A selection of delicious looking mooncakes on a colourful backdrop
Jess Hand
Jess Hand

The best mooncakes in London to celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival

Celebrate China’s Mid-Autumn Festival with the city’s most creative and delicious traditional mooncakes

Alice Saville
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The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon or Mooncake Festival, takes place every September. And you'll be over the moon when you sample some of the delights that London’s chefs and bakers have dreamt up for this year’s celebration. Traditionally in China, mooncakes are round, to help you celebrate a festival that's all about coming together with loved ones and gazing at, yes, the moon. But beyond that, anything goes. They can be sweet or savoury (or both!), enjoyed hot or cold, and can come patterned with every kind of intricate design you can imagine. Here are London’s best and most imaginative mooncakes to enjoy over Mid-Autumn Festival, which in 2023 falls on Friday September 29. 

RECOMMENDED: Make a night of it at London’s best Chinese restaurants.

Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes in London

Shanghai Supperclub

Get a delicious savoury hit with these mooncakes from Lillian Luk, aka Shanghai Supperclub. She uses quality French butter instead of the traditional lard to give them a deliciously flaky, golden exterior, with a generous pork filling (there’s also a vegetarian red bean option). Warm them up to enjoy them at their crispy best. 

How to order? Collection only. Email info@shanghaisupper.co.uk at least 24 hours, preferably 48 hours, in advance.

13 Montagu Place, W1H 2ET. Until Sep 30. From £28 for six.

Noodle & Beer

For a fancy mooncake experience, opt for Noodle & Beer’s deluxe boxes. Inside a delicately decorated box, you’ll find four flavours of dense, richly sweet-savoury mooncake: lotus with salted egg yolk, char siu pork, dry-cured jamón, and dry-cured jamón with salted egg yolk. Plus, as a delightful bonus, every mooncake box includes a crystalline glazed serving plate, each one a unique work of art in itself.

How to order? Eat-in, collection and nationwide delivery from noodleandbeer.slerp.com

31 Bell Lane, E1 7LA. Until Sep 29. From £59 for four.

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Ong Ong Buns

Ong Ong Buns' mooncakes are packed with personality: they come in little gingham boxes, their surfaces imprinted with four offbeat designs, including a cat and a smiling mooncake. Hilariously, their creator Aaron Mo goes out of his way to warn you off ordering the salted egg yolk kind: 'ruin it by adding yoke [sic] for an extra 50p', the company's Instagram warns. Whether or not you heed his words, at £6 each these are both delicious and substantially cheaper than most mooncakes out there: all the more reason to sample as many flavours as you can.  

How to order? Collection only. Pre-order online from Ong Ong Bun's website

Seven Dials Market, WC2H 9LD. Until Sep 10. From £6 each.

Bun House

Chinatown's Bun House is a cult Cantonese cafe that slings out deliciously fluffy buns galore. But they can do rich and dense too, as proven by their golden brown mooncakes. Their intricate exteriors are inspired by traditional Chinese rabbit motifs (it is the year of the rabbit, after all), but inside, things are a bit more up-to-date. The classic bean and lava custard flavours are supplemented by two new inventive creations: mango sago, an ode to the popular mango pomelo sago dessert, and muscat grape, inspired by the popular green grape slushie.

How to order? Order online for collection. 

26-27 Lisle St, WC2H 7BA. Until Sep 30. £32 for four.

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Beo Stories

Even the most hardened mooncake refusenik will have their heart melted by these adorable, firmly untraditional creations. Beo Stories's mooncakes are inspired by French patisserie, building fluffy fruit mousse (they've got pandan, pineapple, mango passionfruit and osmanthus) onto a crunchy chocolate base. Adorable rabbit, moon and cloud details give them a storybook prettiness.

How to order? Order for home delivery from Beo Stories' website.

28 Bradmore Park Road, W6 0DT. £34 for four.

MiMi Mei Fair

These uber-glamorous morsels from MiMi Mei Fair have a gorgeously lustrous rose gold coating: eat them, or wear them as novel jewellery, the choice is yours! The grande sesame and egg yolk mooncake is designed to be cut up and shared with guests, while the dainty kumquat mini mooncakes come in boxes of six – tied up with an equally pretty rose gold ribbon, of course.

How to order? Collection only. Order online

55 Curzon Street, W1J 8PG. Until Sep 10. £16 for the grande mooncake, or £30 for six mini mooncakes.

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Yauatcha

You can get a taste of both trad and contemporary flavours with Soho eatery Yauatcha's chic blue, circular boxes. Their new snowskin mooncake is filled with sweet pandan. Or keep things classic with their baked egg custard flavour.  

How to order? Dining in at Yauatcha Soho and City, collection and nationwide delivery. Order online.  

15-17 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL. Until Sep 15. £5.50 for one, £42 for nine. 

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