Best of Philly

Best Dessert

2022 Best Single Bite

Canelés at Friday Saturday Sunday

After courses of yuzu-aioli-dappled tuna crudo and barbecued veal cheek at Chad and Hanna Williams’s beloved Rittenhouse restaurant, your server will drop the bill and two glistening canelés. These bite-size bombshells take time to make, with the batter resting for three days before they’re double-baked in copper molds. They’re then lacquered with beeswax, a totally unnecessary gesture underscoring the fact that every dish the kitchen puts out is not only near-flawless but has so much heart. Read More »

261 South 21st Street, Philadelphia, PA Website

2019 Best Pudding

Sweet Nina’s Banana Pudding

New Reading Terminal eating game plan: Start at this stand, which has Nina Bryan’s eight varieties of superior pudding. Actually, you might want to end here, too. Read More »

51 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-805-8757 | Website

2019 Best Desserts

Aux Petites Delices

Napoleons filled with kirsch mousseline, boxes of pear bonbons, almond croissants, plus that namesake “Delices” pastry with chocolate mousse and hazelnut crunch: It’s no wonder you’ve smudged the bakery case with your noseprints. Read More »

162 East Lancaster Avenue, Wayne, PA | 610-971-0300 | Website

2018 Best Snack to Sneak Into a Movie Theater

Edible Cookie Dough at Sweet Box

Because you can’t really bring a whole tube of Pillsbury slice-and-bake out in public, there’s local bakery Sweet Box’s edible cookie dough – no eggs, so it’s safe! – packaged in small portable cups that fit inconspicuously inside your hoodie pocket. Read More »

339 S 13th St, Philadelphia, PA | 215-237-4647 | Website

2017 Best Dessert

Nutty Buddy at Wister

Imagine if the Little Debbie chocolate wafer bar was homemade. Now stop imagining and go taste chef Benjamin Moore’s version for yourself. It has Franklin Fountain ice cream, chocolate peanut ganache, caramel, and broken shards of homemade cone. Read More »

26 North 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA | 267-239-5900 | Website

2015 Best Dessert

Lemon Pistachio Parfait at Fond

The chilled melange of Meyer lemon curd, honey frozen yogurt and pistachio dacquoise tastes like the first dazzle of sunshine after a cold gray winter. Read More »

1537 South 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-551-5000 | Website

2014 Best Dessert List

Le Virtu

Pastry chef Angela Ranalli's seasonal, Italian-leaning desserts are both rustic (blueberry olive oil cake) and polished (topped with mascarpone thyme cream) but never cloying or expected. Read More »

1927 East Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-271-5626 | Website

2013 Best Pie

Charlie Mayfair Pie at Pizza Brain

Paper-thin slices of apples and sweet potatoes overlap beneath dollops of honey goat cheese in what could be eye-catching modern art, but is actually a pizza sweetened with brown sugar and inflected with pie spice. Save this one for the end of your meal. Read More »

2313 Frankford Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-291-2965 | Website

2012 Best Dessert

Hot Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough at Ela

Remember when you were a kid and your mom let you eat the raw cookie dough straight from the bowl? This is just like that. Only better, 'cause it's warm. Consider this an official demand, Jason Cichonski: You took it off the menu. Put it back. Read More »

627 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA | 267-687-8512 | Website

2012 Best Comfort-Food Dessert

Brownie Waffles at Soup Kitchen

Even if you don't eat them, the smell alone would be worth the trek to Fishtown. And since you're not eating them, you won't mind if we just let our fork wander over ? Read More »

2146 East Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia, PA | 215-427-1680 | Website

2011 Best Dessert

Barbuzzo

It's just pudding, people," says chef Marcie Turney. Luckily, we know better. We know it's bliss. And now you do, too. Read More »

110 South 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-546-9300 | Website

2010 Best Desserts

Bistrot La Minette

This is not the place for abstaining from a final course; chef/owner Peter Woolsey is a classically trained pastry chef who studied at Paris's Le Cordon Bleu. You'll want to try his tarte au citron served with house-made cassis sorbet; his gteau l'opra with 11 immaculate layers of almond sponge cake, chocolate ganache and coffee buttercream; and his traditional raspberry mille feuille that's better than versions we've had in France. Read More »

623 South 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-925-8000 | Website

2009 Best Dessert

Famous 4th Street Delicatessen

It's a dessert for the masses. Literally. Just one slice a roughly two-by-four-by-eight-inch slab of Famous 4th Street's checkerboard cake (moist chocolate and vanilla squares bound with a creamy mocha mousse) will both feed and please your whole party. Cake ain't your thing? How about the three-to-an-order cheese-and-sour-cherry blintzes, the New York-style cheesecake, a black-and-white cookie, or an old-fashioned egg cream? Yeah, we thought so. Read More »

700 South 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA | 215-922-3274 | Website