There’s a new kind of bakery taking over New York City, maybe you’ve heard of it? The lines are long, the pastries are gorgeous and they’ve probably gone viral on the internet.
Welcome to the era of the hype bakery, an outgrowth of a national bakery boom, where reputation and expectation have coalesced to form a maddening buzz around baked goods. New York City’s own bakery boom is underwritten by a croissant craze, but which ones are actually good? The list below, presented in alphabetical order, includes laminated pastries of all shapes, sizes and variations that manage to stand out in a sea of doughy hyperbole.
ALF Bakery
Chelsea
The baker Amadou Ly is known for using laminated dough in unexpected ways, like wrapping it around baguettes to merge two breads into one flaky innovation. Don’t miss out on his chocolate almond croissant, possibly the best take on a double-baked croissant in the city. The combination of pastry, bittersweet chocolate and almond has the flat density of a cookie and the richness of, well, also a cookie.
Chelsea Market Lower Level, 435 West 15th Street (Ninth Avenue), alfbakery.com
Aux Merveilleux de Fred
West Village, Midtown, Upper East Side
This French import specializes in tall, pillowy meringue confections from Northern France and Belgium that overshadow the plain croissants, which are baked fresh throughout the day. They are softer and flatter than the modern style of rhombus-shaped pastries with taut golden crusts, but still exceptionally flaky and buttery sweet. These croissants used to be an “if you know, you know” kind of thing, but lately, it seems as if everyone is in on the secret. This is ultimately a good thing, because at less than $4 they’re also the most reasonably priced in Manhattan.
Multiple locations, auxmerveilleux.com
Bench Flour Bakers
Astoria
The kitchen at this neighborhood cafe and bakery turns out terrific breakfast plates and unexpectedly great croissants. There are no experimental shapes or quirky fillings here, just an unfussy heap of classic butter croissants along with other homey baked goods. They are on the small and dense side, which is a matter of style, but the flavor is compelling in the same way that warm toast slathered in butter is very hard to resist.
43-18 25th Ave (44th Street), benchflournyc.com
Birdee
Williamsburg
In the world of hyphenated Franken-pastries, the churro-croissant at Birdee bakery is in a league of its own. The pastry chef Renata Ameni successfully fuses the two pastries while maintaining the best elements of each. And despite its nontraditional circular shape, the crisp, texture remains intact, with plenty of crevices where cinnamon sugar adds its sweet and sandy crunch. Ms. Ameni also made the smart decision to dollop dulce de leche on top of each pastry, rather than pipe it inside, preserving the honeycomb interior.
316 Kent Ave (South Third Street), Brooklyn, birdee.nyc
C&B
East Village
People wait in long lines at C&B for the breakfast sandwiches, but the butter croissants are just as wait-worthy. The owner, Ali Sahin, is a self-taught baker who started making breads for his sandwich business in 2015 before broadening his scope to include pastries. He uses stone-milled flour for all of his doughs, which ferment over two days. These details show up in the sourdough croissants, which have a lingering flavor of cultured butter and a lightweight crunch.
178 East Seventh Street (Avenue B), Manhattan, candbnyc.com
Café Bilboquet
Upper East Side
Café Bilboquet is an unlikely source of trendy viral pastries, but here we are. An extension of Le Bilboquet, this cafe exudes an unbothered French sensibility, from the pile of jambon beurre sandwiches to the brusque service. And yet, the best croissants here are inspired by internet sensations — like a Dubai Chocolate-inspired version, or one capped with chocolate chip cookie dough. The Dubai version nails the trend with a classic butter croissant stuffed with a sticky, flavorful pistachio butter, and copious shreds of kataifi (crispy, shredded phyllo dough), all topped with a blanket of bittersweet chocolate.
26 East 60th Street (Madison Avenue), cafebilboquet.com
Elbow Bread
Lower East Side
At her bakery, Elbow Bread, the baker and pastry chef Zoë Kanan makes croissants with egg-enriched challah dough, giving them a noticeably golden hue, and laminates the dough with tons of butter so the crust is bronzed and flaky. The result is like a croissant on the outside, challah on the inside. For something even less traditional, but equally ingenious, try the honey bun, a variation of the laminated challah dough, braided and slathered in vanilla honey caramel.
1 Ludlow Street (Canal Street), Manhattan, elbowbread.shop
L’Appartement 4F
Brooklyn Heights, West Village
L’Appartement 4F was an early entrant in the current croissant craze — they may even have started it. The owners, Gautier and Ashley Coiffard, first made a splash with tiny croissant cereal in 2021, but have since built a devoted following for their traditional croissants with a classic flavor profile — sweetly buttery and a tad salty. The original location in Brooklyn Heights has a small balcony with seating, but discerning croissanteurs might consider their new walk-up window on West 10th Street in Manhattan where the croissants are a little fresher, warmer and more satisfying. Brace for lines either way.
Multiple locations, Brooklyn and Manhattan, lappartement4f.com
La Bergamote
Chelsea
Don’t be distracted by the colorful tarts or cakes at this French cafe, operating since 1998. The plain croissants are what you’re after — tucked into a remote corner of the pastry case and, for some reason, well below eye level. Your focus will be rewarded with a croissant that may set the bar for French-style versions in New York City. These golden, crab-shaped pastries defy the rules of contemporary croissant-making, which mandate height and structure. Instead, they collapse into feathery shards. But the lamination has done its work, leaving behind a tender, delicate flake and lactic flavor.
177 Ninth Avenue (West 20th Street), Manhattan, labergamotenyc.com
Lafayette Grand Café & Bakery
NoHo
This is important: You do not need to wait in line for the viral supreme croissant at Lafayette Bakery, the pastry alcove attached to the all-day French cafe of the same name. The traditional butter croissant is a much better use of your time. The texture is a case in opposites — crisp and pillowy with a flavor that hovers between toasted bread and tangy butter. It looks beautiful, too, deeply bronzed with fine layers of pastry that resemble wood grain. If we’re talking about FOMO, this is the one you don’t want to miss.
380 Lafayette Street (Great Jones Street), Manhattan, lafayetteny.com
Librae Bakery
East Village
The rose pistachio croissant here is for people who like their sweets on the sweeter side. It’s double-baked with a jammy pistachio frangipane filling and a chunky pistachio crust. There’s a whisper of rose, but any perfume-like notes are tamed by the toasted, nutty richness of pistachio; the flaky, syrupy layers of the croissant hint at baklava, another super-sweet dessert. Librae also has excellent croissant-themed merchandise for the truly committed.
35 Cooper Square (East 6th Street), Manhattan, libraebakery.com
Lysée
Flatiron district
To some, traditional chocolate croissants are proportionately all wrong. Either there’s too much pastry and not enough chocolate, or the chocolate is cold and waxy — or both. At the French Korean patisserie Lysée, the pastry chef Eunji Lee reworks the chocolate croissant entirely with a pastry called the pain au chocolat 2.0. This improved version is muffin-shaped and capped with a thin layer of ganache coated in rough chocolate crumbles, ensuring luscious chocolate in every flaky bite. Croissants are available only Friday through Sunday, and they sell out toward the end of the day — so plan accordingly.
44 East 21st Street (Park Avenue South), Manhattan, lyseenyc.com
Miolin Bakery
Park Slope
Over the last few years, Park Slope has experienced its own little bakery boom, with Miolin Bakery emerging in 2024 as the top spot for stellar croissants. What started as a pandemic-era cottage bakery has blossomed into a neighborhood bread boutique. The baker and co-owner Claudio Miolin makes a flawless butter croissant, but the fillings give the pastry a little more oomph. The chocolate hazelnut croissant has striking brown stripes from a touch of cocoa in the laminated dough, and is generously filled with silky Nutella.
422 Seventh Avenue (14th Street), Brooklyn, miolinbakery.com
Nick + Sons Bakery
Greenpoint
The traditional croissants at Nick + Sons are famous for two reasons: being good and selling out. It’s true, they are best-in-class and have a crunchy texture that yields in all the right places. Their flavor is distinctively buttery, with a lingering ripple of saltiness. You could stop here, but other pastries made from the same laminated dough, like the spinach ricotta Danish, are just as impressive. The bakery recently relocated from a walk-up window to a garagelike space in Greenpoint. Even with more room, the croissants still sell out. And if you’re heading to the Jersey Shore this summer, there is a second location in Spring Lake, N.J.
892 Lorimer Street (Nassau Avenue), Brooklyn, nickandsonsbakery.com
Pavé
Midtown
At Pavé, the croissants taste like high-quality European butter because that’s what the chef and owner Jonghun Won uses. He layers expensive Bordier butter into the dough, which bakes into light and crisp pastries. The croissants are also used for several sandwiches, like turkey salad or ham and cheese. While you’re at it, why not buy a few bars of Bordier butter to take home; they’re sold at the bakery.
20 West 46th Street (Fifth Avenue), Manhattan, pave46.com
Runner & Stone
Gowanus
A good croissant should remind you that laminated pastries are an extension of bread baking. Runner & Stone is a bread bakery first, and it shows. The cafe, on a sleepy street in Gowanus, is overflowing with whole wheat baguettes, rye ciabattas and other country-style loaves. The croissants are made with New York State-grown and milled grains and everything here is naturally leavened with sourdough, which means deeper, more interesting flavors. The croissants are small and unassuming, but they are a standout option.
285 Third Avenue (Carroll Street), Brooklyn, runnerandstone.com
Somedays Bakery
Astoria, Long Island City
The croissants at Somedays Bakery can border on the absurd with specials like chicken Caesar salad and three-cheese mac and cheese. One staple of the pastry case, however — the black sesame tahini croissant — has just the right balance of fun and flavor. The base, made with New Zealand butter, is stuffed with nutty tahini frangipane and baked a second time with a cap of black sesame brittle. Too much black sesame paste can taste bitter, but this croissant does a good job of emphasizing the ingredient without overwhelming you with it.
Multiple locations, Queens, somedaysbakery.com
Supermoon Bakehouse
Lower East Side
This downtown bakery is known for its whimsical pastry mash-ups like the Ferrero Rocher cruffin, a whammy of tightly coiled pastry filled with creamy Nutella. But purists will better appreciate the baker and co-owner Ry Stephen’s plain butter croissant, where the emphasis is on a crisp texture and subtle yeasty flavor. The style here is best described as bien cuit, or well done, giving it an especially toasted taste and aroma. The pain au Nutella is also a strong choice, cloaked in a layer of velvety chocolate and a chef’s quantity of flaky sea salt.
120 Rivington Street (Essex Street), Manhattan, supermoonbakehouse.com
T Café
Financial District
The French onion croissant here is not so much an innovation as it is an interpretation. Key components of the classic soup — bread, cheese and savory onions — are present but simply rearranged. The pastry dough is made with sourdough starter, forming a strong foundation of flavor. Caramelized onions are smothered with sharp Gruyère and fresh thyme. The vibe inside the Tin Building is a bit dull in the mornings, but stepping outside to enjoy your French onion croissant by the East River is never a bad way to spend five minutes in the city.
Tin Building by Jean-Georges, 96 South Street (Fulton Street), Manhattan, tinbuilding.com
Tall Poppy
Chelsea
Expectations can run high at this shoe box of a bakery that looks like an Etsy search for croissant décor. (The wax candle worthy of Madame Tussauds is a personal favorite.) Luckily, Tall Poppy’s everything cruffin lives up to the bakery’s croissant obsession. It has an exuberantly crunchy surface, enhanced by a generous coating of housemade everything seasoning, heavy on the salt. There is a trove of thick chive cream cheese in the middle, which in this city amounts to something more like a bagel than a muffin.
156 West 20th Street (Seventh Avenue), Manhattan, tallpoppynyc.com
Thea
Fort Greene
There seems to be a perpetual line at this bakery in Fort Greene, but this one is worth the wait for a classic croissant (and it moves quickly). It’s a textbook version with a crisp, lacquered shell and even layering within. The flavor is distinctly and nutty, which is all to say that a good croissant should give you something to think about. This offshoot of the restaurant Theodora also does ingenious things with Middle Eastern ingredients: When it’s available, the double-baked kataifi croissant is pleasantly Dubai chocolate-adjacent with a crisp, satisfying crunch.
17 Greene Avenue (Cumberland Street), Brooklyn, theabakerynyc.com
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