The East Village is one of New York City's best neighborhoods for a bakery crawl. I spent several mornings savoring cardamom buns, pandan custard with sticky rice, and Italian pastries on a recent spring trip.
Some of the bakeries I visited have been part of the East Village for decades, while others were celebrating their grand opening. Together, these ten spots capture the appeal, international influence, and reinvention that define this part of Manhattan.
Table of Contents
Top Bakeries
I recommend visiting one or two bakeries per morning unless you're a glutton like me or short on time. In that case, bring a friend or two.
1. Librae Bakery
My East Village adventure began at 8 a.m. on a Wednesday at Librae Bakery in Cooper Square. Dona Murad-Gerschel, a third-generation baker from Bahrain, opened Librae in 2022 with her American husband. She utilizes Middle Eastern spices and Danish techniques perfected in Copenhagen's bakeries to captivate her customers.
I'd been following NYC's first Bahraini-inspired bakery on Instagram since their pistachio rose croissant went viral. It's made with pistachio frangipane (pastry cream), pistachios, and dried rose petals, and every bit as flaky as it appears online. The $8.50 price tag raises a lot of eyebrows, including mine, but I thought it was worth the cost.
The loomi babka was my second purchase, at $7.75. Murad-Gerschel adds dried black lime (loomi) to lemon curd to fill a knotted brioche bun. It was an attractively put-together pastry, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the pistachio croissant.
I want to try their cookies next time. During my spring visit, the lineup included tahini chocolate chip, Earl Grey olive oil, sticky toffee and date oat, and saffron honey sesame.
Librae Bakery's minimalist interior has an open kitchen, herringbone wood floors, marble tables, a few mirrors, and plants. As I would soon see, it's relatively spacious and comfortable compared to other bakeries in the East Village. 35 Cooper Sq, New York, libraebakery.com
2. Hani's bakery + cafe
Exit Librae and walk a block and a half north on 3rd Avenue to the green facade of Hani's bakery + cafe. Hani's (pronounced "honey's") is run by pastry chef Miro Uskokovic (Gramercy Tavern) and Shilpa Uskokovic (senior editor at Bon Appétit). The name is a term of endearment Miro had for his mom, to whom their East Village bakery is dedicated.
Inside, the display case was filled with appealing sweet and savory options. A few that jumped out at me were the pigs in a croissant blanket with Niman Ranch hot dog, smoked salmon flatbread, and rhubarb cake.
I settled on a turkey Swiss croissant roll with spicy gochujang, honey, and sesame. It packed a lot of flavor in a hockey-puck-sized pastry.
I chose the carrot cake with brown butter, ginger, and pineapple jam for something sweet. One square piece is $10.50, but it's worth a Hamilton for this customer favorite. 67 Cooper Sq, New York, hanisnyc.com
3. Smør Bakery
The tiny, Nordic-inspired Smør Bakery, located a few blocks north of Tompkins Square Park, draws a devoted clientele. That was my impression upon dropping by at 8:45 a.m. on a Friday.
I was there for the cardamom bun—a Scandinavian pastry made with layers of buttery dough and warm, citrusy cardamom spice, which I grew to love during fikas in Sweden. At $4.75, it was significantly cheaper than a flight to Stockholm and just as tasty as the ones I ate there.
Additional options I spotted in the display case include chocolate chunk cookies, a seasonal doughnut, sausage rolls, cinnamon buns, and tebirkes— a Danish pastry featuring marzipan and poppy seeds. 437 E 12th St, New York, smorbakerynyc.com
4. Lady Wong Patisserie
Pastry chefs Seleste Tan and Mogan Anthony used downtime during the pandemic to recreate the sweets they grew up with in Malaysia. What they began making for themselves, family, and friends led to pop-ups and a brick-and-mortar shop in the East Village.
New York City seemed to have everything a foodie could desire before it opened, except Southeast Asian pastries. Despite months of travel in Southeast Asia in my thirties, I must admit a dearth of knowledge in this department, which made the visit all the more enjoyable.
Almost everything in the small, brightly lit shop's display cases felt foreign to me. I began with a petite version of their black sesame passionfruit entremet, a French term for a multi-layered cake, for $9.28.
Elements of this sophisticated little sphere include:
- Black sesame mousse
- Passionfruit caramel
- Sesame crunch
- Chocolate cake
- Cocoa sable
A lot was going on, but the flavors and textures were well-balanced. No wonder Eater New York named Lady Wong the city's best bakery in 2022.
Related: Lysee Pastry Shop by Eunji Lee
For my second dessert, I tried a traditional Southeast Asian food entirely new to me: seri muka. It's a combination of green pandan custard and sticky rice. The rice's blue color is from the butterfly pea flower.
The flavors were mild, but I enjoyed the play of soft textures. I don't recommend trying to hold it in your hands for a photo, though! 332 E 9th St, New York, ladywong.com
5. LA LA Bakeshop
LA LA Bakeshop is another Southeast Asian bakery that emerged from the pandemic, but this one originated in Toronto, Canada. Brian Tran and Harry Pham chose New York City's East Village for the first U.S. location, which opened in November 2024.
I was greeted by a glass case full of sweet and savory pastries inside the tiny Vietnamese bakery. Coconut pandan sticky rice, a taro lava bun, and a butter garlic cream cheese bun all caught my attention.
LA LA Bakeshop is best known for its salted egg yolk cake ($8.50), a modern Vietnamese dessert that I somehow missed during my two-week trip in 2023. The yellow cake is filled with a sweet and salty custard made from duck eggs and topped with pork floss, salted egg sauce, and crumbles. I enjoy sweet and salty combos, but didn't connect with this one.
I hedged my bets with the Vietnamese coffee tiramisu ($13.50), which I loved. The mascarpone cheese cream was light and fluffy, and the ladyfingers had a stronger coffee flavor than typical tiramisu. For tea lovers, they also sell a pandan matcha tiramisu.
As readers may know, I came home from Vietnam a massive fan of Vietnamese coffee in its many forms. LA LA Bakeshop offers an appealing lineup, including salted cream, pandan cream, durian cream, and coconut coffee. 73 2nd Ave, New York, lalabakeshop.com
6. The Pastry Box
If you're short on time and big on cookies, head for The Pastry Box. This charming East Village bakery, owned by chef Tiara Bennett (formerly of Daniel), serves a stellar ¼-pound chocolate chip cookie ($5).
It's large and thin, with slightly crunchy edges and a soft interior. There's plenty of chocolate, and it's topped with flaky sea salt to bring out the natural flavors.
The crunchy-creamy black cocoa cookies are like gourmet Oreos, and the brown butter brownie with sea salt was also solid. Kitchen sink cookies, campfire cookies, yuzu olive oil cake, and seasonal items fill the small glass counter. 515 E 12th St, New York, thepastrybox.co
7. Petit Chou
Petit Chou is a cozy, French-inspired bakery in the East Village. Renowned for its exceptional choux pastries, the bakery offers a variety of cream puffs and eclairs, including flavors such as pistachio, salted caramel, and raspberry.
You'll also find a double chocolate croissant and a strawberry and cream roll. But it wasn't any of those that caught my eye. It was the petit gateau—four-inch-layered cakes filled with cream or fruit—glowing in the morning sun.
There were the Chocolate Supreme (caramel, chocolate mousse, and cake) and Blueberry Cheesecake (New York-style, graham cracker crust, blueberry jelly). I usually prioritize chocolate, but it was still early, so I went with the lighter Tropical Cake ($12).
This lovely petit gateau is made with coconut cake and a mango and pineapple compote dipped in white chocolate. It's topped with a passion fruit curd and finished with Chantilly. The beautiful presentation was enough to satisfy me, even before my first bite (which I thoroughly enjoyed). 229 First Ave, New York, petitchounyc.com
8. La Cabra Bakery
La Cabra started as a coffee roaster in Aarhus, Denmark, and later expanded into a bakery as well. After expanding to multiple locations in Denmark, they chose New York's East Village as the location for their first international cafe and bakery. I was beyond excited to enter this little den of Danish delights.
It was 9 a.m. on a weekday, and the limited indoor seating was already spoken for. I stood in a small queue waiting to order as the bakers behind a glass window continued to work their magic. Fresh loaves of sourdough bread were lined up on shelves around the cashier.
I was here for the cardamom bun ($6) and a coffee. I also ordered a Meyer lemon and hazelnut cookie. My morning treats were placed on an attractive ceramic plate, and I was told it was okay to stand at the coffee counter to await my hot beverage.
The cardamom bun's laminated dough was beautifully shaped and a deep golden color. The dusting of granulated sugar on top reminded me of the many pastries I'd eaten in Scandinavia. It was a little dry compared to the one I got from Smør Bakery a few days later.
The Meyer lemon and hazelnut cookie was small but fun. The lemon filling lies beneath the chocolate disc and only oozes out after I take my first bite. The hot cardamom coffee, complete with latte art, was excellent. I'll be back next time I'm in town.152 2nd Ave, New York, lacabra.com
9. Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe
Veniero's Pasticceria & Caffe, an East Village institution since 1894, has long been a magnet for both dessert aficionados and celebrities. The fifth-generation, family-owned shop has won awards from as far away as Rome and Bologna.
New York Yankee baseball icon Joe DiMaggio frequented the bakery for Quaresimali Biscotti, and Frank Sinatra was a devoted fan, often indulging in their Regina Biscotti. Both are available for purchase.
Buying a bag of biscotti is among the easiest decisions to make at Veniero's, where the pastry case extends 40 feet from the front door. More than 150 cookies, cakes, and desserts are available for purchase. The cheesecakes alone looked incredible, with options including New York, Italian, Sicilian, and Oreo.
Ultimately, I had to go light and opted for a mini pistachio cannoli and tiramisu, accompanied by a hot cappuccino. I took a table in the long dining room, which has stained glass and an original pressed-tin ceiling. The refurbished red and white marble floors added visual interest to the room.
Unfortunately, the shell of my little cannoli was soft, a sign it'd been sitting too long. The shell should be crisp and crunchy to contrast with the creamy ricotta filling. The mini tiramisu was good, though I'd wished I had space in my belly for a slice of Sicilian cheesecake that morning. 342 E 11th St, New York, venieros.com
Ray's Candy Store
To conclude my list of the best bakeries in the East Village, I present to you Ray's Candy Store, which has been open for over 50 years. Owner Ray Alvarez risked his life to escape the Iranian Navy and immigrate to the United States in the 1960s. By the 80s, he was a U.S. citizen.
Ray, now 92, still works seven days a week, serving a variety of treats, including soft-serve ice cream, beignets, and deep-fried Oreos.
When I stopped by his shop, I ordered a classic chocolate egg cream—made with chocolate syrup, seltzer, and milk—just after the customer ahead of me asked for a photo with Ray, who said yes.
Anthony Bourdain featured Ray's Candy Store on the East Village episode of Parts Unknown (which would ultimately be his last). 113 Avenue A, New York, rayscandystore.com
