The Best Croissants in London: Flaky, Buttery, and Worth Every Queue

Saturday morning, somewhere in East London. The overground has barely started running, and there's already a queue snaking past the bins and out onto the pavement. Nobody looks annoyed. Everyone knows exactly why they're there: a warm, shatteringly crisp croissant that will make the rest of the weekend feel entirely justified. The pursuit of a great croissant has quietly become one of London's defining food rituals — and rightly so. The city's artisan baking scene has exploded over the past decade, and weekend breakfast delivery London-wide has never felt more exciting. These are the ten best places to find a genuinely exceptional croissant in London right now.

The 10 Best Croissants in London

1. KURO Bakery — Notting Hill

Zone 2 · Notting Hill Gate tube · Mon–Fri 8am–4pm; Sat–Sun 8am–5pm · Google: 4.8 ★

If you have only one croissant destination to visit in West London, make it KURO. This boutique pastry specialist on Notting Hill Gate has built a quiet but fierce reputation for exquisite laminated pastries — and their almond croissant is consistently cited among the very finest in the capital. The signature Sākuro, a croissant roll filled with chocolate or vanilla cream and encased in a flaky, sugar-dusted exterior, is the item that draws repeat visits and genuinely earns them. Precise, beautiful, and hard to find a rival for.

2. Pophams Bakery — Islington

Zone 1 · Prebend Street, N1 · Mon–Fri 7:30am–4pm; Sat 8am–4pm; Sun 8:30am–4pm · Google: 4.7 ★

Founded by Ollie Gold and Lucy McWhirter in April 2017 on a quiet side street in Islington, Pophams changed the conversation around viennoiserie in London almost overnight. The bacon and maple syrup croissant remains the stuff of legend — its combination of salty, sweet, and intensely buttery lamination is genuinely difficult to improve upon — while the marmite and cheddar twist has its own devoted following. From this tiny original shopfront, which transforms into a simple Italian restaurant four evenings a week, Pophams remains the gold standard for inventive artisan pastry in North London. Good Food Guide Top 50, 2025. Arrive early.

3. Hart & Lova Bakery — Kilburn

Zone 2 · Belsize Road, NW6 · Wed–Sun 7:30am–5pm · Google: 4.7 ★

Hart & Lova is the passion project of Andrea Hartlova and master baker Nicolas Juaneda, and it is one of NW London's most quietly brilliant bakeries. Their French-style croissants are widely acclaimed as the finest in the area — deeply layered, properly honeyed in colour, with that essential shattering quality in the outer shell and a yielding, pillowy interior. A 4.7 Google rating from over 738 reviewers is a genuine measure of consistent quality over time, and the morning queues from across Kilburn suggest the word has long since spread beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

4. Happy Sky Bakery — Fitzrovia / Oxford Street

Zone 1 · Hanway Street, W1T · Mon–Sat 10am–4pm; Sun 10:30am–4pm · Google: 4.7 ★

The matcha pistachio croissant at Happy Sky Bakery's Oxford Street outpost — opened in late 2024 on Hanway Street near Tottenham Court Road — is one of the most distinctive pastries in Central London. Founded by Motoko McNulty in 2007 and named one of the UK's top 49 bakeries by The Times in 2023, Happy Sky brings Japanese baking traditions to bear on the classic French form with remarkable results. The Tokyo milk bread and yuzu custard tarts draw their own following, but it's those vibrantly flavoured croissants that make this feel like a genuinely new kind of viennoiserie destination.

5. TOAD Bakery — Camberwell

Zone 2 · Peckham Road, SE5 · Tue–Sat 8am–3pm · Google: 4.7 ★

Founded by Rebecca Spaven and Oliver Costello — alumni of Ottolenghi and Fortitude Bakehouse — TOAD is one of SE London's most exciting and accomplished independent bakeries. Set in an open-plan kitchen on Peckham Road where you can watch the lamination happening in real time, TOAD produces an ever-changing seasonal programme of immaculate pastries: chocolate croissants, cinnamon buns, roast pork and cheddar croissants, seasonal fruit danishes. The sourdough is made from UK-grown, sustainably farmed grain, and every item on the counter reflects the founders' fine-dining backgrounds without feeling fussy. Good Food Guide Top 50 and British Baker Baker's Dozen 2024 — both well deserved.

6. Comptoir Bakery — Bermondsey

Zone 1 · Bermondsey Street, SE1 · Tue–Fri 7:30am–4pm; Sat 7:30am–5pm; Sun 8am–4pm · Google: 4.6 ★

Trained under Cyril Lignac-school baker Boris Letuppe, the team at Comptoir have turned their Bermondsey Street flagship into one of the capital's most reliably excellent French patisserie destinations. The laminated croissants here are widely considered among the best in London — properly made, with the kind of technical precision that speaks of serious training — and the pain au chocolat and seasonal fruit danishes are equally accomplished. Sourdough baguettes, baking classes, and a warm, neighbourhood-focused atmosphere round out a genuinely exceptional offer in SE1.

7. Yeast Bakery — London Fields

Zone 2 · Sheep Lane, E8 · Wed–Fri 8am–4pm; Sat–Sun 9am–4pm · Google: 4.6 ★

Yeast Bakery is one of London's best-kept secrets — a canal-side railway arch unit opposite Regent's Canal in London Fields that has been producing some of the finest hand-laminated pastries in the city since 2011. Founded with a singular obsessive purpose — to perfect the croissant — Yeast operates a direct-to-customer model and supplies several top London restaurants with the same pastries available over the counter on Wednesday to Sunday. The seasonal flavours are vivid and genuinely exciting; the kouign amann is outstanding. The setting, with canal boats gliding past the arches in the morning light, makes the whole experience feel quietly magical.

8. Pophams Bakery — London Fields

Zone 2 · Richmond Road, E8 · Mon–Fri 7:30am–4pm; Sat 8am–4pm; Sun 8:30am–4pm · Google: 4.6 ★

The second Pophams location on Richmond Road brings the celebrated Islington pastry programme to E8 with every bit of the quality intact. The Saturday morning croissant queue here is as much a fixture of the neighbourhood as the market itself, and for good reason — the bacon and maple syrup croissant, the marmite and cheddar twists, and the ever-rotating seasonal specials are all available with the same obsessive standards as the Islington original. The Good Food Guide 2025 Top 50 listing is shared by the whole Pophams group, and this London Fields site is widely regarded as one of the finest croissant bakeries in the UK. The café doubles as an Italian pasta restaurant on select evenings.

9. Arôme Bakery — Marylebone

Zone 1 · Duke Street, W1U · Tue–Fri 8:30am–5:30pm; Sat 9am–6pm; Sun 9am–4pm · Google: 4.6 ★

Named the number one bakery in Time Out London's 2025 list, Arôme has established itself as one of the most talked-about pastry destinations in Central London. The Marylebone location, just off Oxford Street, offers the same acclaimed French-Asian repertoire as the original — and the miso croissant in particular has become something of a London landmark. The marriage of Japanese umami depth with classic French lamination is not a gimmick; it is a genuinely brilliant flavour combination that makes Arôme feel like the future of the London croissant. The honey butter toast and seasonal bakes are equally compelling.

10. Don't Tell Dad — Queen's Park

Zone 2 · Lonsdale Road, NW6 · Mon–Sun 8am–4pm · Google: 4.5 ★

Opened in January 2025 by Coco di Mama founder Daniel Land in memory of his late sister Lesley, Don't Tell Dad is one of NW London's most emotionally resonant and technically accomplished new openings. Head Baker Keren Sternberg, formerly at Layla, brings serious lamination skills to a savoury croissant programme that is among the most inventive in the city. The open kitchen makes the baking feel immediate and alive, and the madeleines — already considered some of London's best — are worth a visit all on their own. Michelin Guide listed for 2025 and featured in Wallpaper and Country & Town House, this is a bakery built on genuine craft and genuine feeling.

What if getting there isn't an option?

London's artisan baking scene has never been richer — but for all the city's brilliant bakeries, the reality is that most of us don't live within easy walking distance of a railway arch producing hand-laminated pastries at 7am. The queues are real, the sold-out signs appear early, and on a grey Saturday morning when the idea of a long tube journey feels less appealing than staying under the duvet, the gap between wanting exceptional pastry and actually getting it can feel frustratingly wide. It's precisely this tension that has driven the rapid growth in artisan bread subscription and pastry subscription UK services — a model built on the straightforward idea that weekend breakfast should be genuinely special, and it should come to you.

What's changed most noticeably in recent years is the ambition of the delivery model itself. The best breakfast delivery London operations have moved far beyond the supermarket-bread-in-a-box era, building supply chains with serious artisan producers and solving the logistical puzzle of getting freshly baked goods to the door before the morning coffee is even brewed. Alongside that, a growing number of these services have committed to sustainable food delivery London-wide — using bicycle couriers, recyclable packaging, and bake-to-order models that eliminate food waste entirely. The result is something genuinely new: artisan quality, zero waste, delivered by bike delivery food London has slowly been building toward for years.

Butter & Crust: Exceptional Weekend Pastry, Delivered

This is where Butter & Crust comes in — and it's worth being direct about why we think it deserves a place in the same conversation as the bakeries listed above. Butter & Crust partners with the finest local artisan producers in London to deliver sourdough, croissants, and breakfast goods directly to your door by 9am every weekend. Everything is baked to order — which means zero food waste, no day-old pastries, nothing sitting on a shelf waiting for a customer. Inner London deliveries are made by bicycle, all packaging is fully recyclable, and the whole operation runs on a flexible subscription basis: pause, skip, or cancel whenever you like, with no awkward conversations required.

For anyone who has stood in a Saturday morning queue and thought there must be a better way — or for those who simply live too far from the nearest railway arch turning out world-class laminated pastry — a bread subscription London can solve the problem rather neatly. Butter & Crust currently covers most of London zones 1–3, with coverage expanding regularly. If weekend mornings matter to you — and after reading this far, we suspect they do — it's worth exploring what lands on your doorstep.

Explore Butter & Crust weekend breakfast delivery

Sources

KURO Bakery — Notting Hill, W11 3JZ | kuro-london.com
Pophams Bakery — Islington, N1 8PF | pophamsbakery.com
Hart & Lova Bakery — Kilburn, NW6 4AA | hartandlova.com
Happy Sky Bakery — Fitzrovia / Oxford Street, W1T 1UJ | happyskylondon.com
TOAD Bakery — Camberwell, SE5 8PX | toadbakery.com
Comptoir Bakery — Bermondsey, SE1 3UB | comptoirbakery.co.uk
Yeast Bakery — London Fields, E8 4QS | yeastbakery.com
Pophams Bakery — London Fields, E8 3NJ | pophamsbakery.com
Arôme Bakery — Marylebone, W1U 1LE | marylebone-london.uk
Don't Tell Dad — Queen's Park, NW6 6RD | donttelldad.co.uk

Editorial sources: Good Food Guide 2025 · Time Out London Best Bakeries 2025 · British Baker Baker's Dozen 2024 & 2025 · The Times Top UK Bakeries 2023 · Michelin Guide London 2025