Header photo: Island Shangri-La
We need every reason to celebrate this Mid-Autumn season, and restaurants around town are taking note of our need for comfort during these unpredictable COVID times with a slew of new mooncake offerings. From creative packaging and flavours, to sustainable mooncakes, to mooncakes for those with dietary intolerances, we’ve sorted through the Mid-Autumn madness to come up with our top list of innovative mooncakes this year.
Baekmidang
Korean brand Baekmidang, most famous for its milk ice cream, is offering three speciality mooncake flavours this year: yuzu and tangerine custard, matcha tangerine peel red bean paste and lava custard. They’re available in three gift sets, designed artfully in a red-and-gold Chinese-meets-Korean theme.
Price: Blissful mooncake gift set ($298/6 mini mooncakes); Art of Gratitude mooncake gift set ($398/8 mini mooncakes); Premium mooncake gift set ($888/10 mini mooncakes + 17 Korean teas); get 20% off if purchased by 31 August
How to order: visit one of the branches below (until 1 October)
Locations:
- K11 Art Mall: Shop B101A and B123, B1/F, K11 Art Mall, 18 Hanoi Road, TST, 5206 8514
- K11 MUSEA: Shop B111, B1/F, K11 MUSEA, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, TST, 6655 1909
- Peak Galleria: Shop 106, 1/F, Peak Galleria, 118 Peak Road, The Peak, 6655 1722
- Windsor House: Shop B71, B/F, Windsor House, 311 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, 5205 1327
The Cakery
Treats don’t count if they’re made from superfoods… right? At least that’s our mentality when it comes to scarfing down these delicious vegan, gluten-free and artificial-colouring-free mooncakes from The Cakery. We literally had a “we can’t believe it’s vegan” moment when we sunk our teeth into the four lively flavours on offer this year, ranging from lemon and yuzu, to red date and mixed nuts, to oolong and peach, to black sesame. Packed with superfood ingredients the likes of pink pitaya powder, turmeric and pumpkin seeds, these (almost) guilt-free cakes come in a minimalist wooden box wrapped in a pretty scarf inspired by Pantone’s 2020 Colour of the Year, Classic Blue.
Price: $428/box of 4 mooncakes
How to order: visit one of the branches below, email info@thecakeryhk.com or order online (until 1 October)
Locations:
- LANDMARK: Shop 303, 3/F, LANDMARK, 15 Queen’s Road Central, Central, 6683 3833
- Lee Garden Two: Shop 124, 1/F, Lee Garden Two, 28 Yun Ping Road, Causeway Bay, 2816 1838
- city’super ifc mall: Shop 1041–1049, 1/F, ifc mall, 8 Finance Street, Central, 2234 2804
- city’super Time Square: B1/F, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, 2917 7213
Cookie DPT
For a very limited time, Cookie DPT’s first-ever moon cookies have landed, available exclusively at the shop’s temporary kiosk at Lane Crawford, Times Square.
Price: $280/moon cookie box set (2 matcha red bean + 2 red velvet brownie filled)
How to order: check out Cookie DPT’s Instagram Stories for the reservation link or visit the pop-up (10 September–1 October)
Location: 1/F, Lane Crawford, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay
Cookie Smiles
Social enterprise Cookie Smiles, started this year amidst the upheaval of COVID-19, has also developed ingenious mooncookies – in flavours ranging from coconut jam and egg custard to chicken floss, custard and black pepper – that give back to the community. Cookie Smiles’ cookies are baked by disadvantaged bakers, with 20% of their annual profits going to the Hong Kong Down Syndrome Association and Splash, a foundation that provides swimming lessons to kids and adults who normally don’t have access.
Price: $88/mixed bag of 6 mooncookies
How to order: order online (until 1 October)
Dang Wen Li by Dominique Ansel
Whimsical bakery Dang Wen Li hops into this Mid-Autumn Festival with an adorable bunny-shaped mooncake gift box featuring Earl Grey tea mooncakes and a DIY cookie kit. Each of the four buttery mooncakes are infused with aromatic Earl Grey custard. The DIY kit in the bunny’s backpack comes with two pre-made cookies, a rabbit-shaped cookie cutter and a yuzu-flavoured cookie mix – so customers can bake their Dang Wen Li-inspired treats right at home!
Price: $498/Chef Bunny mooncake gift box ($438 if ordered by 23 August)
How to order: visit the shop or order online (until 4 October)
Location: Shop OTG63A, G/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3–27 Canton Road, TST, 2613 8618
Dynasty
Acclaimed Chinese restaurant Dynasty at Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong offers traditional mooncakes flavourings of white lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk, but we’re intrigued by the more, shall we say, unconventional offerings, including pandan paste and limited-edition Musang King durian – and if you know your durian, you’ll know that this Malaysian variety is the most sought after for its creamy, buttery flesh and pungent aroma.
Price: from $308/box of 6 mini white lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk or pandan paste and salted egg yolk mooncakes; $438/box of 6 mini Musang King durian mooncakes (contact Dynasty for discounts from 15% off for bulk purchases of 5+ boxes – not applicable to durian mooncakes)
How to order: visit Dynasty or phone 2802 8888 (until 29 September)
Location: 3/F, Renaissance Harbour View Hotel Hong Kong, 1 Harbour Road, Wanchai, 2802 8888
esca
Returning this year by popular demand, esca’s vegetarian and preservative-free salted egg Parmesan custard lava mooncakes tick all the right eco-friendly boxes, packaged in paper boxes without any plastic packaging whatsoever. These mooncakes have a triple-threat flavour and texture of molten salted egg yolk centre, creamy vegetarian Parmesan and coconut milk custard and buttery, vanilla-laced pastry crust.
Price: $288/box of 4 mooncakes (contact esca for bulk-purchase discounts)
How to order: WhatsApp 9202 1756 or order online (until 1 October)
The veggie brand has also launched a pop-up in collaboration with local lifestyle shop HOMEKONG to offer two exclusive mooncake flavours with the 852 in mind: HK-style French toast (PB and bread custard in vanilla pastry crust) and yuen-yeung lava, which translates to milk tea lava and coffee custard in vanilla pastry crust. Yum!
Price: $288/box of 4 mooncakes
How to order: visit the esca pop-up shop (18–24 September, 12–7pm)
Location: Unit B, UG/F, Hilltop Plaza, 49 Hollywood Road, Central
Feather & Bone
Sweet vs savoury… If you’re anything like us, savoury is the real way to our food-loving heart, so Feather & Bone’s first foray into mooncakes have really piqued our interest. F&B’s Mid-Autumn offering is a mooncake in pork pie form, made with bacon-wrapped Valenca free-range pork and Tuscan lardo di colonnata spiced with nutmeg, sage, thyme and garlic and nestled inside a buttery, flaky pastry stamped with a bespoke piggy design.
Price: $178/pack of 2 mooncakes
How to order: visit one of the branches below or order online from 1 September (until 1 October)
Location: all Feather & Bones shops in Hong Kong
Fortnum & Mason
Just take a look at that gorgeous packaging! Fortnum & Mason’s signature eau-de-Nil green has been chosen as the focal colour of its Mid-Autumn Festival gift box, bedecked with gold. Inside, there are four traditional double-yolk white lotus seed mooncakes, each in its own dainty drawer, alongside a tin of Fortnum’s renowned Royal Blend tea. This truly is a gift fit for a king or queen!
Price: $688/Royal Blend mooncake gift box
How to order: visit the shop or order online (until 1 October)
Location: Shop 022, G/F, K11 Atelier, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, TST, 3916 8100
Green Common
This year, plant-based grocer and café Green Common introduces two unique mooncake flavours made with vegan ingredients packaged in a beautifully designed box. The fig with pistachio and oat flavour is sweet and nutty with each bite, while the blueberry and purple sweet potato explodes with a mix of crushed nuts and pumpkin seeds. Made with less sugar, each mooncake lets you feel good about indulging during Mid-Autumn Festival – creative, healthier alternatives to the classic calorific mooncakes around town.
Price: $328/box of 6 vegan mixed-flavour mini mooncakes
How to order: visit a branch below or order online (until 4 October)
Locations: all Green Common shops in Hong Kong
Island Shangri-La
We like the mooncake varieties that Island Shangri-La has presented this year, from the classic red bean paste with 80-year dried tangerine peel to everyone’s favourite molten lava milk custard version. For a little bit of everything, we recommend the Seven-star mooncakes gift box, which includes one large traditional white lotus seed paste and egg yolk mooncake surrounded by seven mini mooncake flavours of chocolate, white lotus seed paste with egg yolk, white lotus seed paste with pine nuts, vanilla bean custard, red bean paste with egg yolk, red bean paste with dried tangerine peel and lotus seed paste with egg yolk. The Heep Hong Society charity mooncakes (white lotus seed paste with double egg yolks) would be our pick if you want to give back, with all proceeds benefiting Heep Hong Society’s early intervention and education programmes for children with special needs.
Price: $998/box of 8 Seven-star mooncakes; $428/box of 4 Heep Hong Society charity mooncakes (contact Island Gourmet for bulk-purchase discounts from 10% off for 10+ boxes, excluding the charity mooncakes)
How to order: visit Island Gourmet at the hotel, phone 2820 8551 or email mooncake.isl@shangri-la.com (until 30 September)
Location: Island Gourmet, 5/F, Island Shangri-la, Pacific Place, Supreme Court Road, Admiralty, 2820 8551
Jouer
Jouer is mixing it up this year, with their creative macaron flavours infused into the boutique’s gorgeous French-Asian mini mooncakes, including Horlicks, milk tea, kaya and salt and dark chocolate caramel bourbon. In another twist, Jouer’s Mid-Autumn macarons have traditional mooncake flavours such as white lotus, custard and taro jam. There are several gift options, but we recommend going for the macaron and mooncake set for some Mid-Autumn fun. We love the stylish octagonal bamboo box in which they sit, and it can be repurposed later for many uses. The box can also be personalised!
Price: $980/macaron & mooncake gift set (12 macarons + 8 mini mooncakes)
How to order: visit the shop or order online from 1 September (until 1 October)
Location: 1 Sau Wa Fong, Wanchai, 2528 6577
Lady M
Beloved cake boutique Lady M always comes up trumps when it comes to its Mid-Autumn designs, and this year is no exception. Partnering with Netflix and Pearl Studio’s animated musical Over the Moon (perfect!), Lady M’s light-up lantern features scenes from the new film, which tells the story of a young girl who builds a rocket ship to go to the moon in order to prove the existence of the legendary Moon Goddess. Inside, you’ll find six individually wrapped Lady M mini mooncakes in both sweet egg custard and chocolate custard flavours.
Price: $528/Over the Moon mooncake lantern ($488 if purchased by 24 August)
How to order: visit a branch below (until 4 October)
Location: all Lady M boutiques in Hong Kong, except Hong Kong International Airport (from 29 September–4 October, redemption is only available at the Times Square and Harbour City shops)
Miss Lee
Another fabulous vegan offering comes from Miss Lee, ZS Hospitality’s quirky vegetarian Chinese spot. We love the whimsical lunar-themed box, and what’s inside excites us even more. These mooncakes come in two flavours: purple sweet potato and ginger and hawthorn and dark plum. If the thought of a bright purple mooncake doesn’t get you into the Mid-Autumn spirit, nothing will!
Price: $238/box of 4 mooncakes
How to order: visit Miss Lee, phone 2881 1811 or email info@misslee.hk (until 1 October with 3 days’ advance order)
Location: G/F, The Wellington, 198 Wellington Street, Sheung Wan, 2881 1811
The Peninsula Hong Kong
This year’s mooncakes by The Peninsula’s Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Spring Moon are too sweet to pass up, shaped like hearts and filled with egg custard. Limited to 2,020 boxes in honour of the year, each box includes a greeting card designed by well-known newspaper columnist and artist Benny Li. For each box purchased, $50 will be donated to homeless charity ImpactHK.
Price: $630/8 mini heart-shaped mooncakes
How to order: visit Spring Moon, phone 2696 6828, email mooncakephk@peninsula.com or order online (from 24 August)
Location: Spring Moon, 1/F, The Peninsula Hong Kong, Salisbury Road, TST, 2696 6828
Ralph’s Coffee
The mini lava custard mooncakes by Ralph Lauren’s Ralph’s Coffee are certainly delicious, but it’s this year’s packaging that we truly covet. Modelled after an oversized NYC-style to-go coffee cup, the cup becomes a lantern with just the pull of the ribbon handle, showing off the Big Apple skyline aglow in LED lights.
Price: $428/box of 4 mooncakes ($388 if purchased by 31 August)
How to order: visit Ralph’s Coffee Alexandra House or Ocean Terminal or order online (while stocks last)
Locations:
- Alexandra House: Shop 103, 1/F, Alexandra House, 18 Chater Road, Central, 6029 7956
- Ocean Terminal, Shop OT313, 3/F, Ocean Terminal, Harbour City, 3–27 Canton Road, TST, 2376 3936
Rosewood Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s newest five-star darling, Rosewood Hong Kong, has a variety of decadent mooncakes this Mid-Autumn to entice any palate. For those craving a sense of tradition, there’s the classic white lotus and salted duck egg yolk mooncake ($498 for box of 4), while those with an adventurous palate can try the mini assorted flavour set ($428 for box of 6) for a taste of jasmine-tea-infused egg custard mooncake or red bean mandarin peel flavour. For chocolate lovers, Pastry Chef Holger Deh from Butterfly Patisserie has crafted mini chocolate mooncakes ($438 for box of 6). And for the ultimate gift, there’s The Legacy House’s mooncake and premium tea box set ($498), featuring two layers with six mini egg custard mooncakes and Wuyi Da Hong Pao tea. For every box of mooncakes sold, the hotel will donate a lunch box to ImpactHK, a charity providing aid to the homeless and those less fortunate in Hong Kong.
Price: from $428–498 for mooncake gift sets
How to order: visit Butterfly Patisserie at the hotel, email hongkong.mooncake@rosewoodhotels.com or order online (until 1 October)
Location: Butterfly Patisserie, 2/F, Rosewood Hong Kong, Victoria Dockside, 18 Salisbury Road, TST, 3891 8732
Royal Caviar Club
Really want to impress? Check out Royal Caviar Club’s handmade caviar mooncakes – a world’s first, created with Chef Nicholas Chew, formerly of Michelin-starred Serge et le phoque and Bibo and now the founder of private caterer Guerrilla Lab. The indulgence doesn’t stop with the caviar; the filling also includes Australian winter black truffle and truffled potato, and the coating is of the non-baked “snowy” variety. The mooncakes are packaged in individual tins in a luxury, limited-edition gift box.
Price: $1,800/box of 4 mooncakes ($1,380 if purchased before 11 September)
How to order: order online (until 24 September)
Tea WG
A perfect pairing to mooncakes is aromatic tea, and Tea WG has created the beautiful Sky Lantern Tea collection this year for the occasion. A tin of Sky Lantern Tea accompanies two mooncakes infused with the aromas of tea. There’s the Singapore Breakfast Tea-infused mooncake with roasted melon seeds and salted egg yolk and the signature Sky Lantern Tea mooncake with white and dark chocolate and white lotus paste. So sit back, relax, sip and taste.
Price: $488/set of 2 mooncakes + tin of Sky Lantern Tea ($368 if purchased before 6 September)
How to order: visit a branch below (until 1 October)
Locations:
- ELEMENTS: Shop 1095, 1/F, ELEMENTS, 1 Austin Road West, TST, 2363 9683
- Festival Walk: Shop LG2–11, LG2/F, Festival Walk, 80 Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon Tong, 2725 6930
- ifc mall: Shop 1022–3, 1/F, ifc mall, 8 Finance Street, Central, 2796 2828
- New Town Plaza: Shop 204A, 2/F, Phase I, New Town Plaza, 18–19 Sha Tin Centre Street, Sha Tin, 2619 9603
Venchi
Trust Italian chocolatier Venchi to offer up some mooncakes of the chocolate variety. The chocolate mooncakes are available in three flavours – Didama (gianduia chocolate spread with gluten-free hazelnut biscuit covered in 56% dark chocolate), matcha and cocoa nibs (vegan-friendly pistachio and green matcha tea ganache with cocoa nibs covered in 75% dark chocolate) and black cherry (black cherry and dark chocolate with almond paste covered in 75% dark chocolate) – and the colourful, paper-cut packaging makes for a pretty present for the chocoholic in your life.
Price: chocolate mooncake square gift box ($350/box of 4 mooncakes); chocolate mooncake rectangle gift box ($450/box of 4 mooncakes + 6 chocolates); chocolate mooncake double-layer gift box ($650/6 mooncakes, 4 chocolates + 2 drawers of bonbons) – early-bird discounts if purchased by 7 September + 50% off purchase of second gift box
How to order: visit a shop below (until 1 October)
Location: all Venchi boutiques in Hong Kong
Vive Cake Boutique
Vive is well known during this time for its signature shortcrusted lava custard mooncakes (we love the cookie-like pastry), and this year, they’re adding a unique new flavour: shortcrusted golden custard mooncake infused with Tie Guan Yin Chinese tea. These mooncakes can be purchased as part of playfully elegant gift sets featuring the mythical moon rabbit – and they light up!
Price: Jade Rabbit mooncake gift box ($328/box of 4 mooncakes); Jade Rabbit mooncake & organic tea gift box ($348/box of 2 mooncakes + 6 organic Taiwanese teabags) – if ordered before 5 September, 10% off upon purchase of 1–9 boxes, 15% off upon purchase of 10–49 boxes, 20% off upon purchase of 50–99 boxes and 25% off upon purchase of 100+ boxes
How to order: visit the shop, email info@vive.hk or order online (1 September–4 October)
Location: Shop 3, 1/F, H Queen’s, 80 Queen’s Road Central, Central, 9602 2869
Yat Tung Heen
What sets Eaton HK’s Michelin-starred Yat Tung Heen’s mini mooncakes (white lotus paste with egg yolk and custard with egg yolk) apart is their sustainable packaging, with each reusable box doubling as a very handy bamboo steamer that can be used over and over again. Bamboo steamers are not just for cooking – we use ours for serving as well as storing various kitchen-related bits and bobs.
Price: $388/box of 6 mooncakes (25% off if purchased by 31 August)
How to order: visit Yat Tung Heen, phone 2710 1093 or order online (until 30 September)
Location: B2/F, Eaton HK, 380 Nathan Road, Jordan, 2710 1093
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