The 13 best desserts in New York City 🍨

A perfect list.

Dessert is my favorite meal. I’m not a “sugar addict” in the fun, silly way my friend described in this text. I am quite literally addicted to sugar.

I crave it seconds after finishing a meal. The same warm high buzzes through my body immediately after a tequila shot, minutes into parking a Zyn in my gums and from the moment a server resets the table with dessert spoons until they come back with the actual desserts. My temples start thumping if I don’t have a bite of something sweet before noon. That rarely happens, though, because every week I get more cake orders and spend all day long baking and tasting tiny spoonfuls of cake batter, meringue and buttercream.

In the morning of my dreams, I’d wake up to a fat square of buttery yellow coffee cake, covered with a layer of sugary cinnamon crumbs even thicker than the layer of cake. But much like a croissant or glazed donut, that’s not dessert. My sugar-riddled brain categorizes all of those things, and any other pastry, as breakfast. Proper desserts are hot fudge sundaes, slices of cream pie, six-ounce cookies, filled and frosted cakes. Proper desserts are what my friend was in search of when she texted me last week. Proper desserts — the very best ones in New York City — are what I’ve compiled a list of today.

There are 13 restaurants, bakeries and ice cream shops on the list. I split it up by places you can have dinner and dessert, and ones that are purely spots for sweets. You’ll notice some bonus desserts, too, because a few of my favorites are seasonal, and some of the restaurants have runner-up desserts that are too special not to mention.

Before you stop reading about the list and start reading the actual list, you should know the order of it is not a ranking. I do not like strict food and restaurant rankings. Chefs leave, menus change, recipes are tweaked, ingredients get swapped out. Some nights I’m in the mood to dress up, take the train to midtown, and eat an expensive, oversized slice of cake in a beautiful restaurant. Other days I just want to eat an ice cream cone while I walk around my neighborhood. So in no particular order, these are my favorite versions of my favorite meal.

My brain all the time 🎂

DINNER & DESSERT

1. Chocolate cream pie | 4 Charles Prime Rib

I know just said this isn’t a ranked list, but if I had to choose my absolute favorite dessert in the city, it’d be this pie. I will never forget sliding my spoon into the quenelle of tangy, cocoa dusted whipped cream and inconceivably thick, silk-like cream filling for the very first time, snapping through the Oreo crust to build a cold, crunchy, deeply chocolate-y bite. I was there with an all-consuming crush, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I was enamored with something else. It really is as decadent as I’ve described it, but I still order a slice every time no matter how full I am, which, if you’ve eaten here, you know is always extremely full.

• Things to know: It’s nearly impossible to get a table here unless you know someone on the inside. This pie is worth hunting someone like that down, or showing up when the restaurant opens at 5pm or checking in very late before they close at 11:30pm. I’ve never tried the latter options because I know someone on the inside, but I have convinced friends with reservations to order me a slice to go. Do whatever you have to do to get your hands on this pie.

2. Malted date shake | Superiority Burger 

Brooks Headley is a rockstar (literally) and a genius. His gelato is the thickest, creamiest I’ve ever tasted, and the flavors are the most interesting and satisfying — corn tortilla and graham cracker are the two I still crave constantly. There are very few things I wouldn’t do to have pints of those flavors in my own freezer. The gelato menu changes every day, but the half pint malted date shake is always available. I don’t know if they even use gelato in the shake, but it tastes like thick, milky coconut gelato got whirled together with chewy, candy-like dates and bright orange zest in one of those Midwest concrete machines. Alternating between sips through the fat straw and bites with the long, dainty sundae spoon is my favorite way to eat this.

• Things to know: The last few times I’ve been here I’ve been able to snag a table easily. If you do have to wait, I’d suggest hanging out at the bar in the back with a drink — I always wait less than my quoted time when I do that. You can also skip dining in and just grab gelato to go. Oh, and there’s always a vegan gelato option, which is as exceptionally creamy as the dairy version.

3. Affogato | Torrisi

This is the newest dessert on the list, and the one I’ve eaten the least (once). It was very special though, and I think about it all the time, so it’s making the cut. An extra large, very cold martini glass shows up layered with creamy vanilla bean-flecked gelato that reminded me of zabaglione, dark chocolate sauce — it’s the perfect texture, somewhere between hot fudge and chocolate syrup — and a pile of cold, crispy espresso granita.

They also bring a plate of complimentary cookies to the table while you wait for the dessert you ordered to show up. I love surprise desserts. My plate had a mint Milano-esque cookie, but softer and chewier, almost like it was made with almond paste. I would have bought a bag of them if I could have.

• Things to know: I’ve got nothing you want to hear. The service is wonderful, the dining room is opulent, even the bread and butter is abnormally delicious. I went for lunch on a Friday thanks to a last minute Resy notification. I tried to walk in another night and was told the waitlist was closed but to come check back with the host in… wait for it… four hours. Godspeed.

4. Far Breton | King

Think: French toast, if you used a slice of thick custard instead of old, dry bread. Bread pudding, without the bread. Crème brûlée-like. But also flan-like. Sometimes it comes studded with some kind of dark fruit — maybe prunes? — that seem to have been stewed long enough to transform into a jammy ripple. It has a crispy, caramelized crust, but hot, custardy innards, and sits in pool of cold cream that the even colder vanilla ice cream it’s served with melds into as you eat it. It’s best to not ask questions about King’s Far Breton, and to just order it if you ever see it on the menu, which is usually in the colder winter months.

• Things to know: You’ll learn over time that I ride or die for King. It’s one of my favorite restaurants. The menu changes every day, so yes, it can be hit or miss. I don’t care, because it has hit so hard for me so many times. If you’re just going for dessert, you can walk in and sit at the bar or ask about a table later in the evening once the dinner crowd has mostly left.

5. Sticky toffee pudding | Dame

I’m sorry, this is another seasonal one. It makes sense, though, you wouldn’t want to eat this on a hot summer night. It’s a dense slice of dark, rich, intense brown sugar and date cake bathing in sweet, boozy toffee sauce and finished with a scoop of tangy crème fraîche and a bunch of salt. It tastes like a very concentrated date — super sweet and sticky — but with a crunchy, cakey texture. If you love caramel you need to eat this.

• Things to know: If you don’t have a reservation, try emailing or DMing the restaurant. The owners are really, really kind and have helped me get a table that way before. They also make a perfect negroni and the tuna tartare toast is showered with bottarga and is one of the best things I’ve ever eaten.

6. The Italian Job | Lilia  

Some of the best vanilla soft serve you’ll ever eat — sweet, deeply vanilla-flavored, thick, custardy texture — grassy olive oil, sticky, floral honey, crunchy sea salt and a pinch of surprisingly savory fennel pollen. All of those ingredients in one bite make for a drug-like combination. It’s absolutely addicting.

• Things to know: Lilia is still pretty difficult to get into. You can always show up when they open and hope there’s a bar seat or outdoor table available, but a line usually starts forming 30 minutes before they even open. The good news is that if you only want soft serve, you can get it to go (even in Italian Job form!) from the caffé all day long.

7. “Holy Cow” hot fudge sundae | Peter Luger’s 

Luger’s is one of my favorite restaurants. Their ice cream sundae is one of my favorite desserts. I won’t be rude right now, but I will say that this week’s food media news was something I’ve been patiently waiting for. The key to the sundae is to sub out the vanilla for coffee ice cream. The vanilla is great — I’m pretty sure they’re both Häagen-Dazs — but the coffee is wonderful. I think it cuts through the sweet, hot fudge and contrasts with the almost-buttery schlag better. I grew up eating here with my grandpa and dad, so nostalgia is definitely playing some kind of role here, but I dare you to eat this sundae at one of those big wooden tables and tell me you didn’t have an incredible time doing it. The apple strudel is also wonderful. Hot little bites of apple, lots of butter and cinnamon, the perfect amount of flaky crust.

I’ll die on the Luger’s hill. Quite frankly, it would be a beautiful place to do so.

• Things to know: Make a reservation, bring cash, order correctly (ask me), go home with your bag of leftover steak and German potatoes too full and very happy.

8. Black cocoa tiramisu | Don Angie

I love this tiramisu. I think Scott and Angie were brilliant to replace wet, soggy ladyfingers with moist, dark chocolate cake. The layer of crunchy, crushed feuilletine cookies still surprises me every time, and the spiked caramel makes me think every tiramisu should replace rum with marsala wine. It’s all topped with a cloud of fluffy mascarpone cream and very good cocoa powder. It kind of looks like the Torrisi affogato, and they’re both reinventions of traditional Italian desserts, but it’s really hard to compare how creative and fun to eat this dessert is to anything else I’ve ever had.

• Things to know: I’m sorry to say I don’t have any tips for you here. Don Angie has been hard to get into since the day the doors opened. The bar is technically for walk ins, though, so you can always try to walk in when they open or check in about availability for drinks and dessert after having dinner somewhere else.

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JUST DESSERT

9. Oatmeal raisin cookie | Levain Bakery

I like raisins, and I think a lot of you guys do too and are just scared to admit that! This is by far, without a doubt, the superior cookie at Levain. I think the oats are blitzed a bit before they get folded into the dough, which gives the cookie a nuttier, more buttery flavor than the others. The exterior is perfectly crisp, and the raisins on top that brown in the oven are sweet and a little crunchy, while the ones trapped in the soft, doughy center stay plump and chewy.

• Things to know: There are Levains everywhere now, even outside of New York. I haven’t clocked a shift in quality since their expansion or even any variation from location to location, so I’d say you’re safe to grab one of these from whichever one is most convenient for you. Thank god!

10. Cookies ‘n panna | Caffè Panna

This is the best ice cream shop in New York. Hands down, no one comes close. Hallie has mastered pairing the purest, creamiest bases — intense dark chocolate sorbet, super smooth pistachio, and the most impressive of all, Oreo — with Ben & Jerry’s style swirls and chunks. To make cookies ‘n panna, the most intense cookies & cream ice cream I’ve ever tasted, she mixes huge scoops of buttery, snappy Oreo brittle into that Oreo ice cream base. It tastes more like an Oreo than an actual Oreo.

• Things to know: The flavors change every day, but cookies ‘n panna is always available, along with a few other classics like the chocolate sorbet and a raspberries & cream with graham crunch flavor called Red Flag. There’s always a line. No, it doesn’t move that fast. Yes, it’s worth waiting on. The soft serve is just as good as the scoops. If you live close enough to take home a pint without it melting on the way, do that.

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11. Cookies & cream, funfetti, & classic cookies | Schmackary's

If I saw these cookies for the first time today, I’d lump them in with Crumbl or Chip City (derogatory). Thankfully I’ve been eating them for a decade, and can tell you they belong in the same league as Levain. The classic chocolate chip's dough tastes so deeply of caramel and is laced with an expertly calculated amount of semisweet chocolate chunks. The cookies & cream cookie has a dark, almost black, salty cocoa base with frosting that tastes exactly like Oreo filling. I think their funfetti cookie is special, too. It reminds me of licking the spatula after making a boxed cake mix. All three flavors have these crispy, buttery edges with unbelievably chewy centers and the perfect amount of salt to cut through the sweet frosting. It’s truly frustrating how perfectly constructed in both texture and flavor they are.

• Things to know: They always have these classic flavors, but the menu also rotates different specials every day, so I always like add something fun onto my order when I'm there. The blue striped boxes are also very cute — bringing 6 or 12 cookies in one of them to a party is a great gift.

12. Carrot cake with walnuts and raisins | Lloyd’s Carrot Cake

I’ve written an ode to Lloyd’s before. I don’t have much more to say about it, it’s just a simple, perfect slice of carrot cake. The cake itself is spicy, the cream cheese frosting is tangy and the sprinkling of raisins and walnuts add the right amount of texture to keep every bite interesting.

• Things to know: There are two locations — one in Riverdale and one in East Harlem on 100th & Lex. The whole cakes are so affordable, the slices are huge.

13. Mississippi mud & sour cream apple walnut pies | Little Pie Company

This Mississippi mud pie is probably the first dessert I fell in love with. My best friend and I would beg our moms to get one for us whenever we’d have a sleepover, and once we were old enough to buy them ourselves, we’d order slices at the counter, warmed up with scoops of vanilla ice cream. It’s so intensely chocolate-y, I’m not even sure what it’s made of — we’ve tried to break it down so many times. The edges are chewy like brownies, but there’s a classic, crunchy Oreo crust on the bottom. The center is some kind of fudge that stays chewy at room temperature but turns into an ultra-thick, hot fudge-like sauce when it’s warmed up. The sour cream apple walnut is simpler. It’s my family’s Thanksgiving apple pie, and it’s ruined every other one for me. The apples are sliced thin and laced with sweet sour cream, and the whole thing is covered in a nutty, crumbly, coffee cake-esque topping. You will not find pies like these anywhere else in the world.

• Things to know: Both of these pies are available at the bakery daily, so no need to preorder or call ahead. They come in adorable mini sizes and bigger ones for sharing. You can also sit at the shop and order a slice to stay, and according to my eyes on that block, there’s a chance you’ll spot Al Pacino and Robert De Niro there doing the same thing.

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If you think I missed something, let’s hear it. If it’s the pistachio bundt or devil’s food cake for two at Claud, that’s because I still haven’t eaten there. I have a feeling at least one would have made this list if I had.

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NEXT WEEK

Next week’s letter will be fun for two reasons. I’m tackling a different (not at all perfect but still special) city. And since I don’t know it the way I know my own, instead of answering a text, I’m sending one around to a bunch of people whose taste and takes I like. Talk to you next Thursday!