The Best Bakeries In Seattle

Sometimes you need a morning pick-me-up, but the bread and pastries at Sea Wolf act more like a morning pick-me-up-and-throw-me-across-the-galaxy-so-I-can-be-among-the-stars. They specialize in various types of outstanding sourdoughs, from crusty white to rye infused with coffee and caraway. The best thing here, however, is their chocolate chip cookie. The way Sea Wolf balances nutty brown butter, dark chocolate, oats, and a heavy hand of sea salt makes us want to host a cookie convention and invite them as the keynote speakers. A flaky croissant for breakfast is pretty much mandatory, but you’ll want a lye roll or hunk of olive-dotted focaccia to snack on later. And if you hate waiting in morning lines, you can preorder anything from their menu in advance.

This tiny bakery in Downtown Bothell serves pastries that would crush the competition in a reality baking series. There are hazelnut praline-bottomed chocolate mousse tarts piped with passionfruit curd to impart welcome acid. You’ll also find a basque cheesecake with an ideal balance of burnt edge and custardy middle. And airy choux stuffed with berry compote is a decadent breakfast we could eat on repeat for weeks. But the savory stuff is impressive too—like spongy focaccia glazed with black truffle honey, or a Dungeness-stuffed curry scone that’s better than any crab cake in Seattle. The menu changes weekly, but you can expect greatness every time. Just be sure to exercise patience on the weekends when lines are long.

The pastries and loaves at Ben's taste like they were engineered in a lab by deliriously hungry chemists. Their bread is crustier and fluffier than a senior poodle, and the blue corn pound cake slick with lemon glaze has a perfect crumb that would spook judges of The Great British Bake-Off. Tangy sourdough english muffins are springy with a tender crackle, and taste even better as a breakfast sandwich stuffed with egg soufflé and crispy country ham that shatters into a million pork chips on each bite. If you aren’t the kind of person who sets an alarm on the weekends for a pastry run, now you are.

You might know The Pastry Project for its summertime soft serve window, but the pastry training organization also sells excellent homemade baked goods. Standard, like gooey chocolate chip cookies and cinnamon rolls, are done well. But the most impressive treats here really play with texture. Crème brûlée-filled croissants have a masterful balance of shattering pastry flakes, caramelized sugar, and smooth custard, while autumn-spiced breakfast bread revolutionizes the reputation of fiber-rich bran (you're more than your job, bran). The best move is to just order one of everything.

There are quite a few boutique bake shops on Bainbridge Island, but the only one you need to know about is Blackbird. This is where to go for a solid breakfast or snack with a latte. Even if the person in front of you sends you into a rage by claiming the last two slices of almond butter layer cake, there are many other delicious things to be had here—mainly, the best blueberry lemon-glazed scone we’ve ever tasted, or Helen’s French Roll, a.k.a. the minimalist-chic cousin to coffee cake.

If you’re only coming to this colorful Danish bakery in Queen Anne for one thing, it’s the Snitter—which sounds a lot like a quidditch term, but is what would result if a cinnamon roll mated with a cheese danish. Don’t think too hard about the logistics of that. Nielsen’s has been around for decades, and the pastries are why. Definitely order some fresh Snitters whenever you stop in, but their marzipan cake is a perfect birthday dessert for any individual in your life who loves almond extract.

There are a lot of tricolored symbols in Seattle—like navy, teal, and white for the Mariners, or grey, darker grey, and darkest gray for December. The rainbow slice at Hawaiian bakery Cakes Of Paradise is just as iconic. Flavored with strawberry-guava, lime, and orange-passionfruit, it’s a feat of pastry that somehow makes a dense block of cake oddly refreshing. Same goes for the sweet-tart mango cream cheese pie. But there are good options for fruit-loathers too, like chocolate chantilly layers frosted with thick mac nut buttercream. Call an order in for your birthday. Especially if it’s in December.

There’s nowhere in town that serves tres leches cake as terrific as Tres Lecheria, a takeout bakery in Wallingford where you can grab said cake in portable plastic containers. The tender dessert soaks up more milk than a horde of thirsty kittens, ribbons of piped whipped cream are essentially dairy-based clouds, and there are a ton of flavor options (like matcha, strawberry, or Mexican mocha) to keep things exciting. We’re fans of the subtle cinnamon kick in their horchata variation, but we can guarantee greatness with any tub of the stuff.

Bake Shop is a beacon of good feelings near the Space Needle, an area that can get dreadfully boring fast. There’s natural wine, comfortable seats among the bread smells and espresso machine hisses, and really good salty whipped cream that tops black sesame iced lattes. But you’re really here for pastries. Think of Bake Shop’s cardamom horn like a not-too-sweet honey bun, only in the shape of a wand, and filled with cardamom warmth. And their ham and cheese pastry kicks the pants off any jambon-filled croissant—it’s shaped like a cinnamon roll, slathered with a swirl of mustard, and potato baked directly into the dough.

This is a bakery that serves pastries that are so beautiful, you almost feel bad to take a bite and destroy the artful creations. To be clear, we said almost. It’s hard to go wrong with their jammy caramelized shallot croissant with gruyere, a nutty pistachio schnecken, the blood orange Campari cake donut, or just a handful of macarons—or pop by their adjoining soft serve window for pandan ice cream topped with a crunchy miniature croissant.

This South Park bakery from the team behind Lady Jaye proves that the smokehouse masterminds can also make excellent pastries. Here, you’ll eat moist lemon loaves, cakey, miso-infused chocolate chip cookies, and cloud-like shokupan that rightfully sell out early. You'll also find marshmallow treats that are just as serious as they are silly, filled with everything from fruity cereal to Ruffles potato chips.

Kemi Dessert Bar is a tiny spot on Capitol Hill churning out a long list of sweets with Asian flavors—and it's worth braving the 12th Ave parking situation to check out. Almost everything behind the meticulously arranged display case is excellent, particularly their black sesame rice crispy squares, classic chocolate chip cookies, and zippy, vegan yuzu cookies. Come here to fill a box of treats that’ll impress everyone the next time you need to show up at a party with dessert.

The reimagining of this northern Capitol Hill classic is a home run simply based on the new pastries alone. And yeah, we’d eat sugar for breakfast on the daily if we lived in the neighborhood. We’re talking about things like savory tahini caramel bars, New York-style crumb cake muffins, and buckwheat chocolate chunk cookies with a salty, dulce de leche-like texture. But that would be ignoring their BEC, a majestic stack of paper-thin egg folds, bacon cooked just before it gets crispy, and oozing yellow american, all on a homemade toasted poppy roll.

The layer cakes and cupcakes at this Georgetown bakery are on the pricier side ($65 for a six-inch cake), but they’re beautifully done, with delicious flavor combinations like black sesame Oreo, ricotta olive oil slathered with lemon curd, or carrot pineapple with piped globs of brown butter frosting. The best one, however, is the London Fog. It’s an earl grey cake with earl grey honey syrup, bergamot mascarpone cream, and cream cheese frosting. A forkful of each component tastes like you’re drinking a cup of tea with sweetened cream, only with a lot more carbs. If you don’t feel like lining up before they open to buy slices a la carte (or preordering your slice online), you can order a whole cake—just make sure to consult their website to see how many months ahead they’re sold out.

Inside this U-District bakery that used to be an old boathouse, you’ll find our favorite avocado toast in town, made better than the rest by a heavy sprinkling of za’atar, pools of grassy olive oil, and scientifically precise levels of fresh lemon and salt. There’s also a riff on Norwegian-style school buns filled with raspberry jam and creamy custard, too. But what really has us worshipping Saint Bread is their breakfast sandwich on a fluffy Japanese melonpan that’s topped with a thin layer of cookie dough before baking. Glory be to this creation, stuffed with jammy-but-not-messy fried eggs and sticky american cheese that fuses to the bacon grease and rogue granulated sugar on your fingertips. Embrace the sweet-and-salty McGriddle energy.

This White Center bakery creates works of art in the form of tres leches cakes and Salvadoran treats. Their expansive display case of sweet stuff is so good that on first bite, you might feel compelled to introduce yourself to everyone in the kitchen since they'll be seeing a lot more of you. And equally as great savory bites, like shatteringly crunchy pastelitos are filled with a comforting mash of soft potatoes, peppers, and carrots along with either pork or chicken. Don't forget a horchata on the way out.

Hood Famous specializes in Filipino desserts, mainly mini cheesecakes that come in flavors like white chocolate guava and matcha. While we endorse standing on a street corner with a fork and eating all four varieties at once straight from the takeout box, the swirled purple ube cheesecake is the best one in Seattle. If you’re not feeling the street corner, have one inside the cafe for lunch chased with an iced ube latte, in case you want more ube.

If the morning line is any indication, Rosellini's is the best bakery in Ballard. Their French pastry showing is excellent—with standouts including a chewy baguette and cinnamon-swirled coffee cake—but it's truly their croissant that would satisfy even the most uptight of snoots. This thing's exoskeleton is blistery with multiple wafer-like layers of shatter, intense butter notes, and a structure that bounces back up after each squish. It’s the croissant that meets all expectations when those expectations are explicitly, “give me France.”

There’s no such thing as petite at Snapdragon. The West Seattle bakery (originally from Vashon) churns out pastries that look like they got hit by the same gamma ray as the Hulk. Their cinnamon rolls are not just giant, but gooey and pillowy soft, while the galettes get stuffed to their bursting point with tart stone fruit. But we’re big fans of the savory options, too, including cheesy green onion bread that makes for a nice lunch, and lemony spinach banitza. Honestly, any of the larger-than-life baked goods here would make you a hero at a picnic or party—as long as you’re willing to share.

Bakery Nouveau’s finest achievement is the twice-baked almond croissant. Sit down and get one all for yourself and don’t even think about sharing. Slivers of toasted nuts and powdered sugar will end up all over the place, but there’s nothing more satisfying than braving the long morning line and having some quality time with your pastry and a hot latte. Lunch here is also great—the croque monsieur is one of the best ham sandwiches around, and if you want to do something nice for your workday, take some fresh macarons back to the office.

The stuffed panko-crusted dough buns at this Rainier Beach shop are crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, with fillings that range from jerk-spiced chicken and plantain to smoked salmon in a potato cream sauce topped with furikake. The classic beef curry and the BBQ pork are the pans not to miss here, but we're also a bit smitten with the Japanese hot dog. And on Saturdays and Sundays only, Umami Kushi serves excellent beignets covered in everything from cocoa powder to strawberry dust.

Coyle’s is a cafe in Greenwood, and our favorite thing here is the cretzel—which, as you might expect from the name, is a cross between a pretzel and a croissant. The coffee is great, too, and the space has a few tables for you to get some work done. Just bring your Moleskine, since there’s no WiFi.

Yes, ths prized bakery of Little Norway in Poulsbo is touristy, and the line is long during peak weekend hours. But we implore you to stick it out, because these people know how to whip up danishes that are plush and puffy to the touch, yet teeth-sinkingly soft. While the Sluys viking roll—an overturned bun bursting with cinnamon and a plop of cream cheese frosting—is a non-negotiable, we’re also partial to the marzipan-scented lot, like raspberry-filled butterhorns and swedish almond pastries. Load up a box and make someone’s day.