Lady Wong

Kuih first, then the cake case

Pandan, coconut and gula melaka run through almost everything at Lady Wong, a New York patisserie built on Southeast Asian sweets rather than on bread or viennoiserie. Kuih is the entry point: small Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean cakes, dumplings and snacks, steamed or layered, sweet or savoury depending on where the recipe comes from. Seri muka is the best benchmark, pandan custard set over sticky rice, built across two days with repeated steaming and resting stages. Lapis sagu is the other defining piece, many thin pandan-and-coconut tapioca layers stacked into a single slice. Both show the patience the shop is known for, and both explain why the case looks unlike any other in the city.

Fine-dining training in a Southeast Asian register

Mogan Anthony and Seleste Tan started the business as a kuih delivery service in New York, then took a permanent East Village storefront once it worked. What makes the result unusual is not only that the flavours are uncommon in a New York pastry case, but that both bring fine-dining training, from WD-50 and Jean-Georges, to a format rooted in home and market tradition. Tan has said seri muka was the first kuih she made in her New York kitchen, and Anthony describes the recipes as never done, which points to constant revision rather than inherited formulas kept fixed. Sourcing backs that up, with key ingredients coming directly from Southeast Asian farmers and imported pandan used heavily. USA TODAY 10BEST named the shop runner-up for Best Cake Shop in its 2026 Readers’ Choice Awards.

The room splits down the middle

The East Village shop is arranged as a visual split, with tidy rows of kuih on one side and cakes and patisserie on the other, which is a fair summary of the whole operation. Once past the kuih, the cakes are where the fine-dining side shows. Mango Shortcake is the fruit-forward signature; Matcha Pandan Mille Crêpes and Hazelnut Praline Mille Crêpes handle layered texture; Black Sesame Passionfruit Entremet works on contrast, and Calamansi & Passionfruit Cake goes for citrus. Ube Blackberry, Strawberry Guava Entremet and a straight Strawberry Shortcake fill out the case. A good first visit takes one kuih and one cake, because the two halves of the counter say different things about the same kitchen.