20 Best Bakeries In New York, Ranked

Because New York is one of the most diverse places in America, this environment attracts bakers and pastry chefs from every corner of the globe to open their storefronts in the city and neighboring boroughs where they can infuse their bread, pastries, tarts, and cakes with the spirit and flavors of their childhoods.

What makes a bakery great depends largely on your tastebuds, but there are several things we can all agree on: fresh quality ingredients, unique recipes, and a passion for baked goods. We've assembled a list of our 20 favorite bakeries across a variety of food specialties, including egg custard tarts, mille crêpes, Kouign-amann, burekas, and doughnuts to give you a comprehensive guide to the very best bakeries across New York within every borough.

Michaeli Bakery is an Israeli bakery run by Adir Michaeli, who learned the pastry trade from acclaimed pastry chef Roni Fredy Mordechai in Tel Aviv. In 2013, Michaeli moved to New York to lead the opening of Bread's Bakery, one of our other favorite bakeries in New York. At Michaeli Bakery, you can find homemade Israeli staples, like babkas, challahs, burekas, and rugelachs, including a vegan sesame challah and a vegan chocolate babka for those observing an animal-free diet. 

The burekas at Michaeli Bakery are particularly delicious as the pastry dough is crisp and flaky, and the fillings are savory and thoughtfully seasoned. One of their most popular items is actually not an Israeli specialty, but instead, the quintessential French almond croissant, which is generously stuffed with almond paste and topped with thin slivers of almonds.

Located in Staten Island, Mark's Bake Shoppe serves modern twists on your favorite baked goods. At the age of 15, Mark Intoccia began working in bakeries, where he started by greasing pans and mopping floors, then worked his way up to mastering buttercream and danishes. After graduating college, Intoccia found a steady job in Manhattan but gave it up to instead pursue his dreams of opening his own bakery in his hometown.

Visit Mark's Bake Shoppe for cannoli-filled rainbow cookies, black and white stuffed donuts, and cheeky holiday specials like Irish Car Bomb Brownies with whiskey-soaked Oreos and Guinness-flavored chocolate fudge or Mardi Gras cupcakes with Bourbon-infused vanilla cake and chocolate dipped vanilla buttercream. Mark's Bake Shoppe has been featured on Netflix's "Sugar Rush" and offers multi-tier celebration cakes.

At Lady Wong Pastry & Kuih, immerse yourself in the flavors of Southeast Asia, which are thoughtfully infused into each pastry by Seleste and Morgan, the husband and wife team behind the pastry shop. Seleste and Morgan are both from Malaysia but lived for a decade in Singapore before settling in New York. Prior to opening Lady Wong, they worked in international Michelin-star restaurants, and both bring the precision of those culinary experiences into the artistry of their pastries.

Lady Wong was born during the pandemic when Seleste and Morgan craved the nostalgic foods of their childhoods but couldn't easily find them in New York. Enter Lady Wong, which celebrates Nanyang flavors with exceptional specialties such as Musang King durian mille crêpe cakes, ube roll cakes, potato curry puffs, and red tortoise cakes with mung bean filling.

Located on Arthur Avenue, the storied culinary street in Bronx's Little Italy, is Gino's Pastry Shop, a famous Italian bakery run by Jerome Gino Raguso. Jerome is the son of Gino Raguso, who originally opened Gino's Pastry Shop in 1960. Six decades later, Jerome still uses his father's original handwritten recipes and fosters the same fierce community spirit, most recently in service of protecting the Bronx Zoo from budget cuts, which would have negatively impacted businesses in Belmont and Fordham. Gino's Pastry Shop is the place to go for specialty wedding cakes, Italian cookies, and some of the best cannolis in all of New York City. Come to enjoy over 63 years of pastry excellence in a family-run storefront.

Lysée is a newcomer to the New York culinary scene that fuses three distinct cultures: French, Korean, and New York City. Founded by chef Eunji Lee, Lysée is a female-run pastry boutique located in the Flatiron District, serving pastries inspired by the unique culture of all three of its primary influences.

The pastries at Lysée are a work of art, as is the light-filled storefront, which feels akin to a gallery or museum, fittingly, seeing as the name "lysée" was derived from the French word for museum, musée. Currently on offer are glazed madeleines in yuja, raspberry, chestnut, chocolate, and Lysée's signature, brown rice. You can also find black sesame brioche oozing with black sesame cream and a corn mousse cake shaped brilliantly into an ear of mini corn on the cob with delicate craftsmanship.

For an elevated dessert experience, head to Patisserie Tomoko in Brooklyn, where you can treat yourself to a pairing of wine and desserts. At Patisserie Tomoko, diners occupy the thirteen seats at the bar and watch the chefs work while enjoying the three-course Prix Fixe menu for $28, which is inspired by French pastries with Japanese and American influences. In a hurry? You can also purchase original pastries and baked goods at the take-out counter.

Patisserie Tomoko is run by acclaimed pastry chef Tomoko Kato, who has worked at famed restaurants Boule and Le Bernardin. Patisserie Tomoko's signature items can be shipped nationwide, including their mochi sampler featuring green tea, black sesame, and Earl Grey chocolate ganache, as well as their cookie assortment in green tea, dark chocolate, caramel nut, and black sesame.

Smør Bakery is the relatively new sweets outpost of the Scandinavian restaurant of the same name. Both Smør and Smør Bakery are located in the East Village and are owned by Sebastian Perez and Sebastian Bangsgaard. Smør Bakery is led by baker Rowan Gill of Bien Cuit, another of our favorite bakeries in New York.

Smør Bakery's signature item is the cardamom bun, which is luscious and fragrant. They're also known for their tebirkes, flaky Danish pastries with poppy seeds made with marzipan filling. Smør Bakery offers excellent seasonal scones, heavenly sausage rolls served with sweet Bavarian mustard, thick-cut slices of focaccia, and rugbrød, also known as Danish rye. This small, sunny bakery is a delightful addition to New York.

Looking for the best cream puffs in all of New York? Visit Bibble and Sip, where you can find decadent cream puffs in unique flavor offerings. Bibble and Sip is a family-run pastry shop with French and Asian influences in Midtown that specializes in gourmet coffee and exceptional pastries. Their signature cream puff flavors are matcha, Earl Grey, and black sesame, with regular seasonal specialties.

Bibble and Sip also serve raspberry lychee tarts, stuffed black sesame almond croissants, and Earl Grey banana bread. Their drink menu is similarly inventive, with lavender lattes, passion fruit jasmine tea, and iced matcha tea floats. Madeleines and macarons are prepared with rotating flavors, including red bean, matcha, black sesame cookies and cream, and poppy seed.

Magnolia Bakery is likely one of the best-known bakeries on this list. Magnolia has been operating since 1996 and has become a household name thanks to a cameo during the original run of Sex and The City. Magnolia Bakery was first famed for its cupcakes, which are among the best in the city. The cupcakes feature a thick layer of rich buttercream frosting and moist cake in red velvet, chocolate truffle, vanilla, and seasonal varieties like chocolate peppermint.

Equally noteworthy are Magnolia's iconic banana puddings, which come in a classic flavor as well as in chocolate hazelnut and red velvet. More recently, Magnolia unveiled a gluten-free banana pudding as well as a pudding-of-the-month which is currently brownie caramel. Magnolia Bakery's goodies can be ordered online and shipped nationwide.

For the most original croissants in New York, visit Supermoon Bakehouse. Supermoon is located on the Lower East Side in a gleaming storefront with a pastry display that looks like a modern art gallery. The pastries at Supermoon rotate every two weeks, with some flavors recurring but many appearing only for a limited time.

Some of the Supermoon classics include the Ferrero Rocher Cruffin, which is a cross between a croissant and a muffin, filled with hazelnut praline and topped with chocolate cream and crushed hazelnuts, the Kouign Brûlée croissant, which features the caramelized dough of a Kouign-amann, and a decadent creme brûlée filling, as well as the NYC with Lox, a savory croissant rolled with lox and filled with cream cheese and homemade everything spice.

Having trouble deciding? Supermoon sells their pastries as care packs so you can sample the best of what they offer.

New Flushing Bakery is a hole-in-the-wall in Queens serving some of the best egg custard tarts in New York. Egg custard tarts are a specialty pastry with origins spanning from Portugal to China, where these treats are called daan tat. Egg custard tarts consist of flaky puff pastry shells filled with a rich custard made from a combination of milk, sugar, and egg yolks. New Flushing Bakery offers Portuguese egg tarts and Hong Kong-style egg tarts in a rotation of flavors, including purple yam, mango tapioca, green tea, lotus seed, and coconut. The pastry shell for both types of tarts is buttery and mouthwatering. Be sure to come to New Flushing Bakery early, as the specialty flavors sell out quickly. Sesame cookies are also on offer, which are exceptionally creamy and decadent.

For some of the best doughnuts in the city, go to Fan-Fan Doughnuts. Fan-Fan has become a Bed-Stuy staple that sees passionate New Yorkers lined up around the block in search of sumptuous homemade doughnuts. Owned and operated by pastry chef Fany Gerson, who is known for La Newyorkina, her fantastic Mexican sweets shop which closed its doors during the pandemic but lives on in the form of seasonal pop-up shops and through retail and catering.

The silver lining of La Newyorkina's closure is that it's given Gerson the ability to turn her attention to the art and craft of artisanal doughnuts. At Fan-Fan, treat yourself to their cult favorite, the Danny Boy, which features salted brown butter caramel, guava and cheese, Mexican cinnamon sugar, or Luna Limón, which is topped with candied lemon. They also offer La Newyorkina ice creams as well as seasonal specialties.

Levain Bakery was founded in 1995 as a small bread shop. It has since expanded into a cookie empire with locations across the country. Levain Bakery is best known for its original chocolate chip walnut cookie, which is gooey and always tastes fresh out of the oven. Levain's other exceptional cookies include dark chocolate chip, dark chocolate peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, two chip chocolate chip, and a recent seasonal rotation, currently featuring the caramel coconut chocolate chip.

Exciting news for folks observing dietary restrictions is the introduction of a vegan, gluten-free Levain cookie, which has all the flavor and decadence of its original cookie with none of the animal products or gluten. Outside of cookies, Levain offers wonderful baguettes, as well as Valrhona rolls which are freshly baked and generously stuffed with wedges of Valrhona dark chocolate. In case you don't live near a Levain location, they now offer nationwide shipping exclusively for their cookies.

Our favorite place for artisanal cakes in New York is Lady M. Lady M was established in 2001 and has expanded to include locations around the world. Credited with creating the world-famous mille crêpes, Lady M honors quintessential Japanese flavors with classic French pastry techniques. At Lady M, enjoy one of their incredible 20-layer mille crêpes cakes, which feature alternating layers of rich pastry cream and delicate paper-thin French crêpes. All year round, they offer mille crêpes in their signature flavor, as well as in pistachio, chocolate, and Earl Grey.

For seasonal specialties, their mille crêpes alternate monthly. Currently, you have the opportunity to try lavender, rose, or strawberry swirls. Lady M cakes can be shipped nationwide, or you can savor a single slice at one of their many storefronts.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred is a French pastry shop that serves light-as-air meringue cakes with rich pastry cream. Like Lady M, which is acclaimed for their mille crêpes, Aux Merveilleux de Fred is celebrated for the meringue pastry of Frédéric Vaucamps, a pastry chef from the North of France who adapted The Merveilleux to be even lighter and creamier.

Since 2003, Aux Merveilleux de Fred has expanded across France and has several storefronts in major international cities. The Merveilleux comes in six signature flavors: chocolate, speculoos biscuit, cherry, caramel, praline, or coffee, with occasional seasonal specialties. Each meringue is filled with decadent cream and topped with either dark chocolate shavings, caramelized praline, white chocolate shavings, or crystallized meringue. The Merveilleux can be purchased as minis, individual large meringues, or shareable cakes. The Merveilleux are incredibly perishable, and these ephemeral pastries must be savored expediently.

Dominique Ansel Bakery rose to fame in 2013 after the debut of the Cronut, a cross between a croissant and a doughnut, which sent shockwaves through the culinary world. For years after the Cronut first graced the pastry shelf, lines spanned the block for an opportunity to try the specialty creation, which now comes in a new flavor every month. A less famous but equally exceptional pastry is the DKA or Dominique's Kouign-amann, which is Ansel's take on the Breton pastry, featuring a flaky caramelized crust and a rich and gooey center that can be purchased fresh from the bakery or shipped directly to your door. In 2017, The World's 50 Best Restaurants Awards named Ansel the World's Best Pastry Chef, making him the first pastry chef in America to receive the honor.

Poseidon Bakery is a family-owned, family-run Greek bakery that's been selling homemade pastries on Hell's Kitchen's Ninth Avenue since 1923. New Yorkers travel from all five boroughs for Poseidon's thick-cut spanakopita, savory meat pies, nutty baklava, and unbelievably fresh apricot strudel. Poseidon's phyllo dough is made on site for eight hours by two employees who tend to the paper-thin dough until it's the length of a table.

A new YouTube series, "Lunch With Lili & Layne" celebrating Lili, the matriarch of Poseidon Bakery in conversation with one of her granddaughters, Layne gives a behind-the-scenes look at the storied Fable family's history. The Fables still live above the bakery, where you can find rich Greek pastries soaked in honey or covered in confectioners' sugar. They also have an excellent frozen and refrigerated section where you can purchase Greek staples to make at home.

Breads Bakery opened in 2013 with the help of Adir Michaeli, who later started one of our other favorite bakeries in New York, Michaeli Bakery. Like Michaeli, Breads Bakery offers exceptional babka, rugelach, and burekas, as well as its own specialties, including Jerusalem baguettes and festive braided challahs. Breads Bakery's classic French baguettes are some of the best in the city.

Breads Bakery has a vast selection of prepared foods, including homemade hummus, fresh breakfast sandwiches, and three varieties of quiches. Their babkas are offered in either chocolate or cinnamon, and the challahs come in classic, sesame, poppy, or festive, which are topped with sesame, nigella, sunflower, pumpkin, flax, and poppy. The burekas are particularly sumptuous, featuring layers of flaky pastry dough with savory fillings.

With three locations in New York — two in Brooklyn and a recent outpost in Grand Central Terminal — Bien Cuit is one of the best French bakeries in New York. Run by chef and owner Zachary Golper, who has been nominated for five Best Baker awards by the James Beard Foundation, Bien Cuit offers expert traditional French baguettes, almond croissants, pain de mie, and a variety of exquisite tarts.

Bien Cuit, which translates to "well done" in French, embodies their name by serving homemade bread with crunchy exteriors and wonderfully flavorful dough. Bien Cuit has excellent seasonal offerings like cheddar mustard quiche, wild blueberry soba pound cake, and brown butter sablés. A visit is not complete without a loaf of bread to bring home and at least one of their gourmet pantry staples, including tinned fish, yuzu marmalade, and rosé vinegar.

Our favorite bakery in New York is Sullivan Street Bakery. Sullivan Street Bakery opened in 1994 by Jim Lahey, who studied to be a sculptor but couldn't find bread in New York that matched the wonder of the bread he encountered in Italy, so he decided to make his own. And we are all the luckier for it. At the heart of Sullivan Street Bakery is the desire to serve the highest quality small-patch baked goods with exceptionally fresh ingredients. All of their breads are made without additives or enhancers, and each loaf is made by hand.

One of Sullivan Street's signature items is its pizza bianca, an Italian focaccia with coarse sea salt, a generous smattering of fresh rosemary, and high-quality olive oil. They also serve decadent chocolate or jam Bombolini, citrus olive oil cake, Colpa Degno, a flourless chewy chocolate brownie cookie, and Italian-style brioche. In 2015, Lahey was the first recipient of the Outstanding Baker James Beard Award, recognizing his expertise in the field, which is evidenced in all of his exceptional bread and baked goods.