Mooncakes are a traditional Chinese bakery good that are typically served during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Their round shape symbolizes completeness and reunion, and they are usually filled with lotus, dates, or red bean paste, then often stuffed with a duck egg yolk as well. Given as gifts to friends and family, they are a unique and tasty treat that are served in select bakeries throughout the United States, many of which have their own unique take on the mooncake. Check out the 9 best places for mooncakes and prepare for a celebration of your own.
Try The Best Mooncakes in the U.S. This Fall!
1. Sunny Bakery
In addition to standard mooncakes, this bakery offers something a little different from the rest. Try their durian-flavored mooncake that is wrapped in a translucent, snowy layer made of glutinous rice flour with a consistency that resembles mochi. The tasty center is stuffed with a generous portion of fresh durian paste to tantalize your taste buds.
Address: 743 E Valley Boulevard, San Gabriel, CA
Find your Los Angeles vacation rental!
2. Sing Cheong Yuen Chinese Bakery
This Chinatown hotspot is known for serving some of the most interesting mooncakes on the island. Regular mooncakes aside, they also serve Japanese-inspired mochi moon cakes with a variety of fillings including black sugar, yellow bean, lotus seed, duck egg, and winter melon. Not only are their mooncakes tasty but they’re pretty too, featuring ornately carved designs embossed on the top depicting Chinese characters, flowers, and other intricate designs.
Address: 1027 Maunakea Street, Honolulu, HI
Find your Honolulu vacation rental!
3. Chiu Hong Bakery
Known for serving up some of Manhattan’s best mooncakes, this bakery does more than offer the classic lotus seed filling. Their famous five-kernel mooncake is made with a mixture of nuts and seeds that are held together with a sticky, syrupy taste, giving it the consistency of a chewy, sweet granola bar.
Address: 161 Mott Street, New York, NY
Find your New York City vacation rental!
4. Hing Shing Pastry
This is a popular place in Chinatown that serves a wide variety of traditional mooncakes that include brown lotus seed paste with egg yolk and red bean, but they are also known for their pork bun, egg custard-filled buns, taro cake, and coconut buns.
Address: 67 Beach Street, Boston, MA
Find your Boston vacation rental!
5. Sheng Kee Bakery
This family bakery originated in Taiwan prior to opening in the United States and quickly became famous for their cakes and pastries made with special ingredients. Their pineapple and red bean with yolk flavor is definitely a must-try. They also serve other unique treats including their taro root bun, red bean toast, and blueberry puff bun.
Address: 1941 Irving Street, San Francisco, CA
Find your San Francisco vacation rental!
6. Maxim Oriental Bakery
This Florida bakery serves many unique baked goods and pastries, including their winter melon cake and roast pork buns. You’ll be sure to find plenty of traditional red bean and lotus paste moon cakes here featuring the beautiful carved design even when they’re not in season.
Address: 4269 N State Road 7, Lauderdale Lakes, FL
Find your Fort Lauderdale vacation rental!
7. Fay Da Bakery
With locations in Manhattan and Queens, this bakery serves up a variety of special treats, from taro and mango mochi to red bean rice cake. Regarding mooncakes, they serve regular lotus seed paste filling with no yolk, as well as an assortment box containing date/jujube, mixed nuts, lotus paste with one yolk, and pineapple.
Address: 257 W 34th Street, New York, NY
Find your New York City vacation rental!
8. My Hiep
Close to Huntington Beach, this bakery specializes in mooncakes year-round and makes theirs fresh in multiple varieties. Fillings range from taro, green bean, and Chinese sausage to chicken, salted egg yolk, and durian. They also offer Taiwanese mooncake varieties shaped like domes, piglet-shaped mooncakes, vegetarian mooncakes, and they even have a selection of healthy mooncakes that are made with vegetable oil instead of tradition lard.
Address: 10483 Bolsa Avenue, Westminster, CA
Find your Huntington Beach vacation rental!
9. Kee Wah Bakery
This bakery with Hong Kong roots is known at an international level for its mooncakes that are made in an assortment of flavors. They offer moon cakes stuffed with four yolks to represent the four phases o the moon, and fillings range in flavor from red mean with mandarin zest to egg custard, ham, and pineapple paste with walnuts. Bonus: they combine their leftover mooncake scraps to mold dough into edible fun shapes and animals such as their famous piggies in a bamboo basket.
Address: 150 W. Valley Boulevard, San Gabriel, CA
Find your Los Angeles vacation rental!
This article was written by Kamala Kirk.