The 16 Best Bakeries In Los Angeles, Ranked

Even though Los Angeles has long been known for its general aversion to all things carbohydrate, this city (which the New York Times once called "gluten's Heart of Darkness") has a hidden love affair, and that affair is dusted with flour. Some of the best bakeries in the country are in Los Angeles and the proximity to incredible local farms mean that bakers often showcase the best the state has to offer in tasty, flaky treats. 

This is by no means an exhaustive ranking of all bakeries in Los Angeles. We would need to compile a list of thousands of bakeries to truly rank them all. Instead, this is a ranking of some of the most popular and notable bakeries around the city. Some serve plates of food as well as pastries, some have both bread and patisserie, and some focus on one type of specialty. You can't really go wrong with any of the bakeries on this list, but if you find yourself seeking something truly sensational, let this ranking be your guide.

Depending on what neighborhood you're in, shops selling fluffy Mexican pan dulces and conchas could be on every block or few and far between. La Monarca opened its first location in 2006 with a simple mission: Bring traditional Mexican pastries to otherwise barren corners of L.A. and give back to the community while doing it. The business-minded owners have grown the chain to include twelve locations around the city and are quickly expanding the empire to include shippable boxed and bagged items like cafe de olla and Mexican wedding cookies.

The most popular items at the bakery are the mini conchas and taquitos, rolled puff pastry stuffed with guava and cheese or dulce de leche. In a city full of croissants that cost $5 (or more), it's refreshing to find one so good for just $1.75. The place can tend to feel a little sterile and devoid of that touch of homey warmth you can find at non-chain panaderias, but you might have to make a long trek to find one of those.

Pastry goddess Nicole Rucker knows her way around a rolling pin. The decadent pies she serves at Fat + Flour are nothing short of heavenly. Her menu changes seasonally and highlights local produce. In winter you'll see options like lemon blood orange meringue or passion fruit tangerine and summer brings pies full of stone fruit and berries. In addition to the pies, there are a few stacks of cookies (our favorites are the bourbon chocolate pecan and lemon lavender) and brownies.

The only thing that keeps us from frequenting this establishment more is the location inside Grand Central Market in downtown L.A., where parking is notoriously difficult, to say the least. Keep an eye on the bakery's Instagram, where Rucker sometimes announces pop-ups and events where she will be slinging pies out of her adorable truck. You can also grab a slice of her killer key lime pie at Found Oyster in East Hollywood.

The menu is small and the lines are long, but that doesn't change the fact that the bread and pastries at Proof Bakery are some of the best in the city. This employee-owned bakery is located in Atwater Village in a space that has housed a bakery of some kind since the 1960s, so patisserie is practically baked into the floorboards. In addition to pastries and bread, Proof has a daily rotation of sandwiches, both vegan and not, piled high with seasonal toppings.

Even though everything tastes amazing, we have to dock points for a lack of creativity in some of the menu offerings. While the croissants are technically perfect, there isn't really a reason to stand in line for these particular ones when more than a dozen other bakeries on the Eastside of L.A. have nearly identical versions. Plus, we've cruised by in the afternoon only to find the case bare of everything but a few pre-packaged cookies enough times to prioritize other spots.

Los Angeles is a city where cuisines meld and merge to produce something entirely new. Founders Nick Montgomery and Akira Akuto opened Konbi with a desire to combine French and Japanese cooking styles paired with seasonal California produce. The two cuisines (both known globally for a serious commitment to gastronomy) blend harmoniously and make Konbi a truly standout bakery. The original location on Sunset now offers a present traditional Japanese breakfast to round out the whole experience.

While the pastries are sensational, it's the unbelievably light and fluffy milk bread used for the egg salad sandwich that rocketed this cafe to viral stardom and spurred Los Angeles residents to line up around the block. Egg salad sandwich sold out for the day? "Settle" for a twice-baked croissant stuffed with rhubarb jam and sesame frangipane or a brown butter citrus pound cake. The croissants are solid, but nothing you couldn't get at a dozen other bakeries around town. 

There's a reason that of all the bakeries in L.A., it's Porto's Bakery boxes you will see people sending through the TSA scanner at LAX. Porto's is a Los Angeles institution, a Cuban bakery and cafe that has been family owned and operated since opening. The menu has changed over time to reflect the customer base, but a solid core of traditional Cuban dishes and pastries has always been the main draw.

The pastry racks are lined with a truly overwhelming amount of options (over 100 different items most days). Guava strudel, pineapple empanadas, churro croissants, ham croquettes, fried potato balls stuffed with spiced ground meat — there's a bit of everything and all of it is awesome. There is no other bakery in town that has Cuban pastries that are this good, which is why you'll see a line snaking down the block at any one of the six Southland locations any day of the week.

The moment we first walked into the Superba Food + Bread location in Hollywood, we felt a little like someone had been reading our diary. How else would someone know how to take all the elements we most desire in both a bakery and restaurant and turn them into one incredible concept that fits the mood no matter what time of day? At Superba, you can drop by for a quick Danish and coffee, linger over a silky pasta with a chilled glass of white wine, or pick up provisions for a happy hour spread at home.

While the sit-down restaurant at Superba is amazing and not to be missed, the bakery case always manages to catch our eye with its appetizing treats and loaves of crusty bread. There's nothing particularly revolutionary about the types of pastries but sometimes it's better to be simple yet solid than to try to push the envelope and miss the mark.

There's a reason why République was recently named in the top five best restaurants in the city by the Los Angeles Times, even after almost 10 years in business. In a town (and era) where trendy restaurants come and go just to be replaced by the next hip concept, enduring favorites remain popular due to truly outstanding service and quality. Both are true for République, a restaurant and bakery where one truly cannot go wrong when ordering.

From the early morning hours to the mid-afternoon, pastries fill the case with options that range from traditional to boundary-pushing. Perfectly flaky kouign-amanns, creamy cannelés de Bourdeaux, and fluffy layer cakes showcase a mastery of the classics, while intriguing inventions like a black sesame eclair or a coconut yuzu doughnut reveal the true creativity of pastry chef and part-owner Margarita Manzke. Come early for the full selection, as options start to thin as the day runs on.

If there is a blueprint for the perfectly effortless Southern California all-day cafe, Gjusta surely drew it. Yes, you may wait an hour before you can actually enter the inside of the establishment (and who knows how long after before you actually get your food), but it will be worth it in the end no matter what you order. In a town like Los Angeles where everyone is dialed into the best restaurants and apparently no one has to work at 2 p.m. on a Wednesday, a place without a line is typically a red flag.

Gjusta has a bit of everything, and absolutely everything is worth trying. The loaves of crusty bread are some of the best in the city and pair particularly well with the case full of smoked and cured meats, which are offered freshly sliced. While Gjusta is so much more than a bakery, the baked goods are a huge draw and typically what keeps people coming back again and again.