10 Special Orlando Bakeries Every Local Should Try at Least Once

Forget the supermarket bakery. Greater Orlando has everything from award-winning Southern pies and handmade French croissants to Asian cream puffs, Colombian cheese bread, Puerto Rican quesitos and half-pound cookies. Here are 10 local bakery stops worth putting on your Orlando food list.

Orlando doesn’t get enough credit as a bakery town.

We have bakeries that reflect the people who actually live here, which means the choices go considerably beyond cupcakes and chocolate-chip cookies.

You can start the morning with Colombian pan de bono and coffee, pick up a French croissant before lunch, try a Puerto Rican quesito in the afternoon and finish the day with an enormous Orlando-born cookie.

Some shops have been serving Central Florida for more than 50 years.

Others represent the newer generation of Orlando bakers experimenting with ube, matcha, black sesame and other flavors that would have been difficult to find locally not very long ago.

So we went looking for bakeries that are more than simply “good.”

For this list, we wanted places that give you a reason to make a special trip.

These are 10 Greater Orlando bakeries locals should try at least once, along with what makes each one different and what we’d try on a first visit.

This isn’t meant to declare that the No. 3 croissant is scientifically better than No. 4. The goal is to build an Orlando bakery bucket list with enough variety that every stop offers something different.

And yes, you’re probably going to need more than one weekend.

10. Taino’s Bakery & Deli: Start With a Quesito

📍 Whisper Lakes/South Orlando, plus several other Central Florida locations

If you’ve lived around Orlando for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed how important Puerto Rican food is to Central Florida’s food culture.

A good place to experience the bakery side of that culture is Tainos Bakery & Deli (Whisper Lakes).

This isn’t a tiny pastry boutique.

Taino’s combines the traditional panadería experience with breakfast, coffee, sandwiches and substantial Puerto Rican meals.

But don’t skip the bakery case.

One of the classics to try is the quesito, a Puerto Rican pastry made with cream cheese wrapped inside flaky pastry dough and baked until the outside develops a caramelized sweetness. Taino’s also offers Puerto Rican breads, sweets and breakfast bakery staples.

If you’ve never tried Puerto Rican bakery food before, this is an easy introduction because you can make an entire breakfast or lunch out of the visit.

What we’d try first: Quesito and coffee.

Why locals should go: Orlando’s bakery story would be incomplete without Puerto Rican baking.

9. Mecatos Bakery & Café: Colombia in a Bakery Case

📍 Multiple Greater Orlando locations

Now let’s move from Puerto Rico to Colombia.

Mecatos Bakery & Café has expanded throughout Greater Orlando, with locations including Downtown Orlando, Lake Nona, Waterford Lakes, Curry Ford, MetroWest, Lake Underhill, Edgewood, Ocoee and Apopka.

What makes Mecatos useful is that you don’t have to know anything about Colombian baking before walking in.

Just look at the case.

The bakery says it produces more than 50 varieties of breads, pastries and cakes from scratch in-house, alongside Colombian specialty coffee.

One of the easiest places to start is pan de bono, the wonderful Colombian cheese bread that works particularly well with coffee.

Mecatos also makes versions filled with guava, Nutella and dulce de leche. Other options include buñuelos, empanadas, roscón de guava, pan de queso and numerous pastries.

This is also one of the better choices on our list if half the family wants pastries and the other half wants an actual breakfast.

What we’d try first: Pan de bono and Colombian coffee.

Why locals should go: It’s an easy and affordable introduction to Colombian bakery culture without leaving Orlando.

8. Bakery 1908: Grab a Tray and Start Exploring

📍 East Colonial Drive, Orlando

This is the stop for someone who enjoys walking into a bakery and thinking:

I have no idea what half of this is, but I want to try it.

Bakery 1908 on East Colonial is an Asian bakery and café combining a self-service pastry and bun selection with drinks and a surprisingly substantial hot-food menu.

You’ll find both sweet and savory baked goods, along with cakes, buns and other Asian bakery staples. The café also serves bubble tea and a hot menu that includes dumplings and dim sum.

That’s what makes Bakery 1908 particularly fun with a group.

Everyone grabs a few different things.

Put everything in the middle.

Start cutting.

A bakery visit becomes a tasting session.

There is also a second Bakery 1908 & Cafe near the Lake Buena Vista area, with a similarly large selection of Asian breads and sweet and savory buns.

What we’d try first: Build a mixed tray of sweet and savory buns rather than ordering only one item.

Why locals should go: It’s one of the more interesting ways to explore Asian-style baking in Orlando.

7. Phat Ash Bakes: Orlando’s Other Giant Cookie

📍 Milk District

Most visitors know Orlando’s famous giant-cookie bakery.

Locals should also know about this one.

Phat Ash Bakes operates its flagship shop at 221 S. Bumby Avenue in the Milk District, where the focus is thick, rich cookies with rotating flavors and often gooey or filled centers.

The menu changes, which is part of the fun.

Alongside its chocolate-chip cookie, Phat Ash experiments with flavors and fillings rather than offering exactly the same case every week.

The bakery also produces brookies, brownies and blondies depending on the current lineup.

And there is a wonderfully Orlando detail here.

During its advertised Phat & Happy Hour, Thursday through Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m., purchasing a cookie at the Milk District flagship includes a small TG Lee milk.

Cookie plus milk from a Central Florida dairy.

We approve.

What we’d try first: Chocolate chip, then one of the week’s rotating filled cookies.

Local tip: These are rich. Splitting cookies lets you sample more flavors.

Why locals should go: It’s a homegrown Orlando cookie business with a completely different personality from the city’s more famous cookie destination.

6. Charlie’s Bakery & Creamery: Old Orlando Is Still Baking

📍 Curry Ford Road

Before Orlando had boutique dessert shops and Instagram pastries, it had Charlie’s.

Charlie’s Bakery & Creamery traces its history to 1971, when Charlie Hawks opened Charlie’s Gourmet Pastries.

The business remained in the Hawks family for roughly 50 years before Orlando native Tricia Hage purchased it in 2021. It was subsequently expanded into Charlie’s Bakery & Creamery while retaining many of the original recipes.

That’s more than half a century of Orlando bakery history.

The selection is enormous compared with some of the specialized bakeries on this list.

Cakes.

Pies.

Éclairs.

Cheesecakes.

Cookies.

Cream horns.

Brownies.

Quesitos.

Rugelach.

Bagels.

And house-made ice cream.

Orlando Weekly’s readers selected Charlie’s as its Best Bakery in 2024.

This is where we’d take someone who says:

“I don’t know what I want. I just want dessert.”

What we’d try first: One of the classic pastries or Key lime pie, followed by ice cream if you’re committed to the assignment.

Why locals should go: Because an Orlando bakery that’s survived since 1971 deserves to be experienced by another generation of locals.

5. Se7enBites: Southern Baking Meets Orlando Brunch

📍 Milk District

Some bakeries are best visited after lunch.

This one might eliminate the need for lunch.

Se7enBites combines a bakery with Southern-inspired breakfast, brunch and lunch in Orlando’s Milk District.

The bakery has become well known far outside the neighborhood. It has appeared on Food Network programming and is currently listed as a MICHELIN Guide Recommended restaurant.

But locals don’t need a television show to justify going.

The appeal is the combination.

You can have a substantial Southern-style breakfast or lunch and then make the strategically questionable but emotionally correct decision to order something from the bakery case.

That’s the experience.

This is also a good bakery choice when you’re with someone who says, “I don’t want sweets for breakfast.”

Fine.

They can eat breakfast.

You can continue the important bakery research.

What we’d try first: Check the day’s bakery case after brunch and pick whatever looks impossible to leave behind.

Why locals should go: It’s one of the places where Orlando’s bakery and brunch cultures collide.

4. Gideon’s Bakehouse: Visit the Original, Not Just Disney Springs

📍 East End Market, Audubon Park

Yes, we’re including Gideon’s.

But we’re sending locals somewhere different.

Instead of automatically heading to Disney Springs, visit the original Gideon’s Bakehouse inside East End Market on Corrine Drive.

The original shop is tiny.

That’s part of its charm.

Gideon’s is famous for enormous cookies approaching half a pound each, along with oversized cake slices and an unmistakable gothic storybook aesthetic.

The cookies are deliberately excessive.

They’re dense, heavily loaded and rich enough that sharing one is completely reasonable.

Gideon’s started as a local Orlando business before becoming one of Disney Springs’ best-known food destinations, and the original Audubon Park location still feels more connected to that story.

Orlando Weekly readers have repeatedly placed Gideon’s among the area’s favorite bakeries, including a Best Bakery win in 2023.

What we’d try first: Original Chocolate Chip.

Then return another month for the rotating flavor.

Local tip: Go to East End Market if your goal is experiencing the original Orlando location rather than making a Disney outing out of it.

Why locals should go: This is one of the rare Orlando-born bakeries that became a destination in its own right.

3. Light On The Sugar: The Bakery for People Who Say Desserts Are Too Sweet

📍 Winter Park and Waterford Lakes

This bakery solves a very specific problem.

Some desserts taste like sugar with additional sugar added for texture.

Light On The Sugar Bakery Café takes almost the opposite approach.

The family-owned business, founded in 2019, specializes in French-style pastry techniques combined with Asian-inspired flavors, including ube, matcha, taro and black sesame.

Everything is baked in-house daily, and the menu changes seasonally.

The name isn’t accidental.

The desserts are designed to be flavorful without relying on overwhelming sweetness.

That’s particularly noticeable in its cream puffs, crepe cakes, tarts and croissants.

The bakery now has Greater Orlando locations in Winter Park and at Waterford Lakes Town Center.

If you have someone in your family who normally takes two bites of American cake and says, “That’s too sweet,” bring them here.

What we’d try first: Crème brûlée cream puff or something made with ube.

Why locals should go: The combination of French pastry technique and Asian flavors makes this one of the most distinctive bakery experiences in Greater Orlando.

2. Buttermilk Bakery: Get There Early

📍 Winter Park

This is the pastry-person bakery.

Not the giant-cookie bakery.

Not the birthday-cake bakery.

Not the 60-item dessert-case bakery.

Pastry.

Buttermilk Bakery is a small Winter Park bakery specializing in carefully made laminated pastries, including croissants and a rotating selection of sweet and savory creations.

If you’ve never paid attention to laminated dough before, a good croissant demonstrates why bakers obsess over it.

Butter is repeatedly folded between layers of dough.

When properly baked, those layers separate into the crisp, airy honeycomb structure that makes a great croissant completely different from ordinary bread.

Buttermilk has built a strong local following around exactly that kind of baking. A current 2026 Orlando bakery guide highlights its croissants, cinnamon rolls, kouign-amann, seasonal Danishes and other small-batch pastries.

This isn’t the place we’d visit at 1:45 p.m. expecting the same selection that was available in the morning.

Go early.

Let the pastry case determine breakfast.

What we’d try first: Butter croissant.

Starting with the simplest pastry is a good way to judge a bakery.

Then get something seasonal.

Why locals should go: If you’re interested in baking as a craft rather than simply dessert, Buttermilk belongs on your list.

1. Sister Honey’s: The Orlando Bakery Locals Keep Recommending

📍 South of Downtown Orlando

Our first stop for someone asking, “Where should I get a really good cake or pie in Orlando?” would be here.

Sister Honey’s is a small bakery at 247 E. Michigan Street specializing in scratch-made cakes, pies and traditional desserts.

The bakery says its products are made fresh daily using premium ingredients.

Owner and baker Evette Rahman has earned substantial recognition, including being named a 2022 James Beard Award semifinalist, and Sister Honey’s was selected by Southern Living among notable Southern pie shops in 2024.

But the strongest reason we’re putting it here is simpler:

Orlando residents keep recommending it.

In recent 2026 local discussions asking where to find great cakes in Central Florida, Sister Honey’s repeatedly received enthusiastic recommendations, with locals specifically calling out its cakes and whole-dessert orders.

The shop makes cakes, pies, cupcakes, pound cakes, brownies, bars, bread pudding and other traditional desserts.

This isn’t molecular gastronomy.

It isn’t trying to turn a croissant into a viral social-media object.

It’s the kind of bakery where you buy a slice of cake and remember what really good homemade cake is supposed to taste like.

What we’d try first: Hummingbird or carrot cake if available, then investigate the pie case.

Important local tip: Sister Honey’s is a small operation. The bakery is currently open Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday, and whole cakes or specific items may require ordering ahead.

Why locals should go: This is the kind of independent neighborhood bakery every city wishes it had.

The Orlando Bakery Challenge

Here’s an idea for the next few months.

Don’t try all ten in a weekend.

Pick one bakery each Saturday or Sunday.

And don’t simply order what you normally eat.

Try the thing that makes that bakery different.

At Taino’s, get a quesito.

At Mecatos, try pan de bono.

At Bakery 1908, build a mixed Asian pastry tray.

At Phat Ash, split a couple of rotating cookies.

At Charlie’s, try something from the old-school pastry case.

At Se7enBites, combine brunch with dessert.

At Gideon’s, visit the original East End Market shop.

At Light On The Sugar, try an Asian-inspired flavor you’ve never ordered before.

At Buttermilk, start with a croissant.

And at Sister Honey’s, get cake or pie.

By the time you’re finished, you won’t simply have eaten ten desserts.

You’ll have sampled a little bit of the cultural history that makes Greater Orlando interesting.

Five More We Couldn’t Ignore

Ten spots aren’t enough to cover Central Florida’s bakery scene.

If you’re turning this into a serious project, add The Glass Knife in Winter Park for polished cakes, doughnuts and desserts; Croissant Gourmet for a French café stop near Park Avenue; Benjamin French Bakery & Cafe in Thornton Park for croissants, crêpes and baguette sandwiches; J’adore the French Bakery in Altamonte Springs for traditional French bread and viennoiserie; and Melao Bakery – Orlando in South Orlando for another take on the Puerto Rican bakery-and-café experience.

There are enough good bakeries around Orlando that we may eventually need separate lists for the best croissants, best pies, best Latin bakeries and best places to buy a birthday cake.

That’s a problem we’re happy to have.

Orlando’s Bakery Scene Tells a Bigger Story

One of the easiest ways to understand Greater Orlando is through food.

Central Florida isn’t culturally one thing.

Our bakery cases prove it.

Puerto Rican quesitos sit a few miles from Colombian cheese breads.

French croissants share the city with ube cream puffs.

Southern hummingbird cake competes with Chinese-style buns.

A bakery founded in 1971 operates alongside businesses created during the pandemic.

And a cookie invented in a tiny Orlando bakery became famous enough that tourists now wait for it at Disney Springs.

That’s why these places are worth seeking out.

You don’t have to spend $150 on dinner to explore Orlando’s food culture.

Sometimes all you need is five dollars, a cup of coffee and enough curiosity to point at something in the bakery case and say:

“I’ve never had that before. Give me one.”