Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong invented the hotel cake shop as a city institution: the Mandarin Cake Shop with its rose petal jam and cheesecake, and the Clipper Lounge tea on the mezzanine since 1963.

The hotel on Connaught Road opened in 1963 as the tallest building in Hong Kong and became the group’s flagship. Its Clipper Lounge on the mezzanine has served afternoon tea for six decades with scones, sandwiches and the pastry kitchen’s classics; its Mandarin Cake Shop on the same floor is the original hotel cake counter of Asia, famous for the rose petal jam made to a 1960s recipe, the Mandarin cheesecake, the mooncakes and the chocolates. The kitchen’s pastry chefs have led the group’s tradition worldwide.

The Cake Shop is the reason the Mandarin Oriental group sells cakes from Tokyo to Dubai; a jar of rose petal jam is the most Hong Kong gift in the city.