The mid-autumn festival brings with it some of our favourite things - mooncakes. These pastry delights are only available for a short period of time and London restaurants are getting ever more inventive with their own productions. Here are some of the more notable mooncakes this season.
Daddy Bao and Mr Bao
Where: Tooting and Peckham
When: 16-22 September 2024
For the week of the mid-Autumn festival, both of the Taiwanese restaurants will have a special mooncake on offer. It's a matcha mooncake with a white chocolate and strawberry mochi filling, made in a custom mould. You'll be able to order one on its own, or as part of their special mid-autumn feast menu on 22 September.
Yauatcha
Where: Soho, City (and delivery)
When: Until 24 September 2024
Yauatcha has three boxes on offer this year: standard, classic and luxury (with the luxury option coming in a light-up box). Flavours include a Traditional Baked Egg Custard, a Snowskin Earl Grey with an Earl Grey filling as well as a white chocolate shell centre filled with mango cream, and Snowskin Musang King Durian with hints of caramel, vanilla and almond. And if a whole box is too much, they're available individually in both the Soho and City Yauatchas.
Noodle & Beer
Where: Spitalfields - 31 Bell Ln, London E1 7LA
When: From 5 September 2024
Noodle & Beer always go for something pretty special with their mooncake boxes and this year is no different, with a pretty spectacular-looking wooden creation (pre-order for £75). This year's mooncake flavours include darjeeling with oatmilk, yuzu with lime, coconut, latte and black sesame.
Peninsula London
Where: Belgravia,
When: Until 17 September 2024
New to the mooncake scene this year is the high-end Peninsula hotel, where you can find them in The Peninsula Boutique and Café. They'll have the group's mini mooncakes, including mini chocolate egg custard mooncakes with toffee and brownie, mini sea salt egg custard mooncakes with macadamia nuts and mini candied kumquat and pineapple mooncakes with mixed nuts. they'll also have the darker coloured luna cakes, in chocolate, mango, strawberry and vanilla flavours. All will be available to take away in boxes of four, six, and eight. You'll also be able to find these at Selfridges.
Mille
Where: Paddington - 8A Spring Street, London, W2 3RA (and delivery)
Mille's creations this year include a custard lava mooncake and a matcha lava mooncake, a pineapple pastry mooncake and a snowy version. This year, their pork pie version (also available with pickles) is also making a reappearance if you want something very different.
Shanghai Supper Club
Where: Marylebone - 13 Montagu Place, London W1H 2ET (collection only)
When: 4-17 September 2024
Alongside their supperclubs, Shanghai Supper Club also sell mooncakes every year for the Mid-Autumn Festival. They offer Shanghainese mooncakes with a flaky crust and best known for having pork fillings. Options this year are either pork or red bean-filled (or a box mixing them both). They also do special wontons at this time of year (pork & shepherd's purse), so you should really get a few of those too.
Ong Ong Buns
Where: Bermondsey, Maltby Street, Westfield Stratford
Ong Ong Buns is a bakery that was initially set up during lockdown but now operates out of both Seven Dials Market and Bermondsey, selling milk breads, buns and pâtisseries. This year, the mooncake flavours include Red bean with custard and coconut, biscoff Lotus with lotus paste, pandan lotus and Ovaltine with peanut butter and cranberry. And for their leftfield version, they have a mooncake featuring durian with Kappacasein’s Bermondsey Hard Pressed cheese.
Mimi Mei Fair
Where: Mayfair - 55 Curzon St, London W1J 8PG (Collection and in the restaurant)
When: Until 22 September
As usual, this year's mooncakes from Mimi Mei Fair come in grande and mini sizes. The grand mooncakes are gilded in white lotus double egg yolk while the mini ones are available in rose and jasmine, with each coming in a gold box, so they're a very good option for a gift.
Also see
Tian Tian Market (Various locations) - The markets all have a section of mooncakes instore, from HK Maxim and more.
Chinatown - Supermarkets in Chinatown are a good option for ready-made mooncakes, and for a fresher alternative, try Chinatown Bakery or Golden Gate Cake Shop]
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