Best Dessert Spots in Asheville
Asheville, North Carolina — updated August 21, 2026
Six Asheville bakeries, patisseries and late-evening dessert counters, ranked by how well they hold up, from a Haywood Road doughnut shop with nearly 2,500 reviews to a Montford eatery that serves pastries all day.
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Asheville's dessert counters keep bakers' hours, not diners' hours: several of the best-reviewed spots in town shut by early afternoon, and one closes a weekday entirely. The places below spread from West Asheville's Haywood Road to Broadway downtown and out Tunnel Road to the east side, and only a couple of them serve sweets past dark. Ratings here are backed by real volume, so the ranking leans on how settled each score is as much as the number itself.
1. Hole Doughnuts
A 4.9 average across 2,482 reviews is the strongest combination of score and volume on this list, which makes Hole the safest bet in the city for dessert. The Haywood Road shop makes hot yeast-raised doughnuts to order, with fresh coffee and farm-to-home milk and chocolate milk alongside. Varieties are limited by design, as are seating and parking, so plan for a short wait and a walk from wherever you leave the car. Hours run 8am to 1pm and the shop is closed Tuesdays. Pickup orders can be phoned in during business hours; anything from four dozen up needs an email at least two days ahead.
2. Old Europe Pastries
A downtown patisserie that has been on Broadway since 1994, with 2,408 reviews behind a 4.7 rating, which is about as proven as a pastry case gets in Asheville. The counter runs to European cakes and tortes alongside breakfast items including quiche, blueberry muffins and other morning pastries, and it doubles as a coffee shop, so it works for a mid-afternoon slice as well as a post-dinner one. The Lemon Bavarian rotates on and off the case and the shop announces its return when it comes back. Central enough to fold into a walk around downtown without a car move.
3. Double D's Coffee & Desserts
Dessert served out of a double-decker bus on Biltmore Avenue, and at 4.6 from 1,455 reviews the novelty has clearly outlasted the novelty phase. The pitch is simple: fancy drinks and treats, ordered downstairs and eaten upstairs if there is room. Hours shift with the season and the shop has posted closures on individual weekdays, so check before making the trip. Street parking is usually easy in the morning, and the Biltmore Ave Garage sits next door for busier stretches. Good for an afternoon coffee-and-cake stop when downtown is crowded and every sit-down place has a wait.
4. Filo Pastries & Post 70 Indulgence Bar
The one entry here that reliably serves dessert at night. Filo runs the daytime bakery on Tunnel Road with pastries, cakes, coffee, teas and breakfast and lunch plates; Post 70 takes over Wednesday through Saturday evenings from 5pm to 9pm with savory small plates, flatbreads, craft cocktails and desserts. Hours are Mon and Tue 7am to 4pm, Wed through Fri 7am to 9pm, Sat 8am to 9pm, Sun 9am to 3pm. The 4.7 rating rests on 889 reviews, less volume than the two above but enough to take seriously. East Asheville, so budget the drive from downtown.
5. City Bakery
The Charlotte Street cafe is the north-of-downtown option for scones, croissants, cinnamon rolls, sticky buns, muffins and danishes, baked fresh and sold alongside a full breakfast and lunch menu. It rates 4.7 across 615 reviews, a smaller sample than the leaders here but consistent. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 7:30 to 2:30, closed Sunday, with breakfast running until 11 on weekdays and noon on Saturday. Since the doors close mid-afternoon, this is a morning or lunchtime dessert stop rather than an evening one. Bagels and toast are available all day for anyone not eating sweets.
6. All Day Darling
A market-focused neighborhood eatery in historic Montford, open every day from sun-up to sun-down with an all-day menu and a pastry selection. At 4.5 from 1,217 reviews it is well tested, though it sits last here because dessert is one part of a broader kitchen rather than the whole point. Indoor and patio seating, walking distance from downtown, and typical hours of 7am to 8pm, though the cafe occasionally opens late and posts the change. Best treated as a place to end a Montford walk with a pastry and a cocktail rather than a dedicated dessert run.