The Best Sourdough in Notting Hill
Saturday morning in Notting Hill has a particular soundtrack: market stalls unfolding, coffee machines hissing and the soft, increasingly urgent shuffle of people joining a bakery queue. Follow the smell of butter and warm crust around Portobello Road and you’ll find everything from ancient-grain loaves to Swedish cinnamon buns, Japanese milk bread and croissants worth planning your morning around.
Whether you are searching for proper artisan sourdough London can be proud of or simply want breakfast with a little more personality, Notting Hill and its neighbouring streets make an excellent edible wander. Here are the bakeries to know.
The Best Bakeries For Sourdough And Pastries In Notting Hill
1. KURO Bakery
Location: 95 Notting Hill Gate, Notting Hill, London, W11 3JZ
Rating: 4.8/5
Opening hours: Monday–Friday, 8am–4pm; Saturday–Sunday, 8am–5pm
KURO is the place for a pastry that looks almost too polished to eat, though you should make the effort. Its signature Sākuro is a flaky, sugar-dusted croissant roll filled with chocolate or vanilla cream, while the almond croissant has earned serious attention from London food critics. This is a boutique pastry specialist rather than a sprawling bread counter, but the laminated dough is reason enough to make the trip.
2. Layla Notting Hill
Location: 212 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LJ
Rating: 4.7/5
Opening hours: Daily, 8am–4pm
Layla’s Portobello Road bakery is built around wild grains, ancient bread-making and thoughtful seasonal cooking. The menu changes, but expect beautifully made pastries, rhubarb and cardamom combinations, wildfarmed peanut chocolate cookies and sausage rolls made with leftover croissant dough and HG Walter pork. It is clever, generous baking with a waste-conscious streak—and arriving early is very much part of the experience.
3. Fabrique Notting Hill
Location: 212 Portobello Road, Notting Hill, London, W11 1LA
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Daily, 8am–6pm
Also at 212 Portobello Road, Fabrique brings a distinctly Swedish mood to the neighbourhood. Its cinnamon buns are the headline act: soft, fragrant and properly spiced, with a supporting cast of rye bread, brownies, fudge cookies and vegan chocolate slices. The menu is focused rather than enormous, which is usually a good sign when you are after one excellent thing with your coffee.
4. Libby’s
Location: 61a Ledbury Road, London, W11 2AA
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Daily, 8am–4pm
Libby’s makes the case that gluten-free baking should never feel like a compromise. Everything is 100% gluten-free, from sourdough loaves and croissants to cinnamon buns, seasonal pastries and celebration cakes. Created with MasterChef: The Professionals winner Keri Moss, the bakery has also collected three Gold awards at the Free From Food Awards—useful confirmation, but the real proof is in the excellent texture and flavour.
5. Sally Clarke’s Shop
Location: 1 Campden Street, Kensington, London, W8 7EP
Rating: 4.4/5
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday, 7:30am–4pm
A Kensington institution since 1984, Sally Clarke’s Shop combines a bakery with a carefully stocked deli. Its own bakery supplies fresh breads and pastries each day, alongside seasonal produce and artisan ingredients for those who like their breakfast provisions to become lunch, supper and possibly a small dinner party. It is quiet, polished and reassuringly old-fashioned in the best possible way.
6. Layla Bakery
Location: 332 Portobello Road, Ladbroke Grove, London, W10 5PQ
Rating: 4.2/5
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–4pm; Sunday, 8am–3pm
The original Layla Bakery on Portobello Road has become a neighbourhood favourite since opening in 2021. Ancient-grain sourdough, seasonal pastries, sandwiches and sweet treats share the counter, with a menu that shifts according to what is available and worth baking. Come evening, the bakery becomes a natural wine bar, making it one of the few places where a loaf can plausibly lead to a glass of wine.
7. Zeit and Zaatar Shepherd’s Bush
Location: Shepherd’s Bush Market, London, W12 8PP
Rating: 4.6/5
Opening hours: Monday–Saturday, 8am–6pm; Sunday, 8am–5pm
For a change from the classic European bakery run, head to Zeit and Zaatar for manaeesh: hot Levantine flatbreads topped with za’atar, akkawi cheese or sujuk. The sujuk-and-cheese version is the boldest order, combining spiced sausage with molten cheese on a blistered base. It is a distinctive and welcome part of West London’s baking scene.
8. Happy Sky Bakery Shepherd’s Bush
Location: 95 Askew Road, Shepherd’s Bush, London, W12 9AH
Rating: 4.8/5
Opening hours: Friday–Sunday, 9am–3pm
Founded by Motoko McNulty in 2007, Happy Sky is one of London’s longest-established Japanese bakeries. Its Tokyo milk bread is wonderfully soft, while matcha pistachio croissants, yuzu custard tarts, matcha mochi ribbons and chicken katsu sandos make a persuasive case for arriving hungry. It was named one of the UK’s top 49 bakeries by The Times in 2023, but regulars already know the drill: weekend opening hours are limited, so plan accordingly.
What If Getting There Isn’t An Option?
Not every Saturday allows time for a bakery pilgrimage. Sometimes the queue is long, the weather is doing its London best or the small matter of getting children, dogs and yourself out of the front door makes a leisurely pastry hunt feel wildly ambitious. That is why quality at home has become such an appealing part of the breakfast routine.
A good breakfast delivery London service can bring the bakery feeling to the kitchen table, while a bread subscription London makes sure there is a properly fermented loaf waiting when the toast mood strikes. The best options are increasingly built around seasonal baking, sustainable food delivery London and thoughtful logistics, including bike delivery food London rather than another van adding to the morning traffic. For pastry devotees, a pastry subscription UK turns an ordinary weekend into an event; for waste-conscious households, a zero waste bakery London model makes the indulgence feel rather more sensible.
Butter & Crust: Bakery-Worthy Breakfast At Home
If you love the idea of Notting Hill’s best bakeries but do not always love crossing London before breakfast, Butter & Crust is worth knowing. It works with some of the best local artisan producers in London and brings together sourdough, pastries and breakfast goods, delivered by 9am every weekend.
The practical details are pleasingly considered: deliveries travel by bicycle across inner London, arrive in recyclable packaging and are baked to order, so the food is made for the people who have actually ordered it rather than left waiting for a lucky passer-by. That baked-to-order approach also means zero food waste, which is a much nicer feeling than discovering your breakfast has come with an environmental hangover.
Subscriptions are flexible too—you can pause, skip or cancel whenever life changes. Coverage currently includes most of London’s zones 1–3 and is expanding, making it an easy way to enjoy weekend breakfast delivery London without losing the pleasure of excellent bread. For anyone who considers artisan sourdough London a food group in its own right, it is a thoughtful alternative to setting an alarm for a bakery queue.
Sources
- KURO Bakery — Notting Hill, W11 3JZ | kuro-london.com
- Layla Notting Hill — Notting Hill, W11 1LJ | laylabakery.com
- Fabrique Notting Hill — Notting Hill, W11 1LA | fabrique.co.uk
- Libby’s — Notting Hill, W11 2AA | libbys.co
- Sally Clarke’s Shop — Kensington, W8 7EP | sallyclarke.com
- Layla Bakery — Ladbroke Grove, W10 5PQ | laylabakery.com
- Zeit and Zaatar Shepherd’s Bush — Shepherd’s Bush, W12 8PP | Facebook
- Happy Sky Bakery Shepherd’s Bush — Shepherd’s Bush, W12 9AH | happyskylondon.com
Editorial sources: The Times, 2023; London On The Inside; The Nudge; Time Out; Eater London; Butter & Crust.