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Time of India
3 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Best Croissants in New York City - Full list of bakery, restaurant address
Best croissants are a masterful blend of crisp, golden layers and soft, buttery interiors that melt in your mouth. Crafted with precision and patience, these pastries boast hundreds of delicate layers created through the traditional lamination process of folding butter into dough. A perfect croissant has a deeply caramelized exterior with a slight crackle upon the first bite, revealing an airy honeycomb structure inside. Whether plain or filled with almond paste, chocolate, or ham and cheese, the finest croissants balance richness and lightness, making them an irresistible staple of French patisserie enjoyed around the world. ALF Bakery by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Esse novo alarme com câmera é quase gratuito em Santo André (consulte o preço) Alarmes Undo Chelsea Live Events 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 W. 15th St. (Ninth Avenue), Manhattan, 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, Bench Flour Bakers Astoria The kitchen at this neighborhood cafe and bakery turns out terrific breakfast plates and 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 hard to resist. 43-18 25th Ave. (44th Street), Queens, Birdee Williamsburg In the world of hyphenated Franken-pastries, the churro-croissant at Birdee bakery is in a league of its own. 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. 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, 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 E. Seventh St. (Avenue B), Manhattan, 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 E. 60th St. (Madison Avenue), Manhattan, Elbow Bread Lower East Side At her bakery, Elbow Bread, 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 St. (Canal Street), Manhattan, L'Appartement 4F Brooklyn Heights | West Village L'Appartement 4F was an early entrant in the current croissant craze; it 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, 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 Ave. (West 20th Street), Manhattan, 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 St. (Great Jones Street), Manhattan, 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 perfumelike 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 Sixth Street), Manhattan, 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 French Korean patisserie Lysée, 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 E. 21st St. (Park Avenue South), Manhattan, Miolin Bakery Park Slope Over the past 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. 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 Ave. (14th Street), Brooklyn, 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, New Jersey. 892 Lorimer St. (Nassau Avenue), Brooklyn, Pavé Midtown At Pavé, the croissants taste like high-quality European butter because that's what 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 W. 46th St. (Fifth Avenue), Manhattan, 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 Ave. (Carroll Street), Brooklyn, 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, Supermoon Bakehouse Lower East Side This downtown bakery is known for its whimsical pastry mashups like the Ferrero Rocher cruffin, a whammy of tightly coiled pastry filled with creamy Nutella. But purists will better appreciate 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 St. (Essex Street), Manhattan, 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 St. (Fulton Street), Manhattan, Tall Poppy Chelsea Expectations can run high at this shoe box of a bakery that looks like an Etsy search for croissant decor. (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 W. 20th St. (Seventh Avenue), Manhattan, 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 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 Ave. (Cumberland Street), Brooklyn, FAQs Q1. Where will you get best Croissants in New York? A1. Best croissants can be purchased in ALF Bakery. Q2. What is Croissant? A2. A croissant is a buttery, flaky pastry of Austrian origin that became a hallmark of French baking. It's made from a laminated dough, which involves folding layers of butter into dough multiple times to create a light, airy texture with distinct layers. Shaped into a crescent—hence the name, which means "crescent" in French—the croissant is baked until golden brown and crisp on the outside.


New York Times
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The 21 Best Croissants in New York City Right Now
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), 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, Want all of The Times? Subscribe.