Bostonians eat desserts all year round - hot and cold - which presents opportunities to try seasonal flavoring and some of the world’s best desserts. Dessert places in Boston take full advantage of this to invent mouth watering desserts and crown the city as a top-notch destination for those with the biggest sweet tooth.
Having an enticing array of options, giant portions and hundreds of innovative flavors, finding the best dessert in Boston is not easy for even the most passionate foodies - so get ready to give into your cravings with indulgent, traditional and Instagrammable desserts in Boston. Tickle your tastebuds with a sweet treat or put a finishing touch to your meal with Boston’s sinful dessert collection.
Boston Desserts - International Culinary Treats
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Boston desserts are not limited to the city’s culinary style. French, Belgian, Spanish and Mexican cuisines, traditional cooking and baking methods are often incorporated to make tasty final products. You would be spoiled for choice in an ocean of ice creams, calzones, churros, pies, gelato, cookies, tiramisu and waffles on your quest to gobble down the best dessert in Boston.
10 Best Desserts in Boston
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Boston is a treasure chest of delectable desserts, some invented right here in the city while others draw inspiration from cuisines worldwide. While Boston Cream Pie is the official dessert of Massachusetts, the city offers a plethora of other sweets and savouries to relish. Here are the top 5 Boston desserts to satiate your sweet tooth cravings: -
1. Chocolate Chunk Cookie
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The chocolate chip cookie was invented in Massachusetts and is naturally among the top desserts in Boston. Large and wholesome portions of chewie cookies embedded with chunks of dark chocolate are a hit with every local. These are much tastier than your regular chocolate chip cookies.
Restaurants: Blunch, Mike’s Pastry
2. Gelato
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The Italian community in Boston makes some of the best Boston desserts. Gelato made with quality ingredients is a staple to Bostonians as it is to Italians and comes in authentic flavors without food coloring.
Restaurants: Amorino Ice Cream, Dolce
3. Vegan Ice Cream
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Made with allergen-free coconut milk, vegan ice creams are creamy and rich delights with flavors like avocado, maple sweet lavender and bourbon among many others. Most people opt for two scoops of different flavors per serving.
Restaurants: FoMu, Emack & Bolio’s
4. Liege Waffles
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As a dessert found in every corner of Boston, liege waffles in this city are surprisingly similar in taste and texture to their original cousins from Belgium. In contrast to regular waffles, liege waffles are made with sugar crystal filled dough that caramelize when baked, leaving a roasted aroma.
Restaurants: Zinneken’s Waffles, Caffebene
5. Bacon Donuts
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Boston puts its own twist to the classic maple-syrup glazed donuts by adding crispy bacon on top. When paired with nutella and banana slices, bacon donuts make fulfilling on-the-go snacks.
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If you are looking for a dessert loved by every Bostonian, try the city’s authentic Italian cannolis with light and crunchy shells. They are stuffed with ricotta and a variety of ice creams, fruits and chocolates. North End and South End on Hanover Street are two of the best dessert places in Boston with tons of cannoli shops.
Restaurants: Mike’s Pastry, Modern Pastry
7. Peppermint Ice Cream
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When a giant slab of pie with crunchy Oreos, chocolate ganache, choco chips and peppermint ice cream are combined, this classic ice cream is known to make everything tastier. Peppermint ice cream is often combined with pies or cookie sandwiches to bring out exciting flavours.
Restaurants: Atlantic Fish Company, White Mountain Creamery
8. Churros
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Churros with chocolate is a signature Spanish dessert found in every corner of Boston. Served hot and tasty, these churros are made with fresh and fluffy dough and sprinkled with dragon. Chocolate dips, hazelnut dips and caramel go well with churros.
Restaurants: Toro, Mini Bites Factory
9. Crispy Chocolate Bread Pudding
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For all those who miss having French bistro bread for breakfast, this bread pudding drenched in hot, gooey chocolate and crust. You can top your budding with ice creams and salted caramel.
Restaurants: Aquitaine, Flour Bakery and Cafe
10. Frozen Yogurts
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Yogurts are a healthy dessert option that taste delicious when frozen and merged with flavours like green tea, watermelon, malt chocolate and strawberry. Boston is a treasure chest of frozen yogurts with over 150 flavours available across the city.
Restaurants Berryline, Juicy Spot Cafe
Top 10 Places for the Best Dessert in Boston
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The best dessert places in Boston include everything from ice cream joints, diners serving pies, bakeries selling donuts to plenty of fancy restaurants serving gorgeous final courses. Here is a comprehensive list of the top 10 eateries famous for Boston desserts: -
1. Mike’s Pastry
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Mike’s Pastry is one of the beloved rival bakeries on North Beach, known for serving authentic Italian delights since 1946. Specializing in multiple flavors of cannoli, gelato and biscotti, this heritage dessert place in Boston has upgraded its menu over the decades since Michael Mercogliano established the store. Today, it is an abode for Oreo, plain, Nutella, espresso and limoncello cannolis among 19 other signature flavors.
If cannolis are not your cup of tea, you can never go wrong with Mike’s range of Italian snacks like lobster tails, roasted cookies, macaroons and creamy puffs wrapped in iconic white-and-blue boxes. You can buy cannoli packages containing ingredients and flavorings to make your own at home.
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This ice cream parlor in Boston makes completely plant-based vegan products from scratch. FoMu offers a seasonal assortment of novelty ice creams, ice cream cakes, chocolate bars and chocolate chip cookie sandwiches. Their massive inventory of ice creams comes in refreshing flavors like matcha, blueberry, lavender and coconut. Fresh oven-baked chocolate chip brownies and treenut magic bars are their top items from the bakery section.
In case you cannot decide between ice creams and cakes, grab their Death by Chocolate pudding, sprinkles and vanilla ice cream cake and premium cookies with cream. You can sit and dine at FoMu’s breezy alfresco setting, order online and arrange catering for events.
Address: 655 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02118 Cost for Two: USD 20 Timings: 1pm - 9pm, open daily Contact: (617) 982-7955 Must-try Desserts: Rockiest Road, Peanut Butter Mud Pie
3. Modern Pastry
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Opened 70 years ago by Giovanni Picariello in the heart of Boston’s French district, Modern Pastry is a pioneer of freshly baked Italian cakes, rich pastries, torrones, biscotti, cannolis and pies in Boston. Exposed bricks, vaulted ceilings, rustic beams and vintage furniture endow the bakery with old-world charm, creating a welcoming hangout spot. Modern Pastry is family-owned and still makes most of their chocolates and pizzelles at home, serving them fresh off the oven.
The most ordered desserts on their menu are anise pizzelles, French macarons, rainbow cookies and chocolate-dipped puffs. Moreover, a cocktail is complimentary with every dessert. To indulge in a sweet finish after your Boston desserts, try their espressos and cappuccinos.
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If you are looking for Mediterranean desserts in Boston, Sofra is a compact, counter-service bakery with a sylvan outdoor patio, best known for its incredible meze, sweets and chocolate based desserts. Start your meal with a Turkish coffee in a traditional copper pot and proceed to dig into baklavas glazed with hazelnuts, sesame, chocolate and honey. Dukkah macaroons, thin-crust apple pies, tahini shortbread and chocolate chunk cookies are also sold on the curbside at Sofra with peppy beverages. Supporting local and international artisans, Sofra’s products are exclusively made from sustainable agricultural produce.
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Operating with a chain of six luxurious dessert places in Boston, Blackbird Donuts has one of the biggest stores in the South End for fluffy, raised donuts and bagels of brioche dough. Enjoy a bazaar of offbeat flavors like chocolate chip cookie donut, red velvet donut, sriracha, blackberry, ruby lavender glazed donut filled with whipped cream.
Made with buttermilk, seasonal jam and sour cream, Blackbird’s Cake donuts are a kaleidoscope of picture-perfect desserts that come in flavors of vanilla bean and strawberry mojito. If you’re feeling adventurous, try something more unique such as the chocolate box bismarck filled with ganache, caramel mousse and white chocolate.
Address: 492 Tremont Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Cost for Two: USD 30 Timings: 8am - 8pm, open daily Contact: (617) 482-9000 Must-try Desserts: Apple Cider Slushie, Boston Cream Donut
6. Amorino Boston
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Founded in 2002 by two childhood Italian friends, Amorino’s ice cream and gelato are the closest to high quality European gelato available in Boston. This vintage ice cream shoppe incorporates rich and organic ingredients like blood oranges, amarena cherries, New England berries and Arabica coffee into fresh whole milk and fruit extracts to create at par Italian gelato.
For appetizers, calamari and signature bacon wrapped scallops go perfectly with your gelato. If you ask for a focaccina, they will fill a brioche with two colourful scoops. Besides, why go anywhere else for a gelato when Amorino serves you 24 flavors of sorbet and gelato shaped like flowers?
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Flour Bakery and Cafe by Joanne Chang is home to savoury and gluten-free cupcakes, French croissants, tarlettes, muffins, sticky buns, pies, biscotti and cookies including the best dessert in Boston - substantial chocolate chunk cookies. Since they have 5 chain stores in boston, you will most likely always be close to one. Fanciful zig-zag patterned cannolis, crusty baguettes, elusive brioche, sugar-sprinkled macaroons, lemon scones and vanilla donuts are some of the indulgent desserts on Flour Bakery’s menu. Their curried tuna salad, sandwiches and BLTs can even convert sworn seafood-loathers. Keep an eye out for their weekend workshops and published cookbooks to find out the recipes behind these decadent desserts.
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Specializing exclusively in making sweet and salty homemade chocolates, ROYCE Chocolate Boston is a luxury dessert-oriented store known for authentic Hokkaido and Nama chocolates. The confectionery offers a smorgasbord of different types of chocolates, made with exotic ingredients like creamy milk, soy, pure chocolate, hazelnuts, caramel, matcha and coffee liquor. If you want something on the conventional side, go for their nut and dry fruits varieties.
Packed into vibrant boxes, ROYCE’s most famous range of chocolates includes Venezuela Bitter, Caramel Milk, Cacao 70%, Petit Kurumaro and Macadamia. Other Boston desserts sold at the store are chocolate-dipped marshmallows, cookies and Colombian coffee. Amazing discounts are offered on gift packs during special occasions like Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day.
Address: 251 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02116 Cost for Two: USD 30 Timings: 11am - 6pm, open daily Contact: +1 857-239-9041 Must-try Desserts: Memories of Hokkaido, Nama Chocolate Champagne Pierre
9. Toscanini’s Ice Cream
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Once acclaimed as the best ice cream parlor in the world by The New York Times, this premium dessert place in Boston continues to impress with its espresso and gourmet ice cream. Rediscover your old-school favorites with refreshing new twists in flavoring and topping, owing to Toscanini’s ever changing menu. Allow yourself plenty of time to debate over a sundae and ice cream scoop with coffee while relaxing at the retro themed interiors.
Toscanini’s also features a wide range of ice cream cakes, custom made for celebrations. Quirky combinations with blueberries, strawberries, Belgian chocolate, gingersnap and well-stacked B3 containing brown butter, fat chunks of brownies and fudges and brown sugar are their specialty. Names of desserts like The Verukah and Cinnamon Swirl as unique as the flavors keep you coming back for s’mores.
Address: 159 First Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02139 Cost for Two: USD 20 Timings: Wednesday - Sunday: 3pm - 9:30pm, Closed on Monday and Tuesday Contact: (617) 491-5877 Must-try Desserts: Burnt Caramel, Vienna Finger Cookie
10. Zinneken’s Belgian Waffles
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Take any Bostonian’s word for it - there is nothing better than Belgian waffles made by Belgians in Boston at Zinneken’s Waffles. Using the finest ingredients to make baked-to-order, stellar Belgian and Brussels waffles, Zinneken’s allows you to build your own waffle from their counter. Hand-kneaded dough is used to ensure chewy textures of the waffles, which are topped with Belgian chocolate, fresh berries, the monstrously rich cookie butter caramel speculoos spread, Nutella and homemade whipped cream among 30 others. Wash it all down with a perky glass of strawberry slushie, frappe or orange juice.
If you have a flair for high-end gourmet desserts, each bakery, confectioner, pastry shop and ice cream corner in Boston will have something special, innovative and delicious for you. Have you eaten any of these Boston desserts before? Let us know about your experience, queries and recommendations about the best dessert in Boston in the comments below.
