The best croissants in North Kensington

 The best croissants in North Kensington

The Best Croissants in North Kensington

Saturday morning on Portobello Road has its own soundtrack: market chatter, bus brakes, and the delicate crackle of pastry bags opening before breakfast has properly begun. Follow the smell of butter and warm bread through North Kensington and its neighbouring streets and you will find everything from classic French-style laminations to matcha-filled creations, Scandinavian buns and croissant dough turned into sausage rolls.

Whether you are hunting for the best croissants in North Kensington or planning a more ambitious artisan sourdough London crawl, these are the nearby bakeries worth setting an alarm for. Some open early, some sell out, and one or two are best approached with a flexible itinerary and an appetite.

The Best Croissants Near North Kensington

1. Layla Bakery

Location: Ladbroke Grove, 332 Portobello Road, W10 5PQ
Rating: 4.2/5
Opening hours: Mon–Sat 8am–4pm; Sun 8am–3pm

Layla Bakery is the sort of neighbourhood spot that makes a pastry run feel like a proper outing. Its baking leans into ancient grains, seasonal ingredients and beautifully crafted pastries, alongside sourdough, sandwiches and sweet treats. Come by day for something flaky and seasonal; return by night when the bakery becomes a natural wine bar. It has also earned recognition from Time Out London and Eater London.

Visit Layla Bakery

2. Crazy Baker

Location: Kensal Green, 697A Harrow Road, NW10 5NY
Rating: 4.5/5
Opening hours: Mon–Fri 6am–2pm; Sat 7:30am–4:30pm

For an early start, Crazy Baker is difficult to beat. This long-running bakery and café deli has been making sourdough, country loaves, rolls and pastries on the premises since 2009, with long fermentation at the heart of its bread. It is a genuine Kensal Green institution: practical, welcoming and deeply committed to feeding the neighbourhood well. Local delivery is available too, though the in-store counter is the ideal place to choose breakfast.

Visit Crazy Baker

3. Layla Notting Hill

Location: Notting Hill, 212 Portobello Road, W11 1LJ
Rating: 4.7/5
Opening hours: Daily 8am–4pm

This Portobello Road bakery takes a thoughtful, slightly wild approach to pastry. Its baking centres on wild grains, Wildfarmed flour and seasonal ingredients, with clever ideas such as sausage rolls made from leftover croissant dough and HG Walter pork. Rhubarb cardamom pastries and wildfarmed peanut chocolate cookies show that sustainability here is not an excuse for dullness. Arrive early: the most coveted bakes are known to disappear.

Visit Layla Notting Hill

4. Fabrique Notting Hill

Location: Notting Hill, 212 Portobello Road, W11 1LA
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Daily 8am–6pm

Fabrique brings a distinctly Swedish answer to the pastry question. The Stockholm-born bakery is best known for cinnamon buns, but its compact menu also includes brownies, vegan chocolate slices, fudge cookies and Scandi-style rye bread. The cinnamon buns are the headline act: fragrant, warmly spiced and made for eating while wandering around Notting Hill. It has been featured by Time Out and The Modern House as a notable London destination for cinnamon buns.

Visit Fabrique Notting Hill

5. Libby’s

Location: Notting Hill, 61a Ledbury Road, W11 2AA
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Daily 8am–4pm

Libby’s is a particularly important stop for anyone avoiding gluten, because everything here is 100% gluten-free without treating flavour as an optional extra. The bakery makes croissants, sourdough loaves, cinnamon buns, seasonal pastries and celebration cakes fresh, using serious pastry technique throughout. Its three Gold awards at the Free From Food Awards underline what regulars already know: free-from baking can still be rich, delicate and properly exciting.

Visit Libby’s

6. Zeit and Zaatar Shepherd’s Bush

Location: Shepherd’s Bush Market, W12 8PP
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Mon–Sat 8am–6pm; Sun 8am–5pm

Not every great breakfast bake needs to be crescent-shaped. Zeit and Zaatar specialises in manaeesh, the Levantine flatbreads baked with toppings such as za’atar, akkawi cheese or spiced sujuk sausage. The sujuk and cheese version, with its savoury sausage and molten cheese, is especially compelling when you want something warm, substantial and unapologetically savoury. It is a distinctive bakery presence in Shepherd’s Bush and a welcome change from the usual pastry parade.

Visit Zeit and Zaatar

7. Happy Sky Bakery Shepherd’s Bush

Location: Shepherd’s Bush, 95 Askew Road, W12 9AH
Rating: 4.8/5
Opening hours: Fri–Sun 9am–3pm

Happy Sky is a Japanese bakery with a loyal following and a brilliantly focused weekend menu. Look for soft Tokyo milk bread, matcha pistachio croissants, yuzu custard tarts, matcha mochi ribbons and chicken katsu sandos. Founded in 2007, it is one of London’s longest-established Japanese bakeries, and The Times named it among the UK’s top 49 bakeries in 2023. A Friday-to-Sunday opening schedule only adds to the feeling that this is a special weekend mission.

Visit Happy Sky Bakery

8. KURO Bakery

Location: Notting Hill, 95 Notting Hill Gate, W11 3JZ
Rating: 4.8/5
Opening hours: Mon–Fri 8am–4pm; Sat–Sun 8am–5pm

KURO is for the serious laminated-pastry enthusiast. Its almond croissant has attracted plenty of critical praise, while the signature Sākuro takes the familiar croissant roll in a more indulgent direction, filling it with chocolate or vanilla cream and finishing it with a flaky, sugar-dusted exterior. It is compact, polished and very good at creating the sort of pastry that has you considering a second one before finishing the first.

Visit KURO Bakery

What If Getting There Isn’t an Option?

There is a particular pleasure in a bakery walk, but not every Saturday morning allows for a pastry pilgrimage. The growing appeal of artisan breakfast delivery London makes perfect sense: quality bread and pastries arrive at home while the coffee is brewing, rather than after a cross-London journey involving three changes and one suspiciously damp platform.

It also reflects a wider shift towards more thoughtful food systems. Sustainable food delivery London is increasingly about short routes, recyclable packaging and better planning, while the zero waste bakery London model means baking to order rather than guessing how many loaves might sell. For regular breakfast people, a bread subscription London or pastry subscription UK can be an easy way to keep excellent baking in the week without creating unnecessary waste. And when it arrives by bike, bike delivery food London feels considerably more appealing than another van idling outside the door.

Butter & Crust: Bakery Favourites, Delivered

If you love the idea of a bakery crawl but would rather enjoy the results at home, Butter & Crust is a very good compromise. The service works with some of London’s best local artisan producers, bringing together sourdough, pastries and breakfast goods for delivery by 9am every weekend.

There is a practical charm to the model: inner-London orders travel by bicycle, packaging is recyclable, and everything is baked to order to help achieve zero food waste. Subscriptions are flexible too, so you can pause, skip or cancel whenever life gets in the way of your ideal breakfast plans. Coverage currently reaches most of London’s Zones 1–3 and is expanding, making weekend breakfast delivery London much easier to organise.

For anyone who wants excellent bread without remembering which bakery opens when, it is a thoughtful way to bring the best of artisan baking closer to the kitchen table.

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