The Mandarin Cake Shop 文華餅店 (Shenzhen, CHINA) ★★★★☆

My second last destination tonight is Shum Yip Upperhills (深業上城), an upscale entertainment hub that combines a luxurious shopping mall with two of the most popular hotels in Futian, The Mandarin Oriental (深圳文華東方酒店) and Muji Hotel (深圳無印良品飯店). After a long long walk that led me from the Upperhills subway station to the mall, I started looking for The Mandarin Oriental Shenzhen which is supposed to be directly connected to Level 3 of the shopping complex but it took me a while before finally getting there.

Located on the ground floor of the hotel is The Mandarin Cake Shop (文華餅店), one of the best French patisserie there is in Shenzhen.

The name, The Mandarin Cake Shop, speaks for itself. Very simple but elegant décor.

I decided to sit down for another dessert before dinner.

After 6pm, everything here is offered at half price! Music to my ears....👂👂

Fleur de Vanille (香草之花) (¥68) – A stunning flower-shaped pastry with a vanilla theme.

This came with various textures of vanilla including vanilla biscuit moelleux, vanilla rice pudding, vanilla praline croustillant, vanilla bavarois, and vanilla ganache.

As much as I love vanilla, something seemed to be missing here. The tiny bit of caramel on the bottom really helped with providing the pastry with some contrasting flavors, something that didn't taste like vanilla but there had to be more of it to balance the sweetness of the rest of the dessert, which was primarily vanilla.

It was my first visit to Upperhills but I don't know if I would be back. The walk from the subway station took at least 10 minutes and the shops at the mall were more or less the same as those found in any other malls in Futian. Yes, the space here is incredible but I just didn't see the point of heading over here just for the hip space (and there's no arcade game centre here 🙅). 

Food Rating: 6.2/10

Price: ¥¥¥

Address: Block A UpperHills, No. 5001 Huanggang Road, Futian, Guangzhou, China

深圳市福田区华富街道莲花一村社区皇岗路5001号深业上城F2

Closest Metro Station: Upperhills (深业上城)

Tel: +86 (755) 8182-9302

Opening Hours: 11:00am - 10:00pm daily

Map: https://j.map.baidu.com/c7/oM5c