The Best New Bakeries to Spend Your Dough At

London’s bakery scene has got to be one of the best in the world right now. As well as an abundance of croissants and sourdough, there are bakeries doing everything from Italian maritozzi to Japanese milk bread and pretty much everything in between. The weekend pastry run has become a ritual (bonus points if you literally run to the bakery) and bagging goods from Toad or Chatsworth Bakehouse before they sell out is a social flex. And we clearly can’t get enough because as well as all of these brill bakeries, new ones just keep on coming. These are the bakeries to get to now before the queues really build up.

At Canary Wharf spot Cafe Seek, founders Pinky and Emily fuse French pastry techniques with Japanese flavours, creating bakes like miso ham & cheese rolls, corn soup buns, mango mochi cakes and mentaiko egg omelette baguettes.

Pa Modou has built a following in Clapton and Walthamstow for bakes and pastries that blend flavours from West Africa to Asia, like mango-glazed croissants, mango & pistachio danishes, cashew croissants and sesame & miso white chocolate cookies. He’s just opened a third Suba in Spitalfields, so there’s plenty to go around.

Michael Kwan, former Executive Pastry Chef at The Dorchester, has opened his own bakery Onsu, which blends his Asian background with classic European techniques. Find black sesame doughnuts, salted egg yolk mille-feuille, hojicha milk puddings, popcorn & miso caramel Paris-Brests and wagyu beef curry buns inside.

Husband-and-wife team Umar and Nargis have turned an old garage in Leyton into a Middle Eastern bakery and coffee house. Head down for banana brûlée danishes, chai & orange buns, and coffee you actually want to sip.

A second outpost of Fred Bakery, founded in 2021 in Holborn, has just opened off Oxford Street. The split-level site is looking very Parisian and très chic, with cafe curtains, dark wood, and marble counters. The bakes – we’re talking ham & cheese suisse, apple crumble danishes and mortadella panini – are just as good.

Popping up in Marylebone for the year, Clover is turning out focaccia slabs in some really interesting flavours, like brie, roasted grapes and rosemary; raspberry jam and vanilla glaze; and triple garlic. Don’t sleep on the cinnamon buns and the pies either.

As well as making plant-based milks and spreads, Okja also has a vegan bakery in Spitalfields (plus two in South Africa). There’s cookies and croissants on offer but the swirls are the real star – flavours include pistachio, lemon poppy seed, frangipane and choco hazel.

This Islington cafe may be best known for its matcha but it’s also doing some mega buns. Whether it’s cardamom and cream cheese, dulce de leche crumble cinnamon or strawberry matcha, they taste as good as they look.

Altamura is bringing a slice of Puglia to Shoreditch. Breads are a speciality, with focaccia, pane d’Altamura and olive loves on offer, plus great sandwiches. And if you want something sweet, you’ve got a choice of filled buns and brioche.

French-Asian bakery Arôme has become one of the most popular bakeries in town, thanks to its pistachio chocolate escargots and honey butter toasts, and word on the street is that it’s opening a third site in Chinatown this spring – watch this space.

After growing Astrid into a Muswell Hill must-visit – you need to try the croissant cups and stripy chocolatines – owner Charlotte O’Kelly turned her production kitchen just up the road into Astrid Atelier, so there are even more bakes to go around.

Akayo Takei has been popping up with her French-Japanese bakery Kichiya at markets across London, and now she’s opening her very own shop in London Fields. That means you’ll have a permanent place to get her matcha shortbread, black sesame sablé, yuzu carrot cake and Mont Blanc dorayaki.