The best croissants in Highgate

The best croissants in Highgate

The Best Croissants in Highgate: Eight Bakeries Worth the Journey

There is a particular kind of Saturday morning that begins not with an alarm but with intention. You pull on a coat, step out into the cool North London air, and follow your nose somewhere worthwhile. Highgate — with its village-within-a-city charm, its steep lanes and handsome Georgian terraces — has quietly become one of the most rewarding pockets of London for serious breakfast lovers. And right now, in 2025, the croissant scene radiating outward from N6 is better than it has ever been. Whether you are after a classical butter croissant, a twice-baked almond showstopper, or something altogether more inventive, this corner of the capital has you covered.

The Best Bakeries for Croissants Near Highgate

1. Margot Bakery Highgate

📍 373 Archway Road, Highgate, N6 4EJ | ⭐ 4.6 | 🕗 Daily 8:00am – 4:00pm

If you only make one stop on Archway Road, make it this one. Michelle Eshkeri's third Margot location arrived in Highgate to considerable excitement — and it has more than lived up to the billing. The almond croissants here are deeply buttery, properly frangipane-filled, and topped with enough flaked almonds to constitute a meal. But the real joy of Margot is the range: beautifully braided challah, sourdough loaves, babka, and bear claws all sit alongside seasonal pastries that reflect the bakery's proud Jewish baking heritage. This is the kind of place that earns you a reputation for knowing where to go.

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2. Sourdough Sophia Highgate

📍 3 Highgate West Hill, Highgate, N6 6JS | ⭐ 4.6 | 🕗 Mon–Sat 8:00am–4:30pm; Sun 9:00am–4:30pm

Opened in May 2025 on the Swain's Lane roundabout — in the sunny, high-ceilinged space that was previously a creamery — this is the biggest and boldest of Sophia Sutton Jones' four North London sites. The hand-laminated croissants are outstanding, produced with the same obsessive care that built the brand's reputation at its Crouch End flagship. Come for the pastries, stay for the communal tables, the outdoor seating, and the genuinely lovely atmosphere. The matcha chocolate slices and spinach and feta swirls are also well worth your attention. A very welcome addition to the Highgate food scene.

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3. Tarn Bakery

📍 83 Hazellville Road, Archway, N19 3NB | ⭐ 4.8 | 🕗 Tues 8:30am–2:00pm; Wed–Fri 8:00am–3:00pm; Sat 9:00am–3:00pm

Small, precise, and quietly thrilling — Tarn Bakery, opened in December 2023 by Florin Grama (ex-Pophams, Flor, St Barts) and Felix Ortona Coles, is the kind of place serious bakers make pilgrimages to. The almond croissants are exceptional — a benchmark example of the form — and the cardamom buns are the sort of thing you think about on the Tube home. Every ingredient is sourced with genuine rigour: UK wheat from Bruern Farms and Gilchesters, dairy from The Estate Dairy, chocolate from Pump Street. The Good Food Guide noticed. You should too.

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4. Astrid Bakery

📍 118A Alexandra Park Road, Muswell Hill, N10 2AH | ⭐ 4.8 | 🕗 Tues–Sun 8:00am–3:00pm

Charlotte O'Kelly swapped a career in fashion journalism for Le Cordon Bleu — and Muswell Hill is all the richer for it. Astrid is tiny, enchanting, and routinely worth queuing for. The pistachio croissants are vivid and extraordinary; the passionfruit meringue croissants are the sort of thing you photograph before you eat. The Italian hot chocolate cruffins are an event in themselves. Charlotte also donates to Magic Breakfast for every breakfast box sold, which makes the whole experience feel even better. One of North London's most exciting bakeries, full stop.

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5. Boulangerie Pierre Alix

📍 222 Muswell Hill Broadway, Muswell Hill, N10 3SH | ⭐ 4.5 | 🕗 Mon–Sat 8:00am–6:00pm; Sun 8:00am–5:00pm

If what you are after is a classically made, properly French croissant — shatteringly crisp, honey-coloured, with that characteristic honeycomb crumb — then Pierre Alix is your answer. The Muswell Hill Broadway boulangerie operates with genuine French technique and a deep respect for tradition. Sourdough baguettes, pain au chocolat, kouign-amann, and a rotating selection of tarts round out a daily programme that would not look out of place a few streets from the Seine. One of the finest boulangeries in outer North London, and consistently among the most popular on the Broadway.

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6. Kossoffs

📍 259 Kentish Town Road, Kentish Town, NW5 2JT | ⭐ 4.6 | 🕗 Mon–Sun 8:00am–6:00pm

The Kossoff name has been in Jewish baking for a century. Aaron Kossoff — fourth-generation great-grandson, Le Cordon Bleu graduate, and former Head Baker at Ottolenghi at the age of 26 — brought it back to life in Kentish Town in 2021, and the result is one of the most compelling bakeries in NW London. The twice-baked hazelnut croissants are the headline act, but the kimcheese claws and miso and chive swirls show a baker who is genuinely thinking. Featured in the Guardian, the Jewish Chronicle, and Time Out, Kossoffs is the kind of place that deserves a detour from anywhere on the Northern line.

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7. Karma Bread

📍 13 South End Road, Hampstead, NW3 2PT | ⭐ 4.2 | 🕗 Daily 7:30am–5:00pm

There is something genuinely warming about a bakery that has been quietly making its neighbourhood better for a decade. Karma Bread, founded in 2015 by Tami Isaacs Pearce on South End Green at the foot of Hampstead Heath, is that bakery. Everything is handcrafted on the premises — pillowy challah, tangy sourdough, authentic New York rye, and a selection of artisan pastries that rewards repeat visits. If you are heading to the Heath for a weekend walk, stopping here on the way back is not optional. It is simply the right thing to do.

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8. Sourdough Sophia Crouch End

📍 24 Middle Lane, Crouch End, N8 8PL | ⭐ 4.7 | 🕗 Daily 8:40am–4:30pm

Where it all began. Sophia Sutton Jones started Sourdough Sophia in her dining room during lockdown in 2020, and the Middle Lane shopfront in Crouch End remains the heart of the operation. The hand-laminated croissants are exceptional — springy, buttery, properly layered — and sit alongside matcha chocolate slices, iced cinnamon buns, and beautifully filled sandwiches that justify the mid-morning queue. Recognised by British Baker among the best small artisan bakeries in the country, and now with four North London sites, the Crouch End original retains all the warmth and precision of a bakery with something to prove.

Visit Sourdough Sophia Crouch End →

What if Getting There Is Not an Option?

The honest truth about the best croissants in Highgate is that most of them sell out before 10am on a Saturday. The queues at Tarn are legendary. Astrid's pistachio croissants rarely survive until noon. And for anyone who works long hours, has young children, or simply cannot fathom leaving the house before the coffee has brewed, the gap between wanting great pastries and actually having them can feel frustratingly wide. It is no coincidence that demand for weekend breakfast delivery in London has grown so significantly over the past few years — people have had a taste of the good stuff and are not willing to go back to the supermarket croissant.

Alongside this, a quieter shift is underway in how people think about where their food comes from. The rise of the bread subscription in London has been driven not just by convenience but by values — a preference for small-batch baking over industrial production, for recyclable packaging over single-use plastic, for bicycle deliveries over diesel vans. The zero-waste bakery model, in which everything is baked to order rather than produced speculatively, is increasingly the gold standard. As artisan sourdough London's reputation continues to grow internationally, the infrastructure to get it to your door sustainably is catching up fast.

Butter & Crust: Artisan Pastries and Sourdough Delivered to Your Door

This is where we come in. Butter & Crust was built around a simple but non-negotiable idea: that the kind of quality you find in the best North London bakeries on a Saturday morning should be available on your doorstep — without the queue, without the 7am dash, and without any waste.

We work with the finest local artisan producers in London to bring you sourdough loaves, croissants, pastries, and breakfast goods baked fresh and delivered by 9am every weekend. In inner London we deliver by bicycle, and everything arrives in fully recyclable packaging — because great bread and a conscience about the planet are not mutually exclusive. Every item in your box is baked to order, which means nothing sits on a shelf and nothing goes to waste.

Our pastry subscription UK customers love the flexibility: pause when you are away, skip a week, or cancel whenever you like — no awkward phone calls, no small print. We currently cover most of London zones 1–3 and are expanding regularly. If you have been searching for a breakfast delivery London service that genuinely meets the standard of the city's best independent bakeries, we would love to introduce ourselves properly.

Consider this our way of saying: brilliant weekend mornings are not just for people who live near Swain's Lane. They are for everyone.

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Sources

Editorial references: Good Food Guide (Tarn Bakery review); Hot Dinners (Tarn Bakery, Astrid Bakery, Sourdough Sophia Highgate); Time Out (Kossoffs); The Guardian (Kossoffs); Jewish Chronicle (Margot Bakery, Kossoffs); Wallpaper (Margot Bakery); Retail Bulletin, December 2025 (Sourdough Sophia); British Baker (Sourdough Sophia Crouch End); Another Country (Sourdough Sophia Highgate).
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