dining and experiential games destination Hijinx Hotel. Hyped self-serve frozen yoghurt store Yo-Chi opened in December.
