For a little taste of Cuba in Houston, head straight to Azucar on Westheimer. The coffee is strong and the desserts are sweet. It’s azucar, after all. “If you like sugar, you’re in the right place,” owner Francisco Moctezuma says.

At Azucar, more than 80 unique products are baked fresh daily, including specialties like capuchino, spongy yellow cone-shaped cakes drizzled with spiced syrup, and pastelitos—think flaky pastries loaded with guava, beef, or cheese. And of course, there’s flan, empanadas, and Cuban sandwiches. For a pick-me-up, try the cortadito or café con leche. If you’re feeling extra bold, order the café Cubano.

The world of Israeli baking meets the Bayou City at Bādolina Bakery & Cafe, from the team behind swanky Mediterranean steak house Doris Metropolitan and Israeli restaurant Hamsa. At Badolina, owners Itai Ben Eli, Sash Kurgan, and Itamar Levy are introducing pastries they grew up with in Israel through one-of-a-kind goods like shakshuka focaccia and pistachio baklava croissants.

But the star of Bādolina may very well be its breads: a hardy, eclectic lineup featuring sourdough and other specialties. A picturesque bakery with outdoor seating in the heart of Rice Village, Bādolina is the kind of place where craving and culture meet. Oh, and one of the best parts? A daily happy hour where you can snag most of the bakery’s goodies for half off before it closes for the day.

This Hillcroft Avenue mainstay has been serving vegetarian Indian fare, including lunch and dinner offerings and desserts galore, since 1997. At Bombay Sweets, you’ll find a colorful confectionery selection with more than 100 varieties of mithai (Hindi for sweets), including jalebi—deep-fried, sugar-soaked pretzel-shaped or circular crisps—and many types of barfi, fudge-like squares or diamond-shaped treats.

Not sure what to order? Try the gulab jamun, a popular Indian dessert often enjoyed at festivals and weddings. These doughy, fried berry–size orbs are soaked and served in a rosey sugar syrup. Whether you’re sampling one morsel at a time or purchasing a box of sugar-laden treats to go, Bombay Sweets is your stop for Indian delights in Houston.

In the heart of the gayborhood, this colorful cafe spills out onto the sidewalk as families enjoy brunch together on the patio. The owner of Cuchara, a Mexican restaurant nearby, opened this offshoot in 2022. If you're just looking for a sweet pick-me-up, walk inside to the counter where all of Cucharita's baked goods are on display. We come here for the conchas, berlinesas, and sweet empanadas, but the bakery also has French pastries like a croissant drizzled in chocolate.

El Bolillo Bakery, a Mexican panadería, is a Houston institution that now has five locations. You can often find us at the one opposite the Houston Farmers Market in the Heights, loading up our tray high with conchas, empanadas, marranitos, and of course, bolillos. There’s an abundance of conchas to choose from: with a classic sugary shell, filled with savory cream cheese or chocolate, or even topped with unicorn-inspired shades.

If the offerings at El Bolillo Bakery feel endless, that’s because they are. The crew works nearly around the clock to prep the day’s goods, mixing as much as 500 pounds of dough a day just for concha. There's even fresh tortillas made in-house, and if you need a cake for a special occasion, the bakery's tres leches is the best in town.

Kripa Shenoy is part of a recent wave of seriously talented bakers who've opened up their own shops in Houston. The cutely named Eadough debuted in the East End in the fall 2022 and has been an indispensable source of stellar pastries since then. The walk-up spot sells French classics like a butter croissant, pain au chocolat, and kouign-amann; loaves and muffins in rotating flavors; as well as thick, decadent cookies.

Imagine your favorite childhood treat, but better. Perhaps crafted by a notable pastry chef who studied at Le Cordon Bleu. And then baked to perfection right here in the Heights. That’s basically Fluff Bake Bar, the culinary headquarters of Rebecca Masson, a Wyoming native whose influence on the Houston food scene has earned her the nickname “the Sugar Fairy.”

“The most important things I learned while attending school and in my internship in Paris was to respect the ingredients, respect the recipe, and respect the techniques,” Masson says. At Fluff Bake Bar, butter, cream, and sugar coalesce into dreamy classics like snickerdoodle cookies or creative creations like the Couch Potato, a comfort-food treat complete with potato chips, pretzels, cornflakes, marshmallows, and chocolate chips. Yes, all in one cookie.

Southeast Asian zest meets Mexican, Brazilian, French, and Italian influences (to name a few) at Koffeteria, a cafe owned by celebrated pastry chef Vanarin Kuch. Food has always been a link to his Cambodian heritage, Kuch says. And now, it’s our link, too, thanks to menu items like the Salty Cambodian latte and the top-rated Chinese sausage taco. At Koffeteria, the Khmer flair kicks in with special touches like fermented toppings, including the green papaya pico made of pickled green papaya and mustard greens. Other items on the rotating menu include pão de queijo topped with Thai chile jam, a mango sticky rice danish, an ube kouign-amann, a calamansi meringue tart, a black sesame mochi cake with salted egg yolk, and much more.

Being able to wake up on a weekend morning and get your well-deserved kolaches via a drive-through is peak Houston luxury, in our opinion. No one does the traditional Czech pastry quite like Kolache Shoppe, which sells sweet versions filled with all kinds of jams—our faves are peach and lemon—and Texas-inspired savory buns filled with sausages and brisket.

Even if you haven’t been to Sinfull Bakery’s Midtown locale, opened in 2020, it’s likely you’ve had a bite of its vegan offerings at any number of Houston coffee shops, from Black Hole Coffee House to Coral Sword. Since 2010, Sinfull Bakery has been the city’s go-to for vegan delights. Take the kolache assortment, for example: warm buns filled with vegan spins on fillings like chorizo (soyrizo) or bacon, egg, and cheese. Try the pop tarts (chocolate cheesecake with candied pecans, anyone?) or the bakery's famous jumbo cinnamon rolls.

Walking into the Original Kolache Shoppe feels like walking into a grandmother’s kitchen, and that’s because it was, at least for Kevin Dowd. Then, this 720-square-foot space was passed down to his mother, and as of 2011, it was passed to him. Here, traditional Czechoslovakian kolaches, round fruit-filled pastries handcrafted each day from a family recipe, move near seamlessly from the prep table into the oven, to the display board, and out the door, all in this tiny space.

When the bakery first opened in 1956, few people in town knew what a kolache was. But after more than six decades in business, it’s not uncommon to find a line of folks wrapped around the Telephone Road building. Since owner Dowd took over, the Original Kolache Shoppe has maintained its roots while keeping an eye on the future. Dowd has expanded the menu, including house-roasted coffee and crowd favorites like croissants filled with fajita meat and topped with cheese. It’s practically the “UN of foods,” Dowd says.

The story of Three Brothers Bakery begins in 1930s Poland, where twin brothers Sigmund and Sol Jucker learned the art of Eastern European baking at the tender age of 10. But in 1941, Sigmund, Sol, and their family were sent to a concentration camp. “The story of the three brothers is very unusual in that they all survived,” says Bobby Jucker, Sigmund’s son who now runs the Three Brothers Bakery alongside his wife, Janice Jucker. “They didn’t know anything else when they came to the United States except how to make bread.”

In 1949, Sigmund, Sol, and their younger brother Max purchased a bakery on Houston’s Holman Street, serving specialty breads like egg, rye, and pumpernickel, all originating from the Jucker family’s Polish roots. Today, Three Brothers Bakery is a Braeswood staple serving everything from specialty breads, Kaiser rolls, bagels, coffee cakes, pecan pie, and even gingerbread men made year-round. The bakery now has three other locations in Memorial, Tanglewood, and on Washington Avenue.

The brainchild of Mohamed Shaker and Mohamed Kachach, We’re Dough is Houston’s landing spot for Levantine specialties like manoush and kaak. You can’t go wrong with any variation of manoush, a Lebanese flatbread topped with ingredients like za’atar, halloumi cheese, labneh, or meats like sujuk or ground beef. And then there’s kaak, the cheese-stuffed, sesame-glazed Lebanese street bread that’s equal parts crispy and chewy.