The best cookies in NYC in 2026 are Levain Bakery's giant chocolate chip walnut cookies, Chip City for thick, gooey cookies in rotating flavors, Schmackary's in the Theater District for creative flavors, and Jacques Torres for chocolate chip cookies made with his own chocolate. Maman, Culture Espresso and Ovenly round out the list.
The giant, gooey chocolate chip walnut cookie that started a craze.
Levain's six-ounce cookies — crisp outside, nearly molten inside — have drawn lines down West 74th Street since the 1990s. The chocolate chip walnut is the classic.
Good to know: Eat it warm, right outside the shop.
167 W 74th St, New York, NY 10023
Thick, soft cookies with rotating weekly flavors.
Chip City bakes big, soft cookies in classic and rotating flavors and has grown into a chain of shops across the five boroughs.
Good to know: Check the weekly flavor lineup before you go.
The Broadway crowd's favorite, with dozens of creative flavors.
Schmackary's bakes inventive cookies — from maple bacon to Funfetti — in a little shop on West 45th Street that's a favorite of Broadway performers and audiences.
Good to know: Perfect before or after a Broadway show.
362 W 45th St, New York, NY 10036
Chocolate chip cookies made with a master chocolatier's own chocolate.
Pastry chef Jacques Torres' Dumbo shop is known for chocolates and a chocolate chip cookie studded with discs of his chocolate — plus excellent hot chocolate in winter.
Good to know: Order the 'wicked' spicy hot chocolate on a cold day.
66 Water St, Brooklyn, NY 11201
A French-country café whose nutty chocolate chip cookie has a cult following.
Maman's SoHo café is charming and rustic, and its 'Mama's Secret' chocolate chip cookie, loaded with nuts, is one of the city's most talked-about.
Good to know: Stay for brunch — the café is lovely.
239 Centre St, New York, NY 10013
A Midtown espresso bar with a famously good chocolate chip cookie.
Culture Espresso, near Bryant Park, is a serious coffee shop whose chewy chocolate chip cookie is regularly named among the city's best.
Good to know: A good break from Midtown sightseeing.
72 W 38th St, New York, NY 10018
A Brooklyn bakery known for its salted chocolate chip cookie, which happens to be vegan.
Ovenly's Greenpoint bakery makes inventive cookies, bars and scones — its salted chocolate chip cookie is vegan and a bestseller.
Good to know: Try the salted peanut butter cookie too.
31 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222
The original Levain Bakery is the small basement shop at 167 West 74th Street on the Upper West Side, which opened in 1995. There are now several other locations around the city.
Many are — a Levain cookie weighs about six ounces, so one is easily shared.