The Best Pastries in Highgate

The Best Pastries in Highgate

The Best Pastries in Highgate: Eight Brilliant Bakeries Worth Getting Out of Bed For

There is a particular kind of Saturday morning magic that happens at the top of a hill. The air is sharper, the light arrives at an angle that makes everything look a little more cinematic, and somewhere — if you follow your nose — there is a tray of almond croissants coming out of an oven. Highgate has always had something of a village atmosphere, a neighbourhood that wears its elevation with quiet pride, and in recent years its bakery scene has grown to match that ambition. Whether you are after laminated pastry that shatters on contact, a sourdough loaf with serious crust, or something inventive enough to stop you scrolling and make you put the phone down — this corner of North London is increasingly delivering the goods. And with weekend breakfast delivery in London becoming genuinely world-class, you no longer even need to leave the house to access it. But let's start with the walk.

The Best Pastry Spots in and Around Highgate

1. Margot Bakery Highgate

📍 373 Archway Road, Highgate, N6 4EJ | ⭐ 4.6 | 🕗 Daily 8:00am – 4:00pm | Nearest Station: Highgate (Northern Line)

If you only go to one bakery in N6 this weekend, make it this one. Michelle Eshkeri's Margot Bakery has built a genuine cult following across North London, and the Highgate outpost on Archway Road brings all of that expertise — and all of that warmth — to the local community. The Jewish baking heritage here is worn lightly but felt deeply: a beautifully braided challah alongside sourdough loaves with real backbone, babka that is sticky and perfectly spiced, bear claws, and almond croissants that regularly prompt long queues and not a single complaint. The cinnamon buns are indulgent in exactly the right way. Featured in Wallpaper and the Jewish Chronicle, and rightly so.

Visit Margot Bakery →

2. Sourdough Sophia Highgate

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

Opened in May 2025 on the Swain's Lane roundabout — occupying the old Creamery ice cream site, which feels like a very pleasing upgrade — this is Sourdough Sophia's largest and most ambitious space yet. Sophia Sutton Jones started this micro-bakery empire in her dining room during lockdown in 2020, and the Highgate West Hill shop feels like a genuine arrival: communal dining tables, outdoor seating, a children's play area, and a full counter of hand-laminated croissants, matcha chocolate slices, spinach and feta swirls, and sourdough loaves that are genuinely difficult to walk past. Featured in Hot Dinners and Another Country, and already drawing a crowd that suggests the neighbourhood has been waiting for exactly this.

Visit Sourdough Sophia →

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 | Nearest Station: Archway (Northern Line)

One of the most exciting small-batch bakeries to open in North London in years, Tarn arrived in December 2023 courtesy of Florin Grama — formerly of Pophams and Flor, and St Barts — and Felix Ortona Coles. The tiny shopfront on the Archway/Highgate border operates a short week, which only adds to the sense of occasion. The sourcing here is extraordinary: UK wheat from Bruern Farms and Gilchesters, dairy from The Estate Dairy, chocolate from Pump Street. You feel all of that care in every bite — the sourdough loaves have a depth of flavour that is hard to find, the cardamom buns are fragrant and generous, and the almond croissants are among the finest in North London. Good Food Guide reviewed, and already spoken about in the same breath as London's very best bakeries.

Visit Tarn Bakery →

4. Astrid Bakery

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

Charlotte O'Kelly was a fashion journalist before she retrained at Le Cordon Bleu and opened a tiny bakery in Muswell Hill — and if that sounds like the kind of origin story that belongs in a film, the pastries are equally cinematic. Morning queues form reliably outside the shopfront for pistachio croissants, passionfruit meringue croissants, Italian hot chocolate cruffins, and seasonal danishes that change with genuine creativity. What makes Astrid particularly lovely is that Charlotte donates to Magic Breakfast charity for every breakfast box sold — so the croissant does a little extra good on its way to you. Featured in Hot Dinners, and one of the most warmly regarded neighbourhood bakeries in the whole of North London.

Visit Astrid Bakery →

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 | Nearest Station: Alexandra Palace (rail)

There are French bakeries and then there are proper boulangeries — the kind where the technique is evident before you have even made your choice. Pierre Alix's beautifully appointed shop on Muswell Hill Broadway is firmly in the latter category. Sourdough baguettes with a proper crust, croissants and pain au chocolat made with genuine Parisian rigour, kouign-amann that manages to be simultaneously crisp, caramelised, and yielding, and a selection of tarts that changes with the seasons. The butter-scented air as you walk in is, in itself, reason enough to make the trip. One of the finest boulangeries in outer North London, and increasingly recognised as such.

Visit Boulangerie Pierre Alix →

6. Kossoffs

📍 259 Kentish Town Road, Kentish Town, NW5 2JT | ⭐ 4.6 | 🕗 Mon–Sun 8:00am – 6:00pm | Nearest Station: Kentish Town (Northern Line / London Overground)

A hundred-year-old baking dynasty, revived by fourth-generation great-grandson Aaron Kossoff — Le Cordon Bleu graduate, former Ottolenghi Head Baker at 26, and one of the most genuinely inventive bakers working in London right now. The Kentish Town shopfront is the spiritual home of a family that has been feeding North London for generations, and the menu reflects both that heritage and Aaron's contemporary ambition: sourdough loaves and artisan breads sit alongside miso and chive swirls, twice-baked hazelnut croissants, and kimcheese claws that feel entirely of this moment. Featured in the Guardian, Time Out, and the Jewish Chronicle, and rightly considered one of the city's most exciting bakery openings of recent years.

Visit Kossoffs →

7. Karma Bread

📍 13 South End Road, Hampstead, NW3 2PT | ⭐ 4.2 | 🕗 Daily 7:30am – 5:00pm | Nearest Station: Hampstead Heath (London Overground)

Sitting at the foot of Hampstead Heath on South End Green, Karma Bread has been a neighbourhood anchor since founder Tami Isaacs Pearce opened it in 2015. Everything is handcrafted on-site, rooted in Jewish baking tradition: pillowy challah, tangy sourdough, and New York rye with genuine character — the kind of loaf that makes a very ordinary Tuesday sandwich feel like something worth paying attention to. The pastries and specialty cakes rotate with the seasons, and the warmth of the place is as consistent as the bread. A second location at Brent Cross Town has followed, but South End Green remains the heart of it.

Visit Karma Bread →

8. Sourdough Sophia Crouch End

📍 24 Middle Lane, Crouch End, N8 8PL | ⭐ 4.7 | 🕗 Daily 8:40am – 4:30pm | Nearest Station: Crouch Hill (Overground)

The flagship — where it all began, in Sophia Sutton Jones' dining room during lockdown 2020, and now a proper shopfront on Middle Lane that has anchored itself firmly in the Crouch End food landscape. The sourdough loaves are exceptional, the hand-laminated croissants are made with the care that comes from knowing your craft, and the iced cinnamon buns, matcha chocolate slices, and spinach and feta swirls have all acquired devoted followings of their own. Named among British Baker's best small artisan bakeries, and the original proof that a very good idea, started at home, can quietly become something remarkable.

Visit Sourdough Sophia Crouch End →

What if Getting There Isn't an Option?

The thing about living in a city with this much genuinely brilliant baking is that — on a grey Sunday morning, with no particular intention of putting on shoes — a walk to Archway or Muswell Hill can feel like a significant undertaking. And this is, in part, why the demand for quality breakfast delivery in London has grown so steadily and so meaningfully over the past few years. It is not laziness, exactly. It is more that people have raised their standards — they have tasted what a proper almond croissant can be, they have bought a sourdough loaf that lasted three days and tasted better on day two — and they are not willing to return to supermarket alternatives. A bread subscription or pastry subscription in the UK is no longer a niche indulgence; it is the sensible choice for anyone who cares about what they eat in the morning.

The shift toward sustainable models has been just as significant. The best artisan operations are baking to order, cutting food waste entirely, delivering by bicycle through inner London, and packaging everything in materials that do not make you feel guilty about opening them. The zero waste bakery ethos that was once a selling point has become, for a growing number of Londoners, an expectation — and the services that have built their model around it are the ones earning the most loyal customers.

Butter & Crust: Great Pastries, Delivered to Your Door

If the list above has you slightly envious of people who live closer to Hazellville Road or Middle Lane — or if Saturday mornings consistently get away from you before you make it to the bakery — then Butter & Crust is worth knowing about. We work with the finest artisan producers in London to bring sourdough, pastries, and breakfast goods to your door by 9am every weekend, which is, honestly, the civilised hour at which these things should arrive.

In inner London we deliver by bicycle, which means no vans, no unnecessary emissions, and a slightly better Sunday morning for everyone involved. Everything is packed in recyclable materials, and — this is the part that matters most — everything is baked to order. There is no surplus, no waste, no tray of croissants that didn't quite find a home. Just the thing you ordered, made for you, arriving when it should.

The subscription is genuinely flexible: pause it when you go away, skip a week when life requires it, cancel if you must (though in our experience, people rarely do). We cover most of London zones 1–3 and are expanding — so if you are on the edges, it is worth checking. For anyone who has ever stood in a bakery queue at 8am on a Saturday and thought "I would like this to happen at home, without the standing" — this is that, done properly. Whether you are after a pastry subscription delivered across the UK or a regular weekend breakfast delivery in London, we've got you covered.

👉 Explore Butter & Crust subscriptions

Sources

Editorial sources:

  • Good Food Guide — Tarn Bakery review
  • Hot Dinners — Tarn Bakery, Astrid Bakery, Sourdough Sophia Highgate features
  • Wallpaper — Margot Bakery feature
  • Jewish Chronicle — Margot Bakery and Kossoffs features
  • The Guardian — Kossoffs feature
  • Time Out — Kossoffs feature
  • Another Country — Sourdough Sophia Highgate feature
  • Retail Bulletin — Sourdough Sophia, December 2025
  • British Baker — Sourdough Sophia Crouch End, best small artisan bakeries
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