Where to Indulge on Delectable Desserts in San Diego

JoJo’s Creamery

This family-run shop is based in the Encinitas Lumberyard off the Pacific Coast Highway. There are cups, waffle cones, and ice cream pies for ice cream flavors like bananas foster, mud pie, and honey lavender. For vegans, there are alternatives with coconut and cashew milk.

Edelweiss Bakery

Step into the traditional European bakery to find an endless view of breads, pastries, and cakes. Buttery cakes like Black Forest and German chocolate are a delight. Be sure to try the hard-to-find pastries, such as French cream cannolis, bobby cakes, and raspberry jam tarts.

VG Donut and Bakery

Tucked away in Cardiff, this old-school bakery does fantastic old-fashioned donuts and traditional cakes. The classic spot also makes coffee cakes in flavors ranging from honey bun to strawberry cream cheese.

Matcha Cafe Maiko

The dessert haven, focused on all things green tea, has opened a new location in Mira Mesa in addition to its Escondido site. Multilayered parfaits, taiyaki, sno-bowl shaved ice, and soft-serve ice cream are a few of the treats to indulge in at this sweet house with roots in Hawaii.

Sunmerry Bakery

The Taiwanese bakery landed in Mira Mesa and opened a second location in Kearny Mesa. Here, the café serves pineapple cakes, egg tarts, Hokkaido cream cakes, and brioche doughnuts filled with black sesame custard.

Lady M Cake Boutique

Famous for its mille crepes cake with multitudes of alternating layers of crepe and cream, this luxurious confectionary shop perched in Westfield UTC Mall offers delicate French cakes with a Japanese bent. There’s always the popular original and green tea, but look out for seasonal flavors like sake.

Michele Coulon Dessertier

This La Jolla gem, run by experienced pastry chef Michele Coulon, showcases exquisite cakes, French macarons, and mini dessert cakes like German chocolate and gianduia (gluten-free bittersweet and milk chocolate cake with hazelnuts). Ingredients come from local purveyors such as Chino Farms, Café Moto, and Rancho del Sol.

Yiko Yiko

It’s hard to resist one more bite at this refreshingly not-too-sweet dessert shop in Clairemont. Try the tender-skinned snowball mochi filled with fruit and cream or taro mochi cake with a delightful texture.

Sunday Ice Cream

Tucked away in the Convoy District, the ice cream parlor showcases a flavor selection that ranges from the classics to black sesame, taro ube, and Vietnamese coffee. Check their Instagram for their latest selection since unexpected flavors are swapped in regularly.

Sage French Cake & Coffee

The French-Japanese patisserie in the Convoy District showcases delicate cakes like the Elby made with white chocolate and dark chocolate cream; the raspberry ganache and tiramisu are also delightfully decadent.

Desserts by Clement

A French pastry pro and former finalist on the Food Network’s Spring Baking Championship is now is behind this Pacific Beach cafe and dessert shop specializing in petit gateaux, small molded cakes that feature layers of flavored mousse and jelly on a biscuit base. Chef Clément Le Déoré also creates macarons, assorted viennoiseries, and a variety of custom, full-sized cakes.

Sugar & Scribe Bakery

Chef Maeve Rochford rocked the Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship a nd set up shop in La Jolla. Petit fours are a specialty here, with unusual flavors like blackberry marzipan or Chip’s Ahoy. All treats, including cupcakes and cookies, can be individually decorated for special occasions.

An’s Dry Cleaning

Recognized nationally as one of the best ice cream parlors in the country, this Adams Avenue gelateria was its first storefront. Now with additional locations in Del Mar and Petco Park, fans can indulge in fabric-inspired flavors, like cashmere (goat cheese and honey), in other parts of the city. Ask for the flavor tour to taste all of the options.

Hatsuzakura

The adorable casual Japanese cafe sits adjacent to Soichi Sushi on Adams Avenue. Run by the daughter of the Michelin-starred sushi chef, the tea shop’s star dessert is the kakigori, or Japanese shaved ice. Toppings, like strawberries, mangos, and matcha, are added to this majestic treat made with specially treated Kuramoto ice from Kanazawa, Japan. Also try the dango (skewers of rice flour mochi) or ichigo daifuku (soft mochi with red bean paste and strawberries).

Stella Jean’s Ice Cream

Offering hand-crafted small-batch ice cream in flavors like strawberry Basque cheesecake, mango sticky rice, and ube pandesal toffee, the locally owned shop now has five San Diego locations, including one adjacent to its sister shop, Pop Pie Co., in the University Heights neighborhood.

Kona Kakes Tropical Cake Bakery

This Hawaiian bakery veers toward tropical flavors, such as pineapple, guava strawberry, or haupia (Polynesian coconut pudding). Popular favorites include the decadent caramel macadamia nut cake and ube pudding and cream pie.

Azucar

Chef Vivian Hernandez brings Le Cordon Bleu training to her Cuban-style patisserie. Desserts, like flan de queso, diablo, and divina, a type of panna cotta, are delightful, while the mojito cookies are must-tries.

European Cake Gallery

Baking in San Diego since 1975, the old-school establishment is known for its Swiss Black Forest cake, walnut brownies, and cinnamon pull-apart bread.

Mutual Friend Ice Cream

With flavors like galactic brownie and haole pie, this South Park scoop shop offers traditional ice cream as well as gluten-free and vegan options. The parlor shares a space with Dark Horse Coffee and opens at 6:30 a.m. for early-morning cravings.

Extraordinary Desserts

Showstopping cakes, petit desserts, and cookies sit pretty in the tempting pastry cases at the Little Italy and Bankers Hill outposts where veteran pastry chef Karen Krasne crafts sweets ranging from mini cheesecakes and fruit tarts to her ever-popular blood orange ricotta and gianduia layer cakes.

Arely’s French Bakery

The family-owned establishment has been baking in Clairemont since 2004. Try the strawberry shortcake or chocolate mousse cake. Their mixed-fruit tarts are must-tries as well.

Mad for Cheesecake

The Japanese-style cheesecake chain now has two locations: South Bay and Carmel Valley. Try trendy Asian desserts like chiffon-like Japanese cheesecakes, Korean waffle cones with ice cream, and yaki pudding, which layers cheesecake, egg pudding, and caramel sauce in a compact cup.