Bakery crawls are serious business. There are whole social media accounts dedicated to the art of seeking out the very best places to indulge in flaky pastries, yielding, dreamy cakes, and foodgasm-inducing sausage rolls, scones and pies.
If you’re on a mission to find the next temple of dough to satisfy your cravings, look no further. We’ve rounded up what we think are six of the very best bakeries in the UK right now. These guys take baking to the next level.
 | Lovingly Artisan is a multiple Great British Food Award winner |
Lovingly Artisan, Kendall
Based on the outskirts of Kendall, this bakery is a multiple award-winner – with several Great British Food Awards to its name (alongside others).
What makes the business stand out its ethos around food, and true dedication to using real ingredients and traditional methods, while keeping up pace with modern flavour and format trends.
Owners Aidan (head baker) and Catherine take so much pride in what they do, and love to showcase the beauty of true sourdough.
A point of difference is that they have their own flour mill with full chain traceability, as grains travel just 30 miles from mill to bakery – including ancient Emmer, Einkorn and Spelt.
You simply have to try their Great British Food Award-winning Rye Berry Sourdough, Northern Bliss-Cuits and Ginger & Barley Biscuits.
Others for you list include Chocolate Orange Pain Suisse, scones made with Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese, Heritage White Bloomer, and Marmalade & Ginger Sourdough Bake.
 | The Penny Bun Bakehouse in North Suffolk is renowned for its inventive breads, cakes and pastries, made with a chef's touch |
The Penny Bun Bakehouse (at The Box), Southwold
It’s only open for a few hours every week (until just after lunchtime on a Saturday), and this simply increases the desirability-factor of this bake shop, which pops up at The Box along Southwold High Street.
The man behind it all is Michelin-trained chef Johnny Spillings, who is a fierce champion of local produce, and who brings his expertise in leading kitchens to his approach to bread, patisserie and cakes – offering combinations and flavours that will blow your mind.
There are staples – like North Sea Sourdough, Hodmedod’s Naked Barley & Quinoa Sourdough, Chocolate Bread, English Muffins, and Rustic Baguettes, but also weekly changing offerings that shift with the seasons. Perhaps sausage rolls folded with Cheddar, apple and leek, savoury swirls filled with roasted beetroot, feta, sesame and caramelised onion, Danishes made croque-monsieur style, swirled with pickled chilli, ham, bechamel, grain mustard and Cheddar, and Mirabelle Plum, Cream Cheese & Almond Bostocks. You can also grab produce such as locally reared beef, charcuterie, butter, cheese and honey.
 | Jacka Bakery is one of the oldest bakeries in the UK |
Jacka Bakery, Plymouth
We are so obsessed with this bakery that when we stayed in Royal William Yard, we took a boat around to the historic Barbican to fill our boots on their pastries.
It’s thought to be the oldest bakery in the UK, having provided snacks for the Founding Fathers as they set sail to the New World in 1620.
And while they stick with tradition when it comes to baking properly, from scratch, the team at this small but mighty shop constantly move with the times,
Pop by for a filled creel (croissant wheel), massive doughnuts, sourdough pizzas and bouncy cinnamon whirls with cream cheese frosting.
Our favourite Jacka bake is their pain au chocolat – we simply think it’s the best in the UK. Unlike some, who focus on crispy lamination (which just goes everywhere), Jacka's are the perfect balance of golden outside and soft, plumy, yeasty, dreamy middle, with lots of chocolate. Addictive!
They’ve got some cool deli items on the shelves too.
 | Fortitude Bakery fans can't get enough of their beignets |
Fortitude Bakehouse, London
Dee Rettali and Jorge Fernandez’s bakery is rightly a London institution. At its core is Dee’s love of botanics, real cooking, seasonality, slow baking and letting the ingredients do the talking, with twists and turns through the counter which will take you to France, Italy and even Morocco.
This is heartfelt baking without compromise. Oh, and Jorge’s background, means you know you’ll get a fantastic coffee here as well.
Visit for inventive, glossy pies, stunning Danishes, puffy, irresistible beignets loaded with cream and so much more.
The drinks menu always pushes the boundaries. Recent additions have included peanut milk and caramel latte, and cherry soda with a vanilla oat cold foam.
 | Expect to find some of the longest bakery queues in the UK at Lannan Bakery in Edinburgh - it's definitely worth the wait! |
Lannan Bakery, Edinburgh
It’s incredible to think that when she opened the doors to her bakery in Edinburgh’s leafy Stockbridge neighbourhood in 2023, founder Darcie Maher was self-taught.
She did spend a lot of time going out picking up industry knowledge and skills in restaurants and bakeries across the UK, but there’s no doubting she possesses an almost preternatural skill in the kitchen.
Queues snake around the corner when Lannan’s is open, with some waiting for an hour or more to experience what really are some of the very very best baked goods not just here but in Europe.
We’re talking precision and restraint, seasonality, beauty and exceptional flavour.
What should you pop in your box when you visit? The Pain Suisse are a must, as are Canadian-style Bostocks made not with bread but croissants, Thomas Keller-style Bouchons crafted with buckwheat, brown butter and 46% milk chocolate, the Clementine Jaffa Cake, oh, and as many Cardamom Buns as you can handle.
 | Colour, fun and flavour shape up the offering at Pollen Bakery |
Pollen Bakery, Manchester
Go for the Croissant Butter (holy moly it’s amazing), and stay for brunch, outstanding French toast (they’ve been known to do a trifle topped version), and amazing slow-proved sourdoughs, viennoiserie and cakes.
Foodies from and visiting Manchester will always recommend this place as the best.
You will adore the croissants and pain au chocolat, chunky, beautifully wrapped sandwiches to-go, chiffon cakes and masterful cookies. Who wouldn’t want a Frosted Flake, Brown Butter, Pecan and Toffee Biscuit?
