As the Mid Autumn festival approaches, it’s easy to understand that revelry is in the air. Lanterns are for sale in every supermarket and mooncakes are lining up the racks of every bakery. Be it a traditional affair in red bean or lotus seed paste or a more modern avatar infused with whisky, mooncakes are literally everywhere. Here are our top picks from the best places in town.

Conrad Hotel

Golden Leaf in the Conrad brings customers five different options this season. The traditional version is perfectly balanced with lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk complementing each other. For the health-conscious ones, there are low-sugar and mixed-nut varieties. The contemporary renditions include green tea mooncakes and egg custard mooncakes which come in smaller sizes.

Conrad’s Cake Shop also has on offer some special hampers containing the mooncakes and supreme X.O. sauce from Golden Leaf, priced between HK$998 and HK$3,188.

Mandarin Oriental

Mandarin Oriental’s Michelin-starred Man Wah restaurant has on offer limited-edition mini mooncake hampers. Limited to only 750 pieces, the boxes include speciality mooncakes, including golden or white lotus with two yolks, mini egg custards, as well as mini assorted mooncakes in a variety of flavours, such as sweet potato, red bean chestnut and white lotus.

Mandarin Oriental also brings the perfect gift sets, including Mandarin Deluxe Mooncake three-tier and one-tier hampers (HK$3,388 and HK$2,988), Mandarin Seasonal Fruit Mooncake Hamper (HK$2,388) and Mandarin Mooncake Gift Box (HK$1,888). 

Dynasty Restaurant, Renaissance Harbour View Hotel

Dynasty offers a fully traditional version of mooncakes with white lotus seed paste and salted egg yolk. For those who like to experiment, there are the mini pandan paste and salted egg yolk mooncakes that are filled with a velvety blend of pandan paste and egg yolks that deliver light and aromatic pandan notes. All mooncakes are priced at HK$278 for a box of six pieces. To spread the joy this festive season, Dynasty Restaurant donates HK$10 to Hong Chi Association for every box of mooncake sold.

 

Dalloyau

The renowned Parisian patisserie brings mooncakes with a French flair. Using traditional French baking techniques, sablé pastry shells are filled with one of three fillings: a red bean paste as a tribute to Asian heritage; a 62% chocolate-dice centre with an elegant note of rum; and a delectable rum raisin centre whose rich flavours just explode in the mouth. Dalloyau offers a range of Paris Moon gift boxes, including New Moon (HK$988), Crescent Moon (HK$1388), Moonlight (HK$2,288) and Full Moon (HK$3,888).

InterContinental Grand Stanford

InterContinental Grand Stanford has curated a host of expertly crafted mooncake collections ranging from classic flavours to next-gen chocolate flavours. While there are the usual lotus paste, egg custard, low sugar versions, what really made us sit up and take notice was their whisky and chocolate innovations. Collaborating with Tiffany’s New York Bar and Taiwanese whisky brand, Kavalan, InterContinental brings specially handcrafted Kavalan Whisky Chocolate Mooncakes (HK$468 per box with three pieces) in three single-malt whisky flavours.

Text: Suchetana Mukhopadhyay