A Pilgrimage for the Best Desserts in Leeds City Centre
Sep 04, 2023
September 4th is ‘Eat an Extra Dessert Day’, so we're on a pilgrimage to find the best desserts in Leeds City Centre.
As you can tell, we’re very happy to have a national 'Eat an Extra Dessert Day' (this is where we'll pretend we're not already doing this on the weekly), but firstly we must start this blog post with a big shout out and thank you to our lovely Instagram followers who provided us with lots of fantastic dessert suggestions for around the city.
We have guided and self-guided food tours around Leeds City Centre, perfect for those of you who enjoy eating great food!
Click here for more information.
Combined with some we had in mind, please join us for a short but sweet journey through some of the city's most desirable dessert spots.
The Best Desserts in Leeds City Centre
Poco: Fancy a Sicilian escape?
Poco, the first Sicilian street food establishment to say ciao to the people of Leeds. Founded back in 2018 on Kirkstall Road, Poco has recently expanded into Headingley and Leeds City Centre.
You've probably heard of them, or their sister restaurant, Culto in Meanwood, but what we want to know is, have you been and tried any of their wonderful dessert offerings yet?
Our favourite is a Bombolone, filled with Nutella. With their very own Sicilian pastry chefs from Catania, the guys at Poco offer maybe the best cannoli’s out of Italy that we have tried…strong statement! They’re a delicious tube shaped fried sicilian pastry, a mouthful to say and a great mouthful to eat! Cannoli’s are usually filled with a sweet ricotta, however you can usually find a cannoli with a twist here, Kinder Bueno cannoli anyone?
Stuzzi: A roadtrip of Italy's finest sweets
Stuzzi often gets raved about and rightly so, for its incredible, ever-changing savoury menu. When we think of Stuzzi, we’re transported to flavours of their oozing arancini’s, handmade pasta’s and imported cheeses…but, you can not and must not stop there.
Stuzzi offer a dessert sharing platter, which features smaller versions of the desserts they have on offer on that particular evening. It’s only right that at this point we must include that Leeds Food Tours' owner, Ellen, says she has never shared the sharing platter - can’t blame her!
A shout out again to our Instagram followers here, as we had several responses putting Stuzzi as the best dessert in Leeds, and calling out their doughnuts in particular.
Doh'hut: The perfect donut filling doesn’t exist…
Dagel anyone? Savoury or sweet? Doh’hut offer both. Doh’hut’s new offering of the Dagel (a donut, bagel hybrid- this one was new to us!) has taken both their Leeds and London stores by storm.
The Dagel is covered in the ‘everything’ seasoning- Tik Tok lovers will know this one, filled with cream cheese and chive. If that’s not your thing, they have old school classics, like jam, sugar and vanilla creme patisserie, or try out one of their weekly specials; mocha, creme brulee, cereal milk, blood orange- the list goes on!
Let one of their weekly specials surprise your tastebuds- and the best part about a weekly special is you can return the next week without any guilt, as you obviously need to try them all! Doh’hut also serve North Star Coffee, which has our seal of approval.
Friends of Ham: Burnt Basque Cheesecake bliss
Leeds Food Tours' Georgia was recently at Friends of Ham enjoying their charcuterie and fabulous wine offering when their Burnt Basque Cheesecake caught her eye.
It was everything and more that you'd ever need from a cheesecake. Creamy within, with a mesmerisingly golden, caramelised top. This Spanish style cheesecake has creme caramel style notes and is very much worthy of an order on your next visit.
House of Fu: Japanese dessert scene meets Leeds
With influences from LA and Tokyo, House of Fu is highly recommended by ramen lovers throughout Leeds (and soon to be Manchester!). Their Japanese menu is influenced by the owners time that he spent in Japan working at some of the countries top restaurants, working with world renowned chefs.
What caught our eye was the Yuzu and Matcha Ice Cream Sandwich.
Yuzu is a sour flavour, a cross between grapefruit, tangy lemon and sweet orange paired with a matcha sponge- the perfect balance!
This is another one that came up several times on Instagram when we asked your opinion on the best desserts in Leeds.
Get Baked: WANTED: Bruce
We couldn’t do a list of desserts in Leeds without mentioning the man of the moment, Bruce- have you had the pleasure of meeting him yet?
He is a big fella with an even bigger personality- so if you do intend on doing so soon, I’d have a word with the guys at Get Baked for advice on how to deal with him.
Kult: Bubble heaven
Kult’s offering of homemade gelato, bubble tea, ‘koffee’ and bakes are sure to give you an option for your first and second dessert on this ‘National Extra Dessert Day’.
Perhaps a baklava with a side of gelato, or a dough-lato (brioche filled with homemade gelato, toasted)? Why not pair this with a refreshing Mango Cheesecke Milk Tea? The double-dessert variations are endless!
Leeds Food Tours loves Kult so much that they are a regular feature on Saturday guided food tour. Their Ube gelato makes the perfect dessert stop on a food tour (but of course, you can choose any flavour!).
OWT: Brunch or dessert?
We will put this up for debate to you: French Toast a la OWT, is it a dessert or brunch item? We think it can fall into both. Their current menu boasts a cinnamon bread and butter, house coulis, berries and whipped cream, sounds dreamy!
We also need to give a special mention in this blog to the Sticky Toffee Pudding at The Cut & Craft- another one that we have tried recently and blew us away, the Milky Way Milkshake at Batch, the Tiramisu at Salvo’s, Heavenly Desserts for a great selection for all and also The Swine That Dines/Here Comes the Bun’s ice cream sandwich!
Whether you’re enjoying a Burnt Basque Cheesecake at Friends of Ham or an intimate evening with Bruce, we hope you enjoy this years ‘National Extra Dessert Day’ by celebrating in style with one of the best desserts in Leeds City Centre.
Why Not Book a Food Tour?
If you've enjoyed this blog post and love finding different places to eat in Leeds, you would love a food tour.
Leeds Food Tours runs guided and self-guided tours around the city, visiting up to six venues with food included every stop.
Guided tours run on Saturdays (as well as one-off specials on other days), whilst self-guided tours can be done any day of the week at your own pace - simply follow the map and hand over tokens at each stop for your food.
Private tours are also available for corporate groups, hen/stag dos, birthdays and more.
Whichever you choose, you're guaranteed to eat loads of food, hear the stories behind the venues, and learn lots of fun facts!
