16 Places to Find Greater Boston’s Most Delicious Cookies
Classic chocolate chip, chewy almond, ice-cream-and-cookie sandwiches, and so much more.
A Levain cookie. / Photo courtesy of Levain Bakery
We’re not going to sugarcoat it: Sometimes you just need a cookie—or a dozen. Fortunately, Greater Boston has quite a selection from which to choose, whether you’re looking for a classic chocolate chip (invented in Massachusetts!) or chewy almond cookie or even an ice-cream-and-cookie sandwich. Here are 17 of the best spots in and near Boston to try a tasty cookie, from cozy cafés and bakeries to full-service restaurants where you should save room for dessert.
This guide was last updated in June 2023; watch for periodic updates. You might also be interested in our Ultimate Guide to Boston Chocolate or our archive of Best of Boston cookie award winners.
Bova’s Bakery
In the North End’s sea of cannoli, Bova’s invites the question: What about Italian cookies? Answer: They’ll make you forget all about ricotta-filled shells at this 1926-founded, family-owned bakery, where the colossal collection of cookies includes stellar anise snowballs—drizzled with icing, topped with sprinkles, and with a licorice-y bite. There are other standouts: say, the chocolate almond meringue cookies, as well as those filled with zingy Amaretto orange cream. And don’t miss the traditional pizzelle waffle cookies, their doily-like appearance almost as beautiful as their delicate flavor. Bonus: Bova’s is open around the clock, one of Boston’s only 24/7 spots. 3 a.m. cookies, anyone?
134 Salem St., North End, Boston, 617-523-5601, bovabakeryboston.net.
Cafe Beatrice’s Earl Grey cookie and iced tea. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Cafe Beatrice
Pastry chef Brian Mercury is always up to something creative and delicious at Cafe Beatrice (and sibling spots the Lexington, Geppetto, Puritan & Co., and the early 2023 arrival, Puritan Oyster Bar). While the cafe’s lineup of sweet treats changes now and then, you’ll be more than satisfied with whatever cookies are on offer any given day, from pistachio mudslide cookie sandwiches to the oat-y breakfast cookie. We’re partial to the Earl Grey sugar cookie with its crispy-crackly topping of pearl sugar; pair it with something from the selection of teas from local company Mem Tea, or perhaps a latte, featuring La Colombe coffee.
100 N First St., Cambridge Crossing, East Cambridge, thelexingtoncx.com/cafebeatrice.
Cookie Monstah
Do you like cookies? (Yes, you nod.) Do you like ice cream? (Love it, you coo.) In that case, how do you feel about local-baked cookies sandwiching massive scoops of Massachusetts-made Richardson’s ice cream? (SIGN ME UP, you scream.) Cookie Monstah, a Boston-area food truck turned multi-location bakeshop, is the operation to thank for these heavenly pairings, which run the gamut of combos: There’s the PB&J sandwich, for instance, which sidles strawberry ice cream between peanut butter cookies, and the Candy Shoppe sandwich of M&M cookies with Milky Way ice cream. Can you get the cookies on their own, as well? Absolutely. But why break up such a beautiful couple?
Six locations around Greater Boston (and a truck), thecookiemonstah.com.
A walnut cookie and an almond cookie from Hing Shing Pastry. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Hing Shing Pastry
Boston’s Chinatown is an absolute treasure trove of incredible food (and more)—including quite a few excellent bakeries. We love Hing Shing, located steps from the eye-catching Chinatown Gate, for its chewy, sweet almond cookies, with the walnut variety coming in a close second. (Also great here, if you want to go beyond cookies, are mooncakes and char siu bao.) Bring cash.
67 Beach St., Chinatown, Boston.
Johnny Pomodoro’s chocolate chip cookie. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Johnny Pomodoro
This takeout-only spot debuted in Charlestown right at the end of 2022, featuring red-saucy Italian-American food from fine-dining alum Johnny Burke (the Butcher Shop, T.W. Food). You’ll have a great time eating your way through pan pizzas that draw inspiration from the Detroit-style pies that have become increasingly popular in Greater Boston, not to mention “the best darn chicken parm” (try it with gnocchi) and exceptional mozzarella sticks. But save room for dessert: The jumbo chocolate chip cookie is a surprise hit on the menu, with just the right amount of chewiness and melty chocolate chips. It left the two-year-old of one Boston staffer shouting “more cookie” on repeat, so if you have toddlers, maybe try these after they go to sleep. There’s a gluten-free option available, too.
297 Main St., Charlestown, Boston, 617-337-5505, johnnypomodoro.com.
L.A. Burdick’s chocolate chip and walnut cookie. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
L.A. Burdick
This small chain, around since 1987, is primarily known for its ultra-rich hot chocolate and its adorable chocolate mice, but don’t miss the cookies, which are stuffed with an immense amount of dark chocolate, rounded out with a bit of walnut and vanilla bean. They can be shipped—what a gift!—and we recommend heating them up just a bit in the toaster oven or microwave to get that chocolate nice and melty. (Or, swing by the Back Bay or Harvard Square shop to try one fresh—with a side of hot chocolate, of course.)
220 Clarendon St., Back Bay, Boston, 617-303-0113; 52 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge, 617-491-4340; burdickchocolate.com.
La Saison Bakery
The sourdough bread gets star billing at this Best of Boston bakery (and we also love the buttery croissants), but the cookies are also a must. (Noticing a pattern here? Seriously, just eat everything at La Saison; it’s all fantastic.) Growing up in Iran, baker Soheil Fathi would get a taste of America in the form of Mrs. Fields cookies when family would visit from the U.S., and that brown butter flavor stuck with him. The La Saison brown butter chocolate chip cookie is a delicious ode to that—but if you want something even more chocolatey, the fudge cookie will do the trick.
407 Concord Ave., Cambridge, 617-547-0009, lasaison-bakery.com.
Levain Bakery
This first Levain Bakery opened in Manhattan in 1995. The cult-favorite cookie maker has blown up in a big way, though, in just the last couple years. Besides selling into grocery stores, Levain has finally expanded its storefronts outside NYC, and that includes the 2022 debut of a location in Boston’s Back Bay. Now it’s easier than ever to get our hands on its famously enormous six-ounce cookies, offered in flavors like chocolate chip walnut, dark chocolate peanut butter chip, and oatmeal raisin, to name a few. And guess what? Expansion hasn’t diminished the quality of the cookies one bit: They’ve still got the perfect formula of crunchy outsides and warm, gooey centers.
180 Newbury St., Back Bay, Boston, levainbakery.com.
Maca
“Maca” is short for “macaron,” which is French for “merengue-based cookie sandwiches from heaven.” Praise be to baker Tamy Chung, who turned a pop-up operation into a brick-and-mortar business at Bow Market in 2018; there, she delights with playful flavor combinations like the cereal-invoking Fruity Pebbles, elegant lavender honey, slightly nutty pandan, and spirited Baileys Irish Cream, among others. Beautifully shaped and decorated to look like smiling rabbits, cute corgis, and other whimsical creatures, these cookie sandwiches are almost too pretty to eat—almost!—so be sure to snap a few pics before you gobble them up.
1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville, 617-539-6227, macaboston.com.
Michette Bakery’s chocolate chunk cookie with buckwheat and fleur de sel. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Michette Bakery
This quaint French bakery debuted in East Somerville in spring 2023, offering “sourdough, pastries, and good vibes.” Good vibes, indeed: Take a bite out of anything here, and you’ll be in a great mood in no time. On our first visit, we were wowed by the chocolate chunk cookie with buckwheat and fleur de sel—the buckwheat gave a bit of earthiness and chew, while some of the chocolate chunks pooled together in a melty, delicious puddle in the center. We can’t wait to go back to try the toasted oats cookie with praliné and orange marmalade.
164 Broadway, East Somerville, 646-255-8789, michette-bakery.com.
Peanut butter chili crisp and double chocolate hot honey cookies at Nine Winters. / Photo by Rachel Leah Blumenthal
Nine Winters
What luck! While you’re checking out Maca (see above), there’s another excellent option right at Bow Market: Nine Winters, a Korean-American bakery. We can’t get enough of the cookie lineup here, with creative flavor combos like the double chocolate hot honey, infused with gochujang and gochugaru, Korean chili paste and powder respectively, or the peanut butter chili crisp, or the thin, lacey oatmeal cookies with satsuma and tingly Sichuan pepper. (While the business started as a long-term pop-up at Bow, the market announced in June 2023 that Nine Winters has graduated to a permanent tenant.)
1 Bow Market Way, Union Square, Somerville, ninewinters.com.
Oakleaf Cakes Bake Shop
Yes, Oakleaf’s titular cakes are both gourmet and gorgeous, available for grab-and-go or ornate custom decoration. But the same could be said for the cookies: In fact, here, the humble sugar cookie is a delicious canvas for adorning with Oakleaf’s DIY cookie decorating kit, which includes all the royal icing and sprinkles you need to spruce up baked treats in seasonal shapes. Want the work done for you? You can still swing by to pick up flavors like chocolate chunk and vegan peanut butter.
12 Westland Ave., Fenway, Boston, 617-299-1504, oakleafcakes.com.
Sofra Bakery and Cafe
Around since 2008, this offshoot of acclaimed Cambridge restaurant Oleana is an extraordinarily popular spot to grab Middle Eastern pastries and other cafe fare, not to mention meze, shawarma, ready-to-bake meals like moussaka, and more. The earthquake cookies are a fan favorite, featuring a lusciously chocolate interior and a crinkly, sugar-dusted top. As executive pastry chef and co-owner Maura Kilpatrick writes in the Sofra cookbook, Soframiz, “This is a fantastic fudgy cookie, and not at all Middle Eastern, but impossible to resist.”
1 Belmont St., Cambridge, 617-661-3161, sofrabakery.com.
Sugar Baking Co.
Bring a big appetite, because this West Roxbury shop sells cookies by the pound. Take note from the regulars and stock up on the favorite brambles cookie, which is a raspberry-filled delight similar to a European tea cookie (though it pairs just as well with an extra-large Dunkin’ iced coffee as it does with an afternoon cup of Earl Grey). Don’t skip the stellar snickerdoodle either, or the gingersnaps that come with just the right bite of spice. The bakery offers free delivery within West Roxbury, though if you’re driving there from elsewhere in town, try not to polish off all the pecan shortbread (another must-try) before you get home.
1884 Centre St., West Roxbury, Boston, 617-327-8427, sugarbakery.net.
Nutter Butter at Sweet Cheeks. / Photo by JM Leach
Sweet Cheeks Q
We’ve already tipped you off to the sublime giant nutter butter cookie whipped up by Best of Boston-winning pastry chef Dee Steffen Chinn at Sweet Cheeks Q, but it’s well worth a second sugary shout-out. Although any visit to Tiffani Faison’s Fenway barbecue temple inevitably includes gorging on several pounds of sauce-slathered meat, leave a little room—because this peanut butter-filled cookie sandwich is gigantic enough to be a meal in itself.
1381 Boylston St., Fenway, Boston, 617-266-1300, sweetcheeksq.com.
Top Shelf Cookies
After years of selling her cookies to restaurants and retailers, in 2021 baker Heather Yunger finally opened a brick-and-mortar shop for her aptly named Top Shelf Cookies. It’s always a treat to swing by the Dorchester store and pick up standby-favorite flavors such as Green Monster Mint, a Fenway-inspired dark chocolate cookie spotted with green mint chips, or Boston Lager Chocolate Chip, infused with Boston-born Sam Adams brews. If you’re the type to appreciate a pleasant surprise, though, sign up for the Cookie of the Month Club, which sends a dozen unexpected delights to your door every month.
516 Gallivan Blvd., Dorchester, Boston, 857-321-0446, topshelfcookies.com.
