Xinghualou

Xinghualou began in 1851 as a Cantonese teahouse near Fuzhou Road in the late Qing, growing into one of Shanghai's best-known Cantonese-cuisine and pastry houses. It was confirmed as a Chinese time-honoured brand in 1993.

Xinghualou is best loved for its Cantonese mooncakes—red-bean, lotus-seed and salted-egg-yolk fillings long a fixture of Shanghai's Mid-Autumn, when the queues outside the shop were a sight of the city in themselves.

The house keeps to traditional Cantonese pastry recipes and hand-made cake methods—thin skins, generous fillings, rich but not cloying—alongside authentic Cantonese hot dishes and tea snacks.