Chinese New Year restaurant bookings in Singapore: the reunion dinner playbook

No other night on the Singapore F&B calendar concentrates as much demand, as much emotion and as much revenue as reunion dinner. On the eve of Chinese New Year, families book the biggest table of their year, order the most generous menu they will eat until the next one, and expect everything, from the yu sheng to the second seating, to run without a hitch. The fifteen days that follow keep the momentum going with lo hei lunches, extended-family gatherings and corporate spring dinners.

For a restaurant, that is both the opportunity and the trap. The season is won months in advance: menus photographed and priced before the media roundups go out, deposits collected when bookings confirm, seatings planned around tables that genuinely need more time than usual. Singaporeans famously take reserving a seat seriously enough to have their own verb for it, and during CNY the chope-ing starts early. None of this requires expensive software: a system that lets you take reservations without paying commission covers the bookings, confirmations and reminders, and the rest is planning, which is what this guide is for.

Why Chinese New Year is the peak of the Singapore F&B year

Reunion dinner, the family meal on Chinese New Year's Eve, is the anchor. It is traditionally the most important dinner of the year for Chinese families, the one meal where three generations sit at the same table, and in land-scarce Singapore a very large share of those dinners happens in restaurants rather than at home.

Around it stretches a full season. The National Heritage Board describes lo hei, the communal tossing of yu sheng, as a practice that runs throughout the fifteen days of the new year, with a special emphasis on ren ri, the seventh day. In practice that means Chinese restaurants stay in festive mode for more than two weeks: family lunches, clan association dinners, and the corporate lo hei sessions that companies book for the first working days of the year.

The next occurrence is worth pinning on the wall now. The Ministry of Manpower's gazetted calendar puts Chinese New Year 2027 on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February, with Monday 8 February a public holiday in lieu. Reunion dinner therefore falls on Friday 5 February 2027, a working day flowing straight into a three-day weekend: expect the eve, both holiday days and the Monday to book out first.

Two features make this season different from every other peak:

• Set menus rule. Almost every Chinese restaurant sells CNY as fixed menus for 4, 6, 8 or 10 diners, usually priced "++" (subject to the 10% service charge and 9% GST). Media guides like Eatbook's reunion dinner roundup list menus such as a Cantonese set at S$438++ for four; the venues featured in those roundups are the ones whose menus were finalised, priced and bookable early.
• Deposits are expected. Reservation deposits have been an established practice for group bookings in Singapore since at least 2018, and nowhere are they more accepted than on reunion dinner sets built on procured-in-advance ingredients like pen cai, abalone and suckling pig.

The CNY booking timeline: working backwards from reunion dinner eve

The dates shift every year with the lunar calendar, so build the plan relative to the eve rather than to fixed months. For a late-January or early-February new year, the season looks like this.

Three to four months out: build the offer

• Finalise the festive menus: reunion dinner sets at two or three price points and group sizes, a la carte yu sheng in small and large, pen cai for dine-in and takeaway, and a corporate lo hei lunch package for the working days after the holidays.
• Price deliberately. Festive sets carry premium ingredients and premium staffing costs, and diners accept that, but the price the guest compares is the final one: a S$88++ menu is S$105.51 after service charge and GST. If you display "++" prices, IRAS requires a prominent statement that prices are subject to service charge and GST, so put it on the menu, the website and the booking page.
• Write the booking policy down now: deposit per head or per table, the cancellation cut-off, how numbers can change, and the deadline for choosing menus. Terms invented in the week of the rush look arbitrary; terms published with the menu are simply the rules.

Two to three months out: publish and open bookings

• Put the menus, photos and a booking link on your website and Google Business Profile before the consumer roundups are researched. Eatbook, Chope's festive pages and the lifestyle press compile their reunion dinner guides from what is already published; a menu that goes out late misses the wave that fills February.
• Open reservations with the deposit built into confirmation. A reunion dinner booking without a deposit is a hope, not a booking, and on the one night when every table could sell twice, hope is expensive.
• Regulars first. A short email to your existing guests before the public launch fills the best tables with the people most likely to return in March, and it costs nothing.

The final month: confirm, remind, reconfirm

• Collect menu choices and dietary notes as bookings confirm, with a clear deadline about a week before the date. A kitchen that knows on Monday it is plating forty pen cai on Friday prepares them; one that finds out at 6pm does not.
• Reconfirm the big tables. Multi-generation parties shrink and grow as travel plans firm up; adjusting a table of twelve to ten three days out is routine, discovering it at the door is a lost pair of covers. Our guide to large group bookings covers the mechanics, from single points of contact to final-numbers deadlines.
• Send a reminder on every single booking. The gap between a November booking and a February dinner is exactly where silent plan changes live, and an automatic reminder with a one-click cancellation link converts would-be no-shows into tables you can resell.

The festive fortnight: protect the service

• Run a waitlist for the eve and the first weekend. Demand outstrips supply on those days; every cancellation should have a named family ready to take it within the hour.
• Hold the line on your published terms. A deposit refunded outside the policy on the busiest night of the year teaches every caller that the policy is decoration.
• Watch the calendar collisions. In 2027 Valentine's Day lands on day nine of the new year, so the fortnight ends with a second peak; the Valentine's Day playbook is a separate genre with the same logic.

Seatings, table times and the lo hei buffer

On reunion dinner eve most established Chinese restaurants run two seatings, typically an early one around 5.30pm to 6pm and a second from about 8pm. Two seatings can nearly double the revenue of the single most valuable night of the year, but only if the first one actually ends on time, and CNY tables run long for structural reasons: big parties, elderly guests, course-heavy menus and the lo hei itself, a standing ritual where everyone tosses, chants the auspicious phrases and takes photos before anyone touches the soup.

Make the timing work instead of hoping it does:

• State the seating times at booking and repeat them in the confirmation. "First seating 5.45pm to 7.45pm" written in the booking flow is a courtesy; announced at the table it is a confrontation.
• Budget the lo hei into the service plan. Serve the yu sheng first and promptly, because nothing else can start until the toss is done. A table that waits twenty minutes for its yu sheng is twenty minutes late for everything.
• Pre-plate what can be pre-plated. Set menus with confirmed choices let the kitchen sequence the eve like a banquet rather than an a la carte scramble, which is also what keeps the second seating from starting forty minutes late.
• Mind the room layout. Round tables of 8 to 12 dominate this season; a floor plan optimised for deuces needs rearranging days before, not on the afternoon of the eve.

Deposits and cancellation terms for the highest-stakes night

Everything about reunion dinner argues for a firm, clearly disclosed deposit: ingredients procured specifically for the menu, tables that could have sold twice, and a no-show cost that cannot be recovered at 8pm on the eve. Diners know this, which is why per-head deposits deducted from the final bill are the local norm for festive sets, and why serious venues tier their refunds around a cut-off date instead of promising flexibility they cannot afford.

The legal side is simpler than most operators fear, and more demanding than most policies reflect: Singapore has no statute capping restaurant deposits or cancellation fees, so everything rests on what was disclosed and agreed at booking, with fairness rules around how terms are presented. The details, including what the recent public blow-ups teach about wording a policy that survives scrutiny, are in our dedicated guide to no-shows and reservation deposits in Singapore. The short version for CNY: charge per head, disclose before payment, restate the terms in the confirmation email, and make the refund tiers generous early and firm late.

Staffing the fortnight: your team wants a reunion dinner too

The eve and the two holiday days are the hardest roster of the year, and not only because of volume. Your Chinese staff have their own reunion dinners to attend, and the public holidays have a real cost: under the Employment Act, an employee who works on a public holiday is generally entitled to an extra day's basic salary on top of the day's gross pay, or time off in lieu by agreement.

Practical responses that established venues use:

• Decide early which days you trade. Many restaurants close on the first or second day of the new year, or run lunch only, and print it on the festive menu so guests plan around it.
• Rotate the eve. A team that knows in December who works 5 February and who gets the night off will forgive the roster; one that finds out in the last week will not.
• Lean on the set menu. Confirmed menus and pre-orders reduce the number of hands a festive service needs, which matters most in a market where manpower is the permanent constraint.

Takeaway sets and pen cai: the second revenue line

The same kitchen that sells out its dining room can sell the festival twice. Pen cai in claypots, whole yu sheng platters and takeaway reunion sets travel well, are ordered days ahead by design, and serve the families who host at home. Treat the takeaway line exactly like the bookings line: published deadline, prepayment or deposit at order, and defined collection slots so the eve's counter does not collapse under uncollected claypots at 6pm. Collection slots also spread the load on the kitchen across the afternoon, when the dining room is still quiet.

After the fifteenth day: turn once-a-year guests into regulars

The saddest CNY outcome is a full house in February that goes back to being strangers in March. The season hands you, with consent collected at booking, the contact details and preferences of hundreds of households who just proved they will pay for a good table. Use them gently: a thank-you email after the festive period, the Mother's Day menu when it is ready in April, the mooncake or Mid-Autumn offer in September. The restaurants that treat reunion dinner as an acquisition channel rather than a jackpot are the ones whose quiet Tuesdays improve year after year.

Taking CNY bookings without paying commission on your best night

The economics of the season are simple: reunion dinner fills itself, so paying a per-diner fee or a commission on those covers is paying for demand you already own. ViteUneTable takes the opposite approach. The free version has no time limit, no commission and no per-booking fees, and gives you a booking widget for your website and Google Business Profile plus automatic confirmation emails, which is exactly where your seating times, deposit terms and menu deadlines get communicated and recorded. The Pack Standard (29 € excl. VAT per month) adds automatic email reminders before the dinner and Reserve with Google, and the Standard + Anti No-Show pack (49 € excl. VAT per month) adds credit card holds, so the year's most valuable bookings carry a bank guarantee. Let's be honest: prices in euros look unusual next to platforms quoting in Singapore dollars, and no software cooks a pen cai. What it removes is the per-cover maths on the one night when the covers pour in by themselves.

Frequently asked questions

When should a Singapore restaurant open Chinese New Year bookings?

Two to three months before the new year, with menus finalised a month before that. Consumer media compile their reunion dinner roundups from menus that are already published and bookable, and the eve, the two public holidays and the in-lieu Monday book out first. For Chinese New Year 2027 (6 and 7 February), that means menus ready by October 2026 and bookings open by November.

Is it normal to charge a deposit for a reunion dinner booking in Singapore?

Yes. Deposits for festive and group bookings have been standard practice in Singapore for years, and reunion dinner sets are built on ingredients procured in advance. Charge per head, deduct the deposit from the final bill, disclose the cancellation terms before payment and restate them in the confirmation email.

When is reunion dinner in 2027?

On Friday 5 February 2027, the eve of Chinese New Year. The Ministry of Manpower's calendar gazettes Chinese New Year 2027 on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 February, with Monday 8 February a public holiday in lieu, so the eve opens a three-day festive weekend.

How long should a reunion dinner seating be?

Longer than a normal dinner. Plan around two hours per seating and protect it: big multi-generation tables, course-heavy set menus and the lo hei ritual all extend table time. Publishing seating windows at booking, serving the yu sheng first and pre-confirming menu choices are what keep a two-seating eve on schedule.

Why do restaurants sell pen cai and takeaway sets at CNY?

Because the festival is bigger than the dining room. Pen cai and takeaway reunion sets serve families who celebrate at home, are ordered and paid days in advance, and use afternoon kitchen capacity the dining room does not need. Run them with order deadlines, prepayment and collection slots, like bookings.