We 🥐 Croissants
Top 10 NYC croissants
With fashion, your Selleb Sisters are experimental — (almost) nothing is off-limits. But when it comes to pastries, time and time again, we find ourselves reaching for the timeless classic: the very basic plain croissant (in all its buttery, flaky, and subtly sweet glory).
Over the last 2 years, we’ve sampled over 30+ plain croissants from 30+ different bakeries in NYC (maybe a baker’s dozen more, sometimes frequenting the same place multiple times). In the midst, we’ve become a bit of *self-proclaimed* “croissant connoisseurs.” As picky pastry patrons, we look for 3 criteria: 1) a flaky exterior that crumbles into a mess upon first bite, 2) a smooth and symmetrically layered interior, and 3) the perfect dough-to-butter ratio that yields a delicate, nuanced flavor. Call us dough-eyed. (Or crazy.)
Personal tangent: Our obsession runs so deep that for Chloe’s birthday, her friends got her a croissant jewelry case. We couldn’t help but place it side-by-side with the real deal — can you spot the impostor ??
Disclaimer: This is neither a holistic rundown of top bakeries nor a ranking across myriad croissant types. We’re conducting an apples-to-apples comparison of our favorite croissant category 🥐
Without further ado —
NYC’s top 10 best classic croissants (IOHO, in descending order):
Lodi: Given where this bakery is located — Rockefeller Plaza — it’s easy to cast it off as another tourist trap. To our utter bewilderment, their croissant was better than most in the city. Puffy, flaky, and scrumptious.
L’Appartement 4F: Don’t judge a croissant by its cover. The shape doesn’t hold very well (kinda flat) but the taste is solid nevertheless. We prefer their flavored croissants instead…
Librae Bakery: A little too buttery for our taste but stands tall in form and function.
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