Best Croissant in NYC

The bakery scene in New York has a problem, which is that most of it is now optimized for your phone. TikTok-bait cruffins. Ube-glazed somethings. Croissants shaped like cubes, stuffed with cookie dough, deep fried, and drizzled with enough Nutella to make a Parisian weep. These places have lines down the block and a two-hour wait for something you photograph, eat half of, and forget. It's the same disease I wrote about in Why Some Places Attract Serious Travelers and Others Attract Pinterest, just in pastry form.

I like a croissant. A real one. Laminated dough, good butter, a shattering exterior, a soft interior with visible layers, and nothing else. This is harder to find than it should be. Here's where I've found it.

La Cabra — SoHo

La Cabra earns its hype, which is rare enough in this city to be worth noting. The space is beautiful in a Copenhagen-by-way-of-Tokyo way — clean wood, natural light, the kind of intentional minimalism that makes you speak more quietly. The croissant is excellent: shatteringly crisp on the outside, airy and layered within, with a butter flavor that's present but not aggressive. The hand-brew coffee program is serious in a way that complements rather than competes with the pastry.

The cardamom bun is the signature item and it's deserved — warm, fragrant, structurally perfect. But I keep coming back for the croissant. There will be a line. Go anyway.

Fabrique Bakery — Fifth Ave

You could walk past Fabrique without noticing it. The signage is a hand-painted afterthought. The space is modest. Nothing about it signals that the croissant inside is one of the best in the city. But it is — slightly denser than the French ideal, with a richness that comes from the butter rather than any added sweetness. It tastes like someone who grew up eating Scandinavian baked goods decided to make a croissant and brought their own sense of restraint to the project.

This is croissant as craft object rather than performance. No line, no scene, no Instagram moment. Just a very good pastry in a very quiet room.

Breads Bakery — Lincoln Square

Breads is the antidote to every precious bakery on this list. It's a local chain. The seating is cafeteria-style. The babka is what they're known for, and it's excellent, but the croissant deserves more attention than it gets — well-laminated, properly buttery, and available without waiting twenty minutes or performing any kind of ritual.

They also make Jerusalem baguettes and burekás, which tells you something about the range and seriousness of the kitchen. Breads is the place you go when you want a great croissant and also want to sit down, have a coffee, and not feel like you're participating in a cultural moment.

Tall Poppy — Chelsea

A compact Australian cafe on a Chelsea side street. The croissant has satisfying chewy layers and a moderate butter flavor — not as shatteringly crisp as La Cabra's, but structurally sound and clearly made with care. The egg wash has sugar in it, which makes the whole bite slightly sweeter than I prefer. It's a choice, not a flaw — some people will love it.

The savory pastry options smelled better than most of the things I ate that week. Worth a detour if you're in the neighborhood, less so if you're making a special trip.

Epices Bakery — Upper West Side

This is the one I send people to when they live uptown and ask where to go. Tucked just off Columbus Ave, Epices has the feel of a Parisian neighborhood bakery that somehow ended up on the Upper West Side and decided to stay. The croissants are exceptional — the best on this list, or close to it — with a flaky, golden exterior and a buttery interior that collapses on contact.

The seasonal fruit tarts are equally good. On a summer visit I tried the fig, which was clean and balanced in a way that suggested real pastry training rather than recipe-following. Skip the coffee. Walk around the corner to Solid State instead, get a pourover, and head into Central Park. That's the move.

The Hit List

Places I'm still curious about, with the understanding that bakery rankings age faster than moral convictions:

• CLAUDE, West Village
• Le Fournil, East Village
• Librae Bakery, East Village
• Petit Chou, East Village
• L'Appartement 4F, Brooklyn Heights
• Nick + Sons, McCarren Park