MoMo & Coco

The Ultimate Guide to HK’s Best Modern and Most Viral Egg Tarts

Introduction

Who remembers our guide to NYC’s best Chinatown bakeries? Written up in the dark days of the pandemic, it’s hard to believe that the pandemic was almost 5 years ago now. Whereas NYC’s Chinatown bakeries have over the years continuously served up traditional Cantonese-style egg tarts nestled within a shortcrust pastry, there have been only a few other stores in NYC that offered non-traditional versions of egg tarts. For example, Na Tart’s infusions of everything Asian all at once, Pinklady’s Japanese cheese tarts, Ando’s bubble tea egg tarts, or Bibble & Sip’s even sweeter bubble tea versions. That’s not quite the case across the other side of the world in Hong Kong. Undoubtedly HK’s most iconic dessert, the egg tart has evolved in HK in a different way — think flavours other than just pure caramelized egg, crusts venturing beyond shortcrust pastry, and textures edging towards more flan than custard pudding, altogether familiar yet unfamiliar. In this guide, we hunt down the more recent and modern renditions of the HK egg tart and see whether they are worth the hype. 

HK’s best modern and largest egg tarts from Hashtag B

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Hashtag B, various locations including Causeway Bay, TST and MongKok. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Napoleon or Black Sugar Mochi.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 18 for the Napoleon, and HKD 25-30 for the other flavours).
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  Of all the egg tarts featured on this list, Hashtag B’s is our favourite modern egg tart in Hong Kong.  Here, a ten petal flower-shaped puff pastry cradles thick wobbly egg custard flavoured in any of creme brulee, pistachio, white peach, and black sugar mochi. Generously proportioned, Hashtag B’s egg tart cannot be eaten in one sitting, unless you have a dessert-loving friend accompanying you, of course. Good luck resisting the other Asian-accented bakery goods at Hashtag B too — there’s a corn danish pastry that we highly recommend as well. 
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip:  The Causeway Bay location is not as jam-packed as the TST location. 
 

Other flower-shaped egg tarts similar to Hashtag B

1. Mini flower-shaped egg tarts from Bernice

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Bernice Bakery, Kennedy Town, HK Island. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Classical or pistachio. 
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 15)
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Kennedy Town is home to some rather unassuming food spots, one of which is styled similar to Hashtag B. Serving a pretty selection of baked goods fusing both East and West together, Bernice also offers egg tarts.  Bernice’s egg tarts follow the flower shape of Hashtag B’s egg tarts, albeit offered at a lower price point and a smaller size than that at Hashtag. We have spotted and tried two flavours — a classical egg tart and a pistachio one — and they are both not too sweet, with a solid yet bouncy egg custard heart. They are however, not as flakey as other egg tarts on this list. Do check out the other baked goods at this bakery, with the ube and red bean-infused treats being particular highlights. 
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: Best for not-to-sweet, mini-sized flower-shaped egg tarts. No lines ever. One of our favourite local bakeries. Compare it to Hashtag B. 

2. Pandan charcoal egg tarts from Orchid Padaria

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Orchid Padaria, Causeway Bay and Mongkok locations. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Pandan charcoal.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 20)
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: If you are curious about non-traditional-flavoured egg tarts, check out Orchid Padaria. You can choose from egg tarts formed from a typical golden-coloured pastry base, or those crafted of bamboo charcoal pastry instead. There’s pandan, milk tea, black truffle, and of course, creme brulee classic as well. While Orchid’s egg tarts were very flaky (crunchy, even), the flavour profile of the egg tarts that we tried were somewhat muted, notwithstanding the particularly vibrant colour tones of Orchid’s egg tart range. 
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: Best for those with subtle palates.

3. Matcha croissant egg tart from +Plus Bread

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Plus Bread, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Matcha Mochi.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 18 for classical, HKD 29 for matcha)
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: A bit further afield, Plus Bread is worth the trek to Kowloon side. It’s a Jellycat-themed bakery/patisserie store where most of its baked bun goods have little cute faces imprinted. Don’t miss its egg tarts though, which are easy to overlook because of all of the other cute desserts on offer. There are two flavours available, one being a more traditional egg tart, and the other being exuberantly and emphatically infused with matcha and dusted over with more of the same. 
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: Compared to the other bakeries on this list, you can actually sit and eat and enjoy your egg tart at Plus Bread, instead of just take away.

HK’s most viral sourdough egg tarts from Bakehouse

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Bakehouse, various locations including Causeway Bay, TST, Soho, Wanchai.
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: The classical (there’s only one flavour). 
  • ☑ Budget: $ (HKD 12). 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Alongside Hashtag B, Bakehouse is the other bakery that competes for the top spot of most viral egg tart in Hong Kong. With the greatest honesty though, we feel that Bakehouse’s egg tarts are not particularly memorable. They are one-bite morsels, much sweeter than other egg tarts on this list, and err towards a molten texture, rather than possessing the bounce and wobble typical of a HK egg tart. Their main distinguishing feature supposedly arises from the adoption of a sourdough pastry crust — yet, on the various occasions that we have tried Bakehouse’s egg tarts, this manifests as more burnt than flaky. For us, the best aspect of egg tarts from Bakehouse is that you can ask for them to be served warm.
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: Head to the Wanchai branch which usually has no lines, compared to the chaotic Soho or TST stores. 

Other petite egg tarts similar to Bakehouse

1. Petite coffee mochi egg tarts from Soft Thunder

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Soft Thunder, Kennedy Town, HK Island. (Also located in Wanchai, HK Island). 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Coffee Mochi.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 13 for classical, HKD 17 for coffee mochi). 
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Blink and you might just miss Soft Thunder. Another somewhat unassuming bakery in Kennedy Town (with other locations as well), Soft Thunder serves an array of baked goods, including a classic egg tart and a coffee-flavoured one with a layer of tapioca pearls embedded as its bottom layer. They both resemble the small bowl-shaped egg tarts of Bakehouse, albeit with a less burnt, softer pastry texture and a far more solid custard pudding feel. Soft Thunder’s “Coffee Mochi Egg Tart” is the must-eat, featuring both earthy and sweet tones, and flaky and chewy textures in one addictive bite-sized morsel. 
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: No lines ever. Compare it to Bakehouse, and let us know what you think, we personally much prefer it.

2. Mini French-accented egg tarts from Ohlalagout

  • ☑ Dessert destination:  Ohlalagout, Sheung Wan, HK Island. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Hazelnut, Apple Cinnamon.
  • ☑ Budget: $$ (HKD 50 for 3)
  • ☑ Short and sweet story: Ohalalgout is a textbook example of a bakery making waves on Chinese social media app Dianping, but barely a ripple on other social media outlets. Offering the widest range of egg tart flavours in HK, Ohlalagout is – in these Dessert Correspondents’ humble opinion – deserving of more hype. Each egg tart is a one or two bite wonder, silky custard flan embellished with an assortment of chopped hazelnut and chocolate, caramelized apple and cinnamon, berry jam, and even parmesan cheese or garlic, and all wrapped by properly crispy pastry layers. Don’t overlook the other typical French patisserie treats either.
  • ☑ Dessert adventure tip: Best for crispy, flaky egg tarts with toppings.

HK’s most expensive egg tart from Rosewood Hotel

  • ☑ Dessert destination: Butterfly Patisserie, Rosewood Hotel, TST, Kowloon. 
  • ☑ Must eat flavour: Classical.
  • ☑ Budget: $$$ (HKD 98)
  • ☑ Short and sweet story:  Over the years, we have spent some pretty ridiculous amounts of money on food. In NYC, Cosme‘s USD $100+ duck tacos stand out in our mind as “poor man grub priced as rich man food.” In HK, can you get more mind-boggling than spending almost HKD 100 on an egg tart, when the local Cantonese bakery sells it for HKD 5?  We would surely have scoffed at the idea but…during this past summer in HK, we blame the city’s intense humidity for melting our brains because when we heard that the Rosewood Hotel was hosting a pop-up summer store near the dessert desert that is our office area, we made a quick beeline to the store to check it out. What greeted us were rows of perfectly symmetrical egg tarts, with impossibly consistently-coloured sunset gold surfaces embossed with perfectly-dusted white icing sugar butterflies. This must be what they call love at first sight, we thought. Measuring almost half a ruler length in diameter, they rivalled Hashtag B’s giant egg tarts in terms of voluptuous proportions. Notwithstanding the super-hyped media coverage though, Rosewood’s “egg tarts” were not egg tarts at all. Rather, they were French flans deceptively stuffed into a coissant pastry tart setting — one bite, and their true nature was revealed. All molten, almost watery, vanilla custard insides that dripped onto our office desks, rather than a bouncy firm egg custard heart. L’art de plaire est l’art de tromper, bien sur. 

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