The Best Cookies in NYC
Twenty cookies worth crossing the city for, from Levain's six-ounce chocolate chip and Red Gate's toffee cookie to black and whites on the Upper East Side and pignoli by the pound in the Bronx.
The best cookie in New York is a fight, and we will start it: the Choco-Toffee at Red Gate Bakery in the East Village, a $4 cookie that critics ranked the best chocolate chip in the city this year. The most famous is still Levain's six-ounce chocolate chip walnut on West 74th Street. And the most New York is the black and white, which you should buy at William Greenberg on Madison Avenue. Here are twenty cookies across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, grouped by style, with what to order and what it costs where we could confirm it.
New York's cookie scene has three branches. There are the giant chocolate chip cookies, the city's contribution to the modern bakery. There are the black and whites, half vanilla and half chocolate fondant on a soft cake base, a Jewish bakery classic. And there are the Italian pastry shop cookies, rainbow and pignoli, sold by the pound in white boxes tied with string. This list covers all three. For full bakeries, see our bakeries guide.
At a glance.
- 02Red Gate BakeryThe city's top ranked Choco-Toffee cookie for $4
- 01Levain BakeryThe original six ounce chocolate chip walnut cookie
- 13William Greenberg DessertsThe benchmark black and white, a New York classic
- 17Pasticceria RoccoManhattan's best Italian cookies sold by the pound
- 12Funny Face BakeryHand painted sugar cookies and custom portraits
- Cost
- Single cookies start around $4; gift boxes run $27 to $120
- Where
- Bakeries are located across Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx
- Good for
- Giant chocolate chip cookies, black and whites, and Italian cookies
Chocolate chip and the new school
The cookie that started the giant cookie arms race. Levain opened in a basement on West 74th Street in 1995, and its chocolate chip walnut cookie, six ounces and barely baked in the middle, is still the reference point. A single cookie was $5.75 this fall, and a four-pack is $32 on Levain's own site. The original basement shop is the one to visit; the line moves faster than it looks. More in our Upper West Side guide.
Go for: the chocolate chip walnut, warm. Know before you go: there are now locations across the city, but the 74th Street basement is the original.
A small East First Street bakery opened in December 2019 by Greg Rales and Patricia Howard, and the current champion of the city's chocolate chip rankings: The Infatuation put its Choco-Toffee at number one in January 2026. It is $4, crisp at the edges, chewy in the middle, with shards of toffee that make it taste like something you would only get at a really good bake sale. Our East Village guide has more.
Go for: two Choco-Toffees. Know before you go: open Tuesday to Friday 11am to 6pm and Saturday 11am to 4pm only.
Tiara Bennett's bakery on East 12th Street opened in 2023 and has become one of the most loved small bakeries in the neighborhood. The sea salt chocolate chip cookie weighs a quarter pound and came in second in the same 2026 ranking. It also makes a black and white, which is unusual for a new-school shop.
Go for: the sea salt chocolate chip. Know before you go: it is small, with limited seating.
Winner opened on Seventh Avenue on March 9, 2020, days before the pandemic shutdown, and survived to become Park Slope's favorite bakery. Its malted flour chocolate chip cookie is $4 on the shop's own site, nutty and deep in a way that most chocolate chip cookies are not. It came in third in the January 2026 ranking. See our Park Slope guide.
Go for: the malted chocolate chip and a coffee. Know before you go: it opens at 7am daily.
A Garment District coffee bar open since 2009 that became as famous for its chocolate chip cookie as for its coffee: big, thick and gooey in the middle. It is the best cookie in Midtown and a perfect office errand. Our coffee shops guide has more coffee.
Go for: the chocolate chip cookie, warm, with a cortado. Know before you go: the 38th Street shop opens at 7am on weekdays and 8am on weekends.
The café opened its first shop on Centre Street in October 2014, and its nutty chocolate chip cookie, studded with nuts, is the one people bring as a hostess gift. A gift box is $35 on Maman's own shop. The dough rests for days before it is baked, which gives it a deep, toasty flavor.
Go for: the nutty chocolate chip. Know before you go: the gift box travels well.
Jacques Torres, the French pastry chef behind the city's best-known chocolate shop, makes a chocolate chip cookie that is all about the chocolate: big discs of it, melted into pools. A box of his "famous" chocolate chip cookies is $29 on the shop's own site. The DUMBO shop is open daily 10am to 7pm. Pair it with a hot chocolate on a cold day. More in our DUMBO guide.
Go for: a chocolate chip cookie and a hot chocolate. Know before you go: there is a second shop in Grand Central Terminal.
Bronx Science classmates Peter Philips and Teddy Gailas opened the first Chip City in Astoria in July 2017, and it has since grown to two dozen shops in New York, New Jersey and Texas. The signature cookie weighs 5.5 ounces, and flavors rotate weekly from a library of more than 180. It is the most dependable big cookie in the boroughs. See our Astoria guide.
Go for: the chocolate chip, plus whatever the weekly special is. Know before you go: the rotating menu is posted weekly on its site.
Zachary Schmahl opened Schmackary's in 2012, and it calls itself the "Official Cookie of Broadway" with a straight face. It is a block from the theaters, with a rotating list of flavors (this fall, a Spooky Season lineup). It is the best pre-show sugar in the neighborhood. Our Hell's Kitchen guide has dinner nearby.
Go for: a seasonal special and a classic chocolate chip. Know before you go: flavors rotate, so check the site for the current lineup.
Christina Tosi's Compost Cookie, with pretzels, potato chips, coffee grounds and chocolate, is a modern New York classic, and the NoMad flagship is open daily until midnight. A six-cookie tin is $28. There are other Milk Bars in the city, including the Upper West Side, Williamsburg, Nolita and the West Village.
Go for: the Compost Cookie. Know before you go: the flagship's late hours make it a late-night cookie stop.
The online cookie brand opened its first shop in Williamsburg in 2026, and its "Better Than Sex" chocolate chip has a cult following. Curated boxes run $80 to $120 on its own site, which tells you this is a gift cookie, not an everyday one. It is worth seeing the shop if you are in the neighborhood. See our Williamsburg guide.
Go for: the Better Than Sex chocolate chip. Know before you go: boxes are expensive; this is a special occasion stop.
Famous for hand-painted sugar cookies, decorated by more than 20 cookie artists in a DUMBO studio, plus a gooey chocolate chip cookie. Boxes are $42 and custom portrait cookies start at $15 on the bakery's own site. It is the city's best novelty cookie and a very good gift.
Go for: a custom portrait cookie of your dog. Know before you go: custom orders need lead time.
Black and whites
The black and white benchmark. William Greenberg has been baking since 1946, and its black and white is a soft vanilla cake base, half chocolate fondant and half vanilla. Black and whites start at $27 on the bakery's site and gift boxes at $40.50. This is the one to bring to a family gathering. Our Upper East Side guide has the rest of the neighborhood.
Go for: a box of black and whites. Know before you go: there is a second shop on the Upper West Side at 285 Amsterdam Ave.
Founded in 1916, Orwashers is a century-old Upper East Side bread bakery that makes a very good black and white and a chocolate chip cookie that placed fifth in the January 2026 ranking. It is a neighborhood bakery in the old sense, which means the bread is the reason to go and the cookies are the reason to come back.
Go for: a black and white and a loaf of rye. Know before you go: the original is on 78th Street; there are other locations in Manhattan.
The Upper West Side's food emporium sells a classic black and white, six giant cookies in a padded tote for $29.98 on Zabar's own site, or an 11-ounce bag of minis for $14.98. They are kosher. It is the most convenient black and white in the city, and you can buy a pound of smoked salmon on the way out.
Go for: a single giant black and white. Know before you go: the minis make a better gift than the giants.
Moishe's Kosher Bakery
A Lower East Side kosher bakery serving since 1978, with black and whites sold by weight like everything else here. It is a working-class bakery, not a boutique, and it is open early. Our Lower East Side guide has more.
Go for: a black and white and a babka. Know before you go: closed Saturdays; Friday it closes at 3:30pm.
Rainbow and pignoli
A Bleecker Street pastry shop open since 1974 and the best place in Manhattan for Italian cookies by the pound. Pignoli, rainbow cookies, amaretti and assorted fancy cookies are all sold by weight from the case. Get a mixed box. More in our West Village guide.
Go for: a mixed pound of rainbow and pignoli. Know before you go: pignoli are the expensive ones for a reason (pine nuts).
On the corner of Manhattan and Devoe since 1976, Fortunato Brothers is the old Italian Williamsburg holding its ground. Its own menu counts 12 to 15 rainbow cookies to the pound and about 22 pignoli, and there is a Rainbow Cookie Cake that ships nationally. The espresso and the cannoli are as good as the cookies.
Go for: a pound of rainbow cookies. Know before you go: sit at a café table and order an espresso.
Artuso Pastry
Arthur Avenue's pastry shop has been baking for about 80 years, and its pignoli cookies (chewy almond paste studded with pine nuts) are the best in the Bronx. Combine it with a trip to the market and the delis of Arthur Avenue.
Go for: a box of pignoli. Know before you go: it is a block from Arthur Avenue proper.
The Zerilli family has run this Court Street pastry shop since 1948, and its seven-layer rainbow cookies, sold by the pound, are the neighborhood standard, especially now that Caputo's, a few blocks away, has closed. Open Monday to Saturday 8am to 8:30pm and Sunday 8am to 7:30pm. See our Carroll Gardens guide.
Go for: a pound of rainbow cookies. Know before you go: it also makes excellent Italian ices in summer.
How to use this list
For the famous one, go to Levain. For the best chocolate chip in the city right now, it is Red Gate, then The Pastry Box and Winner. For a black and white, William Greenberg. For Italian cookies, get a mixed pound at Rocco in Manhattan or Fortunato Brothers in Brooklyn. And for a gift, Maman's box or a Funny Face portrait.
For more sweets, see the best cheesecake in NYC and our ice cream guide.
Questions, answered.
- What is the most famous cookie in NYC?
- The chocolate chip walnut cookie at Levain Bakery, which opened on West 74th Street in 1995. Each cookie weighs about six ounces and is famous for its thick, barely baked center.
- Where can I get a good black and white cookie in NYC?
- William Greenberg Desserts on Madison Avenue, baking since 1946, is the benchmark. Orwashers on East 78th Street, Zabar's on Broadway and Moishe's on Grand Street are the other classic sources.
- Where can I buy Italian rainbow cookies in NYC?
- Brooklyn and Bronx pastry shops sell them by the pound: Fortunato Brothers in Williamsburg, Court Pastry Shop in Carroll Gardens and Artuso Pastry on Arthur Avenue. In Manhattan, Pasticceria Rocco on Bleecker Street sells them by weight.
- How much does a Levain cookie cost?
- About $5.75 for a single cookie in fall 2026, and $32 for a four-pack on Levain's own site.
- Which NYC cookie shops are best for gifts?
- Maman's nutty chocolate chip gift box, Funny Face Bakery's hand-painted cookies, Jacques Torres's chocolate chip box and William Greenberg's black and white gift boxes all ship or travel well.
Next up
The Best Cheesecake in NYCFourteen slices that define New York cheesecake, from Junior's and a Bronx bakery that supplies Peter Luger to Basque burnt tarts and an ube jiggly cake in Chinatown, plus how cream cheese made it all possible.Read it Get the Shout Sheet.
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