A steady line now forms most afternoons outside a storefront at 8355 Elk Grove Boulevard, where a Hong Kong dessert chain famous for its mango creations has planted its newest flag in the Sacramento region. Hui Lau Shan, known for mango pancakes, mango pudding and coconut jelly loaded with mango chunks, opened the Elk Grove location this summer, giving south Sacramento County its own taste of a dessert brand that has built a following across East Asia and Southeast Asia.
The shop is owned by David Chan and his family, who according to the Sacramento Bee have opened other businesses in Elk Grove and decided the city needed a Hui Lau Shan of its own. Chan told the paper that bringing the chain to Elk Grove felt less like an option and more like something the family simply had to do. His wife, he said, is the main force behind food preparation in the shop, working alongside handcrafted drinks, jellies and mochi that round out the menu.
Customers walking in will find the chain's staple mango dishes alongside less mango-centric options, including black sesame porridge, durian pancakes, taro sago chewy balls and aloe jelly watermelon juice, the outlet reports. Desserts come out in a timely manner once orders are placed, and the shop is open daily from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Chan described mango sourcing and ripening as an exact science, a detail that speaks to how central the fruit is to the entire operation — the Bee notes the shop uses fresh mangoes that are never frozen.
A Family Operation Built on Speed and Precision
Behind the counter, the workload leans heavily on Chan's wife, whom he called the most talented person at multitasking in the shop. He said she could fold six or seven rice cakes in the time it took him to fold just one, an anecdote that underscores how labor- and time-intensive mango mochi preparation really is. That kind of hands-on work has apparently kept the line moving, with customers waiting an average of 10 minutes, per the Bee's reporting.
Hui Lau Shan's roots trace back much further than this new Elk Grove counter. The chain got its start in the 1960s in Yuen Long, Hong Kong, where it began as a traditional shop selling herbal tea and turtle jelly, according to The Standard. It wasn't until the 1990s that the company pioneered the fruit-based desserts, like mango sago, that now define the brand internationally. At its peak, the chain relied on importing up to 1,000 tonnes of fresh Carabao mangoes annually from the Philippines, per Wikipedia's entry on the company, a supply chain detail that hints at just how much precision goes into keeping fruit fresh across a global franchise network.
A Hometown Closure, a Global Expansion
The brand's international growth stands in sharp contrast to its fortunes back home. In November 2021, Hui Lau Shan shuttered its last remaining retail outlet in Hong Kong, located in Yau Tong, ending six decades of operation in its home market following liquidations and declining foot traffic, The Standard reported at the time. Ownership of the chain had shifted years earlier, when mainland Chinese restaurant operator Royal Dynasty International Holding Company acquired Hui Lau Shan in 2015 in a buyout deal valued at 524 million RMB, according to Wikipedia.
Today the chain counts more than 200 locations worldwide, with 10 of those in the United States, per the Bee's reporting. Elk Grove's nearest sister location, according to the chain's own website, sits in Berkeley — part of a Northern California footprint that has also included Cupertino, Milpitas and Santa Clara, per Wanderlog. The Elk Grove opening was noted by the Sacramento Business Journal in July as the brand's formal entry into the greater Sacramento market.
Why Elk Grove Made Sense for a Mango Empire
Elk Grove's demographics help explain why the family saw an opening. Asian residents grew from 26.3% of the city's population in 2010 to 33.5% in 2020, becoming the largest racial demographic group in Elk Grove, according to ABC10, citing U.S. Census Bureau data. Roughly a quarter of the city's approximately 179,000 residents were born outside the United States, and median household income exceeds $125,000, according to Data USA figures from 2024.
City permit filings show the buildout was made official on paper as well: an illuminated wall sign permit valued at $3,500 was approved in early 2026 for the Suite 400 address, per records from the City of Elk Grove. The new mango shop also fits into a broader pattern of dessert concepts landing in the area — Hoodline has previously reported on Dapper Doughnut's push into Elk Grove Commons and on interest from Bruster's Ice Cream in another local shopping center, signs of what developers describe as strong suburban demand and low retail vacancy in the area.
