Sweet treats
Just around the corner at 7 Newport Place (WC2H 7JR), Chinatown Bakery does a roaring trade day and night selling everything from Taro buns to green-tinted Pandan Swiss rolls.
Plenty gather just to watch the taiyaki machine in the window spill out freshly filled fish-shaped waffles, oozing with custardy goodness.
For those for whom photographing one's food is as important a part of the digestion process as swallowing, there's Bake and Bubble Wrap, at No. 9 and No. 24 Wardour Street.
Bake's most Instagrammable is their soft-serve matcha tea ice-cream served in a fish-shaped taiyaki waffle cone with a jaunty wafer.
Bubble Wrap specializes in Hong Kong-style egg waffles, served with ice cream and topped with everything from Oreos to red bean sauce. They look fabulous but you'd better be hungry and love sugar -- the peanut butter option is Hong Kong levels of sweet.
And if you want to compare Hong Kong custard tarts to the Portuguese originals, Wonderful Patisserie (45 Gerrard St, W1D 5QQ; 020 7734 7629) serves both.