Seasonal
Best mooncakes in Auckland
Quick Guide — What to Buy
I am not a mooncake expert and I am not going to pretend to be one. I went looking for where to buy good mooncakes in Auckland in the week before Moon Festival, could not find anything recent, and decided to do the tasting myself.
One rule: they had to be made here. A lot of what is on sale in Auckland at this time of year is imported in the gift box, and I wanted the bakeries that bake their own. That left two. La Couronne Cake Boutique make everything at their own bakery, and a small market stall called Liobôn kept turning up on Instagram and do the same.
At Liobôn’s stall I asked for their three most popular. At La Couronne I asked the owners the same, and one of the staff added that the lava ones are the ones people trying mooncakes for the first time tend to love. Seven mooncakes, one small human as second judge, and here is the order they finished in.
The taste test results
Seven mooncakes, tasted and ranked by someone who had never bought one before.
Vaniyé, Onehunga
Vaniyé were making mooncakes this year and I like everything else they do, so they were on the list. By the time I got there on the Thursday before the festival they had sold out completely. That says a lot. It is on our list for next year.
Where to find them
Liobôn Bakery are a travelling market stall run by two owner-operators, and they bake everything themselves. For most of the year they are a dessert stall, tiramisù and cookies; mooncakes are a Moon Festival thing, six flavours, and stock varies week to week. Everything they make is plant-based and alcohol free, mooncakes included, so if you are looking for vegan mooncakes in Auckland this is the list. I tried three of the six. I will try the other three next year: osmanthus and oolong pineapple, chestnut with toasted walnut and almond, and salted seaweed and cashew. I found them at Britomart; check their Instagram for where they are each weekend. They sell out.
La Couronne Cake Boutique, 283 Dominion Road, Mount Eden. A bakery and bubble tea cafe with a pink shopfront that makes every mooncake on the premises, with a full wall of gift boxes in the lead-up to the festival. The staff are very friendly and were happy to talk me through the mooncakes. Lava and snow skin ones in the cabinet, the traditional baked ones with lotus, taro, pandan and red bean fillings on the trays, and gift boxes if you need one.
Vaniyé Patisserie, Onehunga. Listed on the site. On our list for next year.
The counter at La Couronne. Traditional baked ones on the trays, snow skin in the open box.
The gift box wall at La Couronne in the week before the festival.
La Couronne on Dominion Road, Mount Eden.
