The Resy Guide to Incredible Desserts in New York

Renata Ameni and Emily Hall, Kent Hospitality Group’s (also of Overstory and Saga) executive pastry chefs, really show their chops at Crown Shy. There’s a baklava cheesecake, much better (in our opinion) than your typical cheesecake, chocolate cake with praline and blood orange, and of course, that famous sticky toffee pudding for two. Would it be so bad to say we think we just might be able to finish it all by ourselves? Don’t skip the ice cream, either — past flavors have included satsuma and horchata.

Jeffrey Wurtz might not be the first name that comes to mind when visiting Andrew Carmellini’s namesake restaurant, but it should absolutely be the second. As the executive pastry chef of NoHo Hospitality Group, which is also behind spots like Bar Primi, The Dutch, and Westlight, he’s anything if not seasoned. At Café Carmellini, his fine dining side takes full control, with decadent desserts like strawberry and yuzu tarts, chocolate caramel crémeux, and raspberry chiboust with lime sorbet.

There’s essentially nothing in this world that could keep us from ordering dessert at Principe — not even double helpings of their clam bucatini. Between the strawberry cheesecake mille-feuille and blueberry and sweet corn torta, their pastry program, led by Rebecca Isbell, is on full and excellent display. Even so, don’t skip the pineapple coconut creamsicle or the fior di latte with salt, pepper, and olive oil, either.

In New York’s ongoing modern Asian restaurant renaissance (from all the Hand Hospitality openings to the debuts of Wenwen and Bonnie’s), this elegant restaurant may be one of the most underrated and exciting of all. At 53, the menu reimagines everything from dim sum to sweets, where pastry chef Lily Hu brilliantly dreams up desserts “with an Asian angle.” Highlights include the mango pudding with oro blanco and sago, a matcha ganache with cardamom-milk espuma, a Nama chocolate tart so good it’ll convert chocolate-haters, and an ice cream sandwich housed in an intricate monaka shell. .

Museum restaurants are not the bland cafeteria-style houses they once were, and Café Sabarsky is only further proof. As an Austrian restaurant fittingly housed in the Neue Galerie Museum for German and Austrian Art, their dessert menu takes the literal and metaphorical cake. There’s classic Viennese dark chocolate, passion fruit and coconut mousse, and quark cheesecakes all for the taking.

Is it a hot take to say we’d be perfectly content sitting at the bar at Torrisi, eating just desserts only with a glass or two of Amaro? The glitzy revival of Major Food Group’s Italian American favorite more than stuns in the sweets department — think an affogato layered in hot fudge that reads like a Dairy Queen sundae taken to the next level (childhood nostalgia included), frozen yogurt with the texture of smooth cream that you’ll scoop out of a grapefruit, one perfect almond cheesecake, and complimentary Italian ice delivered with your check at the end of it all.

Chances are you’ve stumbled on the most Instagrammable dessert of 2017: a half slice of what seems to be avocado on a bed of salt. Or was it Empellón’s other trompe-l’oeil dessert, the faux taco? Regardless, chef-owner Alex Stupak’s desserts program still runs whimsical and wild at his Mexican-inspired flagship (the man was a pastry chef at mind-bending restaurants wd~50 and Alinea, after all) and you’ll still find his two signature desserts (the avocado parfait and corn ice cream taco) on the menu.

Yes, we’ve written extensively about Williamsburg’s addition to the French brasserie genre (as a destination for group-worthy celebrations, its breakfast, and roast chicken, among others), and no, we’re definitely not sorry to add yet another excellent reason why you should visit Le Croc’: its standout dessert program, headed by the sticky banana date pudding, a dessert so perfectly decadent we don’t care how many frites you’ve had, you cannot not order. A+ renditions of chocolate mousse, profiteroles, and more are on there, too.

See also: The desserts at sister restaurant Chez Ma Tante — what can we say? Chef-owners Jake Leiber and Aidan O’Neal know how to end a meal. And while we’re in the realm of French desserts, we should note that the rotating cast of sweet things at Frenchette and La Mercerie should never be skipped, either.

When Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski opened this (much-bigger-than-Dame) Fergus Henderson-inspired English bistro, they also brought along a whole suite of classic British desserts. As such, you’re bound to find strawberry and elderflower choux bun, dark chocolate and caramel tart, and a blueberry crumble, with Szymanski showing off his ice cream-making skills to round things out.

Don’t even pretend you’re not here for one decadent night — if you scored a Resy at 4 Charles, you better make it count! But here’s our plea to absolutely save room for dessert, steaks aside: the illustrated menu is a feast for more than the eyes, and hops from a DIY sundae royale that’ll make you feel like a kid in a candy store, to deeply satisfying chocolate cream and lemon meringue pies.

See also: If a Resy at 4 Charles still feels impossible (here’s your daily reminder that the Notify feature does indeed work!), rest assured that the illustrated menu of sweets at Hogsalt sister restaurant, Monkey Bar, offers all the above, and more.

The mille-feuille might just steal the show at The Noortwyck — that’s how impressive rising star pastry star Ileene Cho’s desserts are. But the true sleeper hit on the dessert menu? It’s the mascarpone rice pudding, which also happens to be one of the lightest, creamiest rice puddings you’ll ever taste. Cho trained under Cédric Grolet while he was still at Le Meurice, and her impeccable French-leaning technique shows both toward the end of the menu, which changes often (the mille-feuille renews with the seasons, for example) — as well as at the very beginning of your meal. Do not, we repeat, do not sleep on the seeded Parker House rolls or the savory cheddar beignets; you won’t regret an order of both.

All hail legendary pastry queen Claudia Fleming, who returned to Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group fold after delighting sweet tooths at Gramercy Tavern in the ‘90s with her very own (and much-copied since) brand of elevated yet simple desserts. Now serving as the executive culinary director for Union Square Hospitality Group’s Daily Provisions brand, her delicious comeback made its big debut in Ci Siamo’s simple sweet comforts: a chocolate budino with espresso zabaglione, sugar-dusted bombolini dipped in chocolate amaro, and a perfect lemon torta, a bestseller on the menu.

Because when chef Markus Glocker opened this opulent, Gilded Age-esque, Vienna-inspired French restaurant, he couldn’t not have the desserts to match. Enter pastry chef Emiko Chisholm (ex-Augustine and Balthazar), who properly dazzles with a menu of tortes and strudels, a soufflé for two, duck egg crème brûlée, and an intricate palatschinken that some say resembles a head of garlic (not in taste, though we’d be here for it).

And because it was too hard not to include the following, please see our shoutouts to these signature desserts, all of which are so integral to a meal at their respective restaurants it’d be weird if you didn’t order them …

• • The tarte au chocolat with caviar chocolate pearls at Caviar Kaspia at The Mark
  • The corn husk meringue at Cosme 
  • The sticky toffee pudding at Dame 
  • The sticky toffee pudding for two at Crown Shy
  • The yellow cake at Bar Bête
  • The sweet potato pie at Sylvia’s
  • The tiramisu at LaRina Pastificio & Vino
  • The tiramisu at I Sodi
  • Tony’s tiramisu (do we have a thing for tiramisu?! Maybe.) at Cafe Spaghetti
  • The cut fruit plate at Bonnie’s
  • The knafeh at Tanoreen
  • The devil’s food cake at Claud (you better book that 5 p.m. Resy if you want to secure a slice)
  • The ice cream sandwich at Penny, Claud’s upstairs sister seafood counter
  • The saffron ice cream sandwich at Eyval
  • The chocolate chip cookie and oolong milk tea at Lola’s
  • The torta al pistacchio at Barbuto
  • The Thai tea tres leches cake at Golden Diner
  • The banana coconut bread pudding at Raoul’s
  • The crespelle at San Sabino
  • The olive oil cake at L’Artusi
  • The bodega special at Tatiana, by Kwame Onwuachi
  • The Camembert cheesecake at Theodora 
  • The chocolate cake at Estela 
  • The Chinese fried dough at Tuome
  • The bhapa doi at Masalawala & Sons
  • The seasonal choux au craquelin at Place des Fêtes
  • The soba panna cotta at Tonchin Brooklyn
  • Grandpa Lusk’s cheesecake at da Toscano
  • The Tik Tok-famous (and absolutely not overhyped) seasonal parfait at Momoya Soho
  • The coconut pandan dessert from Bangkok Supper Club
  • The coconut cake from KYU
  • The baba au muses vert at Le Rock
  • The chocolate sorbet at Roman’s
  • The profiteroles at La Mercerie
  • The pandan custard at Wayan
  • The gelato at Misi and Lilia
  • And if you see the sheet cake on the menu at Yellow Rose, you know what to do.

  (And because this list was getting too ridiculously long, here’s a collection of places where you just shouldn’t skip dessert and an ice cream guide. You’re welcome.)

  ---

  Noëmie Carrant is Resy’s senior writer. Follow her on Instagram.

  Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). Follow Resy on Instagram and X, too.