Friday, September 4, 2026

The World's Top 100 Bakeries

The bread and pastry rooms the professionals rate alongside restaurants: laminated doughs, wood-fired loaves, counters worth a morning detour. Ranked by the record, best first.

  1. A traditional Hmong cross-stitch pattern meaning "home" runs through the whole room, which tells you exactly what Diane Moua is going for. The neighborhood restaurant inside Minneapolis' Food Building blends Hmong-American cooking with a serious pastry program, and the two halves genuinely need each other. Food & Wine named it Restaurant of the Year, and it landed on the New York Times Restaurant List. The sesame balls have their own fan club.


  2. The brick-and-skylight nave of a former bakery on La Brea sets the stage for one of those all-day operations that actually pulls off both halves. Mornings belong to the pastry counter, where the team's James Beard Award-winning work draws lines before the doors open. By evening the open kitchen is running a Southern European Mediterranean menu for a full dining room that never quite empties.


  3. Rank 3. Berlu

    Vietnamese Bakery


  4. A pink cake frosted with prickly pear buttercream and scattered with sprinkles sets the tone at this bakery from Mariela Camacho, a Food & Wine Best New Chef and James Beard semifinalist. The conchas are airy under a crackly shell, and the coffee drinks lean into the same playful register as everything else. Nothing here is as sweet as it looks, which is the whole trick.


  5. Rank 5. Koffeteria

    Cambodian Bakery

    The beef pho kolache alone explains why this Cambodian-influenced bakery and coffee shop landed on the New York Times' list of best bakeries in the country. Chef Vanarin Kuch, a Top Chef alum and James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, builds a menu where Southeast Asian flavors drift easily into French, Mexican, and Brazilian territory. The Salty Cambodian latte, finished with condensed milk and sourdough butter, has regulars skipping the cortado for good.


  6. Rank 5. Starship Bagel

    NY-Style Bakery


  7. The color-splashed facade in Wynwood is hard to miss, and the line of regulars out front means you won't either. This all-day kosher bakery and cafe runs on naturally leavened breads and pastries, with sandwiches, soups, and salads filling out the menu. The seasonal concha tends to disappear fast. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Baker, Zak Stern trained on organic farms across Europe before bringing the whole project back home to Miami.



  8. Rank 8. Casaema

    Mexican/Tex-Mex

    The horchata cream doughnut sells out early, which tells you everything about the pace of a morning here. Casaema is a daytime cafe in Houston Heights rooted in Mexican foodways, with a pastry case full of conchas and guava-queso empanadas alongside a coffee menu running café de olla lattes and piloncillo chai. The chilaquiles are built on housemade chips with brisket. A James Beard nominee for Best New Restaurant, and a Michelin Bib Gourmand.



  9. Rank 8. Lysée

    Dessert Korean

    The corn cake is not corn: it's sponge coated in piped kernels of corn mousse, and it stops people in their tracks. Lysée is a dessert gallery in the Flatiron where Eunji Lee, a Food & Wine Best New Chef, applies French technique to Korean flavors like yuja and brown rice, then displays the results on lit tables as though daring you to eat them. North America's Best Pastry Chef at the 50 Best, 2026. Go prepared to feel slightly intimidated by a cake.


  10. Elena Reygadas runs this snug European-style bakery in Roma Norte, and the guava and ricotta Danish alone explains the line out the door. In a city where the standard pan dulce leans dry and margarine-heavy, the pastries here pull from an Italian-inflected pantry: airy conchas, chocolate-glazed donuts, focaccia, rustic loaves. Come early, order a coffee, then pick up a box to take to a park.




  11. A Long Beach panadería where the pastries draw on Mexican and Indigenous baking traditions, Gusto Bread makes a kouign-amann with nixtamalized corn folded into sourdough dough, which tells you everything about how the team approaches the classics. Conchas, multigrain loaves, and seasonal pastries round out the case. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Bakery, it draws visitors from well outside the neighborhood who planned their morning around it.


  12. Rank 15. Machine Shop

    French Bakery

    The car lift and air pump are still there, which gives this French bakery in a former auto body shop a particular kind of credibility. The laminated pastries are serious, the canelés are delicate, and the seasonal produce finds its way into croissants and Danish that justify the line. A James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery, it has also landed on The New York Times' list of the best bakeries in the country.


  13. The line down the block on weekends is a reliable feature, and so is the sign that says they've sold out early. Radio Bakery is a small Greenpoint spot where croissants get shaped like Danishes and filled with whatever's good that month, focaccia sandwiches come stuffed with smoked salmon and cream cheese, and the brown butter corn cake is the thing to grab for later. Frustrating in all the right ways.


  14. Rank 15. Starship Bagel

    NY-Style Bakery



  15. A bakery run by a former artist who, finding no local mills in Oklahoma's wheat belt, simply found a farmer and milled her own grain. The sourdough-heavy menu leans into specials like French onion soup Danishes and ube-blue corn coffee cake, which is either wildly creative or deeply unhinged, depending on your mood. Cat Cox won a James Beard Award for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker in 2025. Open Saturdays, with a line down the block before the doors even open.


  16. Rank 20. Kora

    Filipino Bakery


  17. Rank 20. Mercado Sin Nombre

    Mexican Coffee

    A flower-strung alley leads to an order window in East Austin, which is a whole vibe before the coffee even arrives. Mercado Sin Nombre is a Mexican coffee shop built around heirloom corn and specialty coffee, with pastries that take the idea seriously, including a biscuit that takes 100 hours to make. A Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, it keeps the name deliberately small so the farmers doing the work stay front and center.




  18. Rank 24. Breadbelly

    Asian, Bakery

    Kaya toast on pillowy bread striped with coconut-pandan jam is the thing people cite first, but the menu at this Asian American bakery on Clement Street rotates enough to keep regulars guessing. Pan de sal buns cradle egg salad with panko-fried veg, and the Basque cheesecake is cut thick enough to feel like a statement. Outdoor seating only, but the line moves. The New York Times and the LA Times both put it on their San Francisco lists.


  19. The line stretching down the block in North Beach is not a fluke. Butter & Crumble is a pastry and cake shop that built its name on laminated dough, and the croissants are the draw, from a plain version so flaky it barely holds together to cruffins stuffed with seasonal cream. Options rotate often enough that regulars have a reason to come back, which they do, loyally, before the case sells out. A few bar seats exist, but this is a takeout operation at heart.



  20. The baguettes go fast, so regulars grab two. Evergreen is a bakery and butcher shop in Inman Park where naturally leavened bread shares the counter with whole-animal cuts, and the combination makes more sense than it sounds. The vollkornbrot is dense and serious, the croissants are not, and the fermented hamburger buns exist specifically to cradle the beef ground in back. Atlanta was not a bread town; Evergreen is doing something about that.




  21. The line out the door at 5 p.m. is not a fluke; it's people waiting on the country loaf that Chad Robertson and Elisabeth Prueitt pull from the oven each afternoon. This Mission District bakery and cafe has been rewriting the rules on sourdough since forever, and the morning buns and cream tarts move fast enough that showing up early is less a suggestion than a strategy.





  22. Rank 24. Win Son Bakery

    Taiwanese-American Bakery



  23. Rank 36. Ellē

    American

    The former Heller's Bakery space now runs all day as a cafe, from morning lattes and egg sandwiches on potato rolls through a pastrami Reuben at lunch and on to dinner plates that get genuinely ambitious: fried halloumi with farro, chicken Milanese with romesco, ravioli with mushrooms and hazelnuts. The kitchen leans into fermentation and seasonal quirks in a way that keeps things interesting without making you feel like you're being lectured. Michelin Bib Gourmand.



  24. Rank 36. Lagniappe Bakehouse

    Southern Bakery

    The Vaucroissant, a lattice croissant stuffed with sausage from Vaucresson's, a venerable Black-owned Seventh Ward institution, is a good place to start understanding what this neighborhood bakery is doing. The chef, a former dancer, bakes with a historian's eye: benne seeds on toffee cookies, cornbread muffins wrapped in their own husks. A 2025 James Beard Emerging Chef nominee, she's built something that tastes like New Orleans and remembers where it came from.


  25. Rank 36. Saint Bread

    Japanese-Influenced Bakery

    A former boat repair shop on the canal, now doing the Lord's work with cardamom croissants and Japanese melonpan. Saint Bread is a bakery with a full menu organized, with some nerve, by how many slices of bread your order contains. The "No Bread" section includes okonomiyaki, which tells you the kitchen has opinions. A James Beard Semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery, and the New York Times put it on their short list of top U.S. bakeries.


  26. Rank 36. Santa Canela

    Mexican Bakery



  27. Rank 43. Librae Bakery

    Middle Eastern Bakery



  28. Rank 43. MÅURICE

    French, Lunch

    The quiche arrives as though it's never heard of the stodgy version you've had before, light and trembling where quiche has no business being either. MÅURICE is a French-leaning pastry luncheonette from chef Kristen Murray, drawing from French and Norwegian traditions for a small menu of smørbrød, soups, and sweets. The black pepper cheesecake has its own local mythology. A cold bottle of white at midday in downtown Portland, and nowhere else quite like it.




  29. Rank 43. Poulette Bakeshop

    French Bakery

    A French bakery tucked into a Parker strip mall, Poulette turns out croissants, kouign-amann, éclairs, brioche, and macarons from a pastry case that gets restocked daily and emptied fast. The team behind it spent years in serious kitchens, and the technique shows without the attitude. The New York Times named it among the country's top bakeries, and it's landed James Beard nominations for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.



  30. Rank 43. Yellow

    Levantine Middle Eastern


  31. Rank 51. Atelier Ortega

    Italian Dessert


  32. Rank 51. Caracas Bakery

    Venezuelan Bakery

    The cachito, a soft Venezuelan ham-and-cheese roll, is as good a reason as any to find your way to this Venezuelan bakery tucked into Doral. The team blends a Latin sensibility with French-style bread baking, so golfeados and pastelitos sit alongside proper croissants without anyone making a fuss about it. A 2024 James Beard nominee for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. Bring cash and a little patience; the line tends to have opinions.


  33. Rank 51. Dry Storage

    Artisan Bakery


  34. Rank 51. La Cabra

    Danish Coffee

    A U-shaped bar anchors this Danish coffee shop, where streamlined taps for cold drinks share space with a proper V60 setup and a counter lined with pastries worth stopping for. La Cabra built a following in Copenhagen before planting roots on the Lower East Side, and the East Village original still draws a crowd that treats croissants and a carefully pulled espresso as a reasonable reason to leave the house.


  35. The croissants here are laminated so precisely that the layers curl back on themselves like something from a geometry class, and then a breakfast sandwich gets stacked on top. Loaf Lounge is an all-day cafe where a pastry-and-savory team splits duties, one side producing sourdough and oatmeal cream pies, the other composing serious sandwiches. The chocolate cake the team made for "The Bear" has taken on a life of its own, which tracks.




  36. Rank 51. Starship Bagel

    NY-Style Bakery


  37. Rank 51. The Burque Bakehouse

    Artisan Bakery



  38. The bread lineup at this Israeli bakery in Rice Village runs from sourdough to shakshuka pastries to burekitas, the small savory hand pies the team grew up eating in Israel. It's a bright, picturesque café with outdoor seating, connected to the same group behind Doris Metropolitan and Hamsa. A 2025 James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist, it draws the kind of Saturday morning crowd that treats a bakery run like a serious errand.



  39. Rank 61. Crumb Queen

    Italian Bakery





  40. Rank 61. JL Patisserie

    French Bakery





  41. Rank 61. Warda Pâtisserie

    Modern Bakery



  42. Rank 72. Bánh by Lauren

    Vietnamese-French Bakery

    Pandan honeycomb cake in a shade of green that has no business being that vivid sets the tone at this Vietnamese-French bakery in Chinatown. Lauren Tran, formerly of Gramercy Tavern, started as a pop-up during the pandemic and landed in a brick-and-mortar that draws a line before most people have had coffee. Chiffon cakes, macarons, and savory scones packed with Chinese sausage and cheddar fill the case. A James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist in 2026.



  43. The sweet corn bibingka is topped with what looks like white chocolate but turns out to be Cheddar, which tells you everything about how this all-day cafe operates. Mornings run on Asian-American pastries and a line out the door; evenings pivot to Japanese-inflected yōshoku cooking. The team earned a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef and a nod from Bon Appétit's best new restaurants list, and the Cincinnati chili ramen has developed its own local mythology.


  44. Rank 72. Cinderella Bakery

    Russian Bakery

    The sour cream cake near the door has been pulling people off Balboa Street for longer than most San Francisco restaurants have existed. Cinderella is an old-school Russian bakery and cafe in the Richmond, the kind of place where the piroshki are stuffed with cabbage or beef, the borscht is non-negotiable, and the honey cake has its own following. Order something, find a seat, and stop worrying about whatever you were worrying about.



  45. Rank 72. JL Patisserie

    French Bakery

    The laminated dough at this French patisserie takes the kind of patience most kitchens quietly skip. Croissants, kouign-amann, pain au chocolat, and thick slices of quiche fill the cases, alongside macarons and fresh-baked loaves worth tucking under your arm on the way out. Seasonally flavored coffees keep the morning crowd happy while they deliberate. A James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, this uptown Phoenix spot makes a convincing case for the detour.









  46. Rank 72. Pondicheri

    Modern Indian

    A fermented chickpea crepe with green pea masala sits next to French toast on the same menu, which tells you most of what you need to know about Pondicheri. It's a modern Indian restaurant and all-day breakfast spot with a bakery upstairs called the Bake Lab, where the chili chocolate chip cookie has its own devoted following. The patio was made for lingering over masala chai, and the thali format rewards anyone who can't commit to one thing.



  47. The bread program at this neighborhood bakery runs from sourdough with serious tang to laminated pastry so thin it reads as architecture. The team behind it trained at Gjusta and Bien Cuit, which explains a lot. Seasonal baked goods shift the menu toward the sweeter side, and the cafe itself gives Healdsburg a proper morning anchor. A 2025 James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist and a New York Times pick for top American bakeries.











  48. Rank 97. GMP Patisserie

    Parisienne Bakery


  49. Rank 99. 180°

    Bakery









  50. Rank 99. Boni

    Bakery


  51. Rank 99. Bontemps

    Bakery






  52. Rank 99. Boulangerie Chambelland

    Gluten-free Bakery









  53. Rank 99. Boulot

    Bakery


  54. Rank 99. Brood

    Bakery


  55. Rank 99. Brood

    Bakery



  56. Rank 99. Bulle

    Bakery


  57. Rank 99. Carré Pain De Mie

    Japanese Bakery




  58. Rank 99. Détour

    Bakery


  59. Rank 99. Domestic

    French Bakery


  60. Rank 99. ED’S

    Bakery


  61. Rank 99. Eight

    Bakery



  62. Rank 99. Etikoa

    Bakery


  63. Rank 99. Fadoli

    Bakery



  64. Rank 99. Farine

    Bakery




  65. Rank 99. Fiston

    Bakery


  66. Rank 99. Foodetoi

    Bakery




  67. Rank 99. Funk

    Vegan Bakery




  68. Rank 99. Goods

    Bakery


  69. Rank 99. Grain

    Bakery


  70. Rank 99. Grain

    Bakery



  71. Rank 99. Hermine Pâtisserie

    Breton Bakery


  72. Rank 99. Holy Nata

    Portuguese Bakery

    A side-street specialist selling exactly one thing: warm pasteis de nata, four to a box. The shells shatter like good pastry should, and the custard filling runs thick enough that the Chronicle grouped it with the best bakeries in the Bay Area. Plain or dusted with cinnamon are the standing options, with a Nutella variation showing up on Thursdays for anyone who needs a reason to plan their week around a bakery.


  73. Rank 99. Hopla Geiss

    Alsatian Bakery





  74. Rank 99. Khobz

    Bakery


  75. Rank 99. Korst

    Bakery


  76. Rank 99. Kultur

    Artisan Bakery





  77. Rank 99. La Boule

    Bakery






  78. Rank 99. Le Four de Babel

    Sourdough Bakery




  79. Rank 99. Legrand

    Bakery


  80. Rank 99. Leo Antwerpen

    Artisanal Bakery




  81. Rank 99. Lina's

    Bakery





  82. Rank 99. Mado

    Italian-French Bakery


  83. Rank 99. Mains

    Bakery




  84. Rank 99. Mamiche

    Bakery




  85. Rank 99. MieMie

    Bakery




  86. Rank 99. Morgen

    Bakery


  87. Rank 99. Nikolas Koulepis

    Greek-French Bakery


  88. Rank 99. Nives

    Bakery


  89. Rank 99. Octopus

    Vegan Bakery








  90. Rank 99. Parpains

    Natural fermentation Bakery


  91. Rank 99. Pépite

    Bakery


  92. Rank 99. Pin Pin

    Bakery


  93. Rank 99. Polka

    Bakery


  94. Rank 99. Pompon

    Bakery





  95. Rank 99. Sain

    Bakery


  96. Rank 99. Sam

    Artisanal Bakery




  97. Rank 99. Silax

    Bakery


  98. Rank 99. Simple

    Artisanal Bakery







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