The Best Bakeries in New York City

New York does not have one bakery scene. It has four or five, stacked on top of each other and rarely on speaking terms. There is the laminated-dough arms race, where a pistachio croissant can cost more than a slice and a sandwich combined. There is the Jewish bread canon, bialys and rye and babka, which predates every other kind of line in this city. There are the Italian pasticcerie of Bushwick, Bensonhurst and the Bronx, where the cannoli are filled to order and nobody has ever said the word "lamination" out loud. And there is the newer wave of bakeries built by people cooking their own inheritance, Bahraini, Taiwanese, Filipino, into butter and flour.

Our position: the best bakery in the city right now is in Greenpoint, the most interesting ones are clustered on Cooper Square, and the oldest ones are still better than half the new ones. This list covers all of it. Every place here was confirmed open in 2026. Prices are listed where the bakery publishes them.

The new wave: worth the line

These are the bakeries that set the conversation. Expect queues, sellouts by early afternoon and pastries that photograph well because they were designed to.

Radio Bakery

Greenpoint · 135 India St, Brooklyn · $

The best croissant in New York costs $5.50 and comes out of a small shop a block from the East River. Radio's lamination is deep and shattering, and the kitchen pushes it into weird, correct places: a cheesy pretzel bearclaw ($6.50), a scallion sesame twist ($6.50), a triple chocolate croissant built from chocolate dough and two kinds of chocolate batons ($8). The brown butter corn cake ($5) is gluten free and the sleeper of the case. Everything is walk-in only, with no preorders and no wholesale, which is exactly why the line forms.

There is a second shop in Prospect Heights, and an Upper West Side outpost on Columbus Avenue is planned for 2027. Make a morning of it with our Greenpoint guide.

Go for: the classic croissant and the pretzel bearclaw, eaten on the curb. Know before you go: open 7:30am to 3:30pm daily or until sold out; lunch sandwiches start at 11am.

Lysée

Flatiron District · 44 E 21st St, Manhattan · $$$

Chef Eunji Lee's pastry boutique opened in 2022 and is still the most serious dessert address in Manhattan. The cakes and entremets sit in the case like objects in a gallery, and the flavors pull from Korea, France and New York in equal measure. The New York Times put it on its list of the best bakeries in the country in 2024, and nothing since has argued otherwise.

This is not a croissant-and-run stop. Treat it like a small, sweet tasting menu and pick two things to share.

Go for: a composed single-serve pastry you cannot get anywhere else. Know before you go: bookings are listed on Resy; plan ahead on weekends.

Librae Bakery

East Village · 35 Cooper Sq, Manhattan · $$

Librae calls itself a third culture bakery, and that is accurate: Middle Eastern flavors, Copenhagen fermentation technique, Bahraini ownership. The result is the most original pastry case in the East Village. The rose pistachio croissant is the headliner. The za'atar labneh morning bun is the one regulars actually order twice. There is also a loomi babka, built on dried black lime, that tastes like nothing else in the city.

Go for: the za'atar labneh morning bun and a Jerusalem bagel for later. Know before you go: 7:30am to 4:30pm weekdays, 8am to 5pm weekends. Walk it off with our East Village guide.

Hani's Bakery + Café

East Village · 67 Cooper Sq, Manhattan · $$

A few doors up Cooper Square from Librae, Hani's goes the other direction: big, unapologetic American sweets. The chocolate chunk cookie is the reason for the weekend line, and the four-layer cakes and the cinnamon bun with malted milk cream cheese frosting are the reason to come back. The case also runs savory, with broccoli cheddar scones, and one-off bars like pistachio halva rice crispy treats.

Go for: a chocolate chunk cookie and a slice of honey cake. Know before you go: there is a Friday evening session on top of daytime hours; weekends can mean a 15 to 20 minute wait outside.

Supermoon Bakehouse

Lower East Side · 120 Rivington St, Manhattan · $$

Supermoon was doing maximalist croissants and cruffins before the rest of the city caught on, and the Rivington shop still has the energy of a place that has never once worried about being too much. Order the milk and honey sticky bun croissant or the Meyer lemon poppy cruffin, and if it is warm out, the carrot cake ice cream sandwich. In 2026 it added a second flagship inside Chelsea Market, but the original is the one to visit. Pair it with a lap of our Lower East Side guide.

Go for: one laminated thing, one soft serve. Know before you go: opens 8am weekdays and 9am weekends, until 6pm or sellout.

L'Appartement 4F

Brooklyn Heights · 115 Montague St, Brooklyn · $$ (also 119 W 10th St, West Village)

This began as a couple baking out of apartment 4F in Cobble Hill during 2020, and it turned into two of the most reliable French bakeries in the city. The plain croissant is the test and it passes: crisp, layered, properly buttery. The signature is the petite croissant céréale, tiny hand-rolled croissants dipped in syrup and dried into a breakfast cereal. At night the Montague Street shop becomes L'Apero, a natural wine bar (see our natural wine bars guide for more of that).

Go for: a plain croissant and a bag of the cereal for home. Know before you go: both bakeries open at 8am; L'Apero runs Wednesday to Saturday, 6pm to 10pm.

Brooklyn and Queens, neighborhood first

These are the bakeries that feel like they belong to a block. Less hype, more regulars, and in most cases better value.

Win Son Bakery

East Williamsburg · 164 Graham Ave, Brooklyn · $$

The all-day spinoff of Win Son, the Taiwanese American restaurant across the street, is part bakery, part diner, part bar. The millet mochi donut is the best version of that format in the city, chewy and crackly at once. For breakfast, the scallion pancake bacon egg and cheese is non-negotiable, and the pine nut sun cookie made The New York Times's 2025 list of essential New York pastries. A second location opened in the East Village in 2025. Build a day around it with our Williamsburg guide.

Go for: mochi donut, scallion pancake sandwich, pine nut sun cookie. Know before you go: it serves a full menu and drinks, so it works for a late lunch too.

Dolly's

Bedford-Stuyvesant · 53 Rockaway Ave, Brooklyn · $

Dolly's shows up on every serious bakery list in 2026 for one reason: the honey bun with cream cheese glaze. It is the kind of pastry that makes you reconsider every croissant you waited 40 minutes for. The ube morning bun and the oversized cookies (white chocolate and raspberry is the move) back it up, and the cheesesteak and egg sandwich turns a pastry run into breakfast.

Go for: the honey bun, no discussion. Know before you go: it is a neighborhood coffee shop first, so treat it like one and go early.

Fan-Fan Doughnuts

Bedford-Stuyvesant · 448 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn · $

Fany Gerson, the pastry chef behind Dough and La Newyorkina, opened Fan-Fan to serve the fan-fan: a long, filled, éclair-shaped doughnut. Flavors rotate with the seasons, but the salted brown butter, churros and chocolate, and guava and cheese stay on. The guava and cheese is the one. If you are building a Bed-Stuy sweet crawl, pair it with Dolly's (it is a bike ride, not a stroll).

Go for: a guava and cheese fan-fan and whatever the seasonal special is. Know before you go: buy a half dozen; they travel fine and disappear faster.

Ceremonia Bakeshop

Williamsburg · 743 Driggs Ave, Brooklyn · $

A small, family-run bakeshop that has built a cult on two things: mochi donuts and one of the best breakfast burritos in Brooklyn. The ube mochi and lavender cookies round out a case that is personal rather than trendy. It is the antidote to the Williamsburg brunch scene around it, and one of the better cheap eats in the neighborhood.

Go for: the breakfast burrito and an ube mochi donut. Know before you go: closed Monday and Tuesday; 8am to 3pm Wednesday to Friday, 9am to 3pm Saturday.

Kora

Sunnyside · 45-12 Greenpoint Ave, Queens · $

Kora takes the laminated-pastry vocabulary and runs it through Filipino flavors, and the results are some of the most fun baking in the city. There are donuts topped with ube chips or flan, an apple tamarind fritter, and a Spam and pimento cheese pain suisse that sounds like a dare and eats like a revelation. Take the 7 train. It is worth it.

Go for: a flan donut and the Spam pain suisse. Know before you go: pair it with a walk down Greenpoint Avenue and Queens Boulevard for lunch.

Bread, bialys and the Jewish bakery canon

Before anyone lined up for a croissant, New York lined up for rye and bialys. These are the keepers of that tradition, plus one newcomer who reads it fluently.

Kossar's Bagels & Bialys

Lower East Side · 367 Grand St, Manhattan · $

Kossar's has been making bialys since 1936 and is the oldest bialy bakery in the United States. The shop moved to Grand and Essex decades ago and has since opened several Manhattan outposts, but the original is the one to visit. The bialy is the point: chewy, onion-dotted, never boiled. Buy them hot and eat one before you reach the corner. For the rest of the round-and-holed canon, see our best bagels guide.

Go for: a bag of plain bialys, still warm. Know before you go: lines move fast; order by the half dozen.

Elbow Bread

Lower East Side · 1 Ludlow St, Manhattan · $$

Elbow Bread takes the Jewish bakery playbook and rewrites it with a light hand. The bialy comes with caramelized onions, the challah becomes a honey bun, and rye shows up in a caraway rye palmier that is smarter than it has any right to be. The chocolate rugelach is excellent. It sits on the Chinatown border, so walk it off through our Chinatown guide and grab dumplings on the way back.

Go for: the caraway rye palmier and a challah honey bun. Know before you go: buy the bialy too; it is the house's quiet flex.

Levain Bakery

Upper West Side · 167 W 74th St, Manhattan · $

Levain opened on West 74th Street in 1995 and made the half-pound cookie famous, underbaked in the middle and craggy on top. It now has locations around the city and ships nationally, but the original shop is still where the cookie tastes most like itself. The chocolate chip walnut is the classic; the dark chocolate chocolate chip is the one for purists.

Go for: a chocolate chip walnut cookie, still warm, split two ways. Know before you go: the original is tiny, so plan to eat on the sidewalk.

Old-school Italian

The pasticcerie below have outlasted every trend on this list. Cannoli filled to order, cheesecake by the slice, cookies by the pound.

Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe

East Village · 342 E 11th St, Manhattan · $$

Open since 1894 and still run by the Veniero family, this is the elder statesman of New York Italian pastry. The cheesecake is the reason it survived 130 years, available plain, strawberry or in a handful of other versions. The cannoli, rainbow cookies and pignoli cookies are all correct, and the coconut cake has become a modern favorite. Sit down for espresso and a slice rather than grabbing a box.

Go for: a slice of plain cheesecake and a cannoli. Know before you go: it makes a strong after-dinner stop, so save room.

Circo's Pastry Shop

Bushwick · 312 Knickerbocker Ave, Brooklyn · $

Circo's has been on Knickerbocker Avenue since 1945, through every version of Bushwick. The cannoli and lobster tails are the classics, the cheesecake is excellent, and the custom cakes are a neighborhood institution. It is the most direct line in this city between the old Italian Brooklyn and the new one outside the door. Add it to a day from our Bushwick guide.

Go for: a lobster tail and a cannoli for the walk. Know before you go: open daily, with hours from 8am most days and later opening on Mondays.

Villabate Alba

Bensonhurst · 7001 18th Ave, Brooklyn · $$

Run by the Alaimo family since 1979, Villabate Alba is the best Sicilian pastry shop in New York, and it is not particularly close. Everything is here: cannoli in regular and mini sizes, pistachio and almond cookies, Italian cakes and breads, and gelato imported from Italy. In summer, order the brioche con gelato, a sweet bun stuffed with gelato, the way it is eaten in Palermo.

Go for: a box of pistachio and almond cookies and a brioche con gelato. Know before you go: staff speak Italian, and custom cakes start around $25 if you need one for a party.

Gino's Pastry Shop

Belmont · 580 E 187th St, Bronx · $

Gino's has been baking on the Arthur Avenue strip since 1960, and it is the reason to make the trip to the Bronx if the rest of the street is not enough. The cannoli are filled on the spot, the Donnoli (a doughnut stuffed with cannoli cream) is the house party trick, and the sfogliatelle, all crackling layered shell and soft filling, are the best reason to cross the Harlem River for pastry. Buy extra for the ride home.

Go for: a cannoli filled while you wait and a Donnoli. Know before you go: combine it with a lunch on Arthur Avenue; the whole block is worth an afternoon.

How to use this list

Go early. Almost every new-wave bakery on this list sells out of its best items by early afternoon, and Radio, Librae and Supermoon all run on a sold-out-and-done model. Weekday mornings are the sweet spot.

Do it by neighborhood. Cooper Square gives you Librae and Hani's within a two-minute walk. Bed-Stuy gives you Dolly's and Fan-Fan, a short bike ride apart. The Lower East Side stacks Kossar's, Elbow Bread and Supermoon inside a 15-minute loop. And if you only have one morning, go to Greenpoint, order the classic croissant at Radio and eat it standing on India Street. Then decide whether the rest of the city can compete.

Save the Italian shops for when you have time to sit. Veniero's at night after dinner, Villabate Alba on a summer afternoon, Gino's as the last stop of an Arthur Avenue lunch. These are not places to rush. For the savory counterpart to this list, see our best pizza slices guide.