Where to find the best pies in Los Angeles

If you’ve been eating in L.A. over the last decade, you’ve probably tasted pastry chef Nicole Rucker’s baked goods at Gjelina, Gjusta, Smorgasburg or Cofax—which means you’ve tasted the love and care Rucker puts into her pies. Brimming with bright pops of acidity and sweetness from fresh seasonal produce, Rucker’s pies are also silky smooth from butter, custard and chocolate. At her Grand Central Market stand and Culver City café, you can find some of her most iconic baked goods (light-as-air key lime pie, anyone?) as well as newer creations like gluten-free brownies, individually-sized Basque cheesecakes and scones. Pre-order online for Thanksgiving here.

Brianna Abrams first lit up farmers’ markets with her mobile bakestand, ButterCrust Pies, then continued the magic with a handful of Westside and Valley brick-and-mortars under the Winston Pies name. All four Brentwood, Marina del Rey, Studio City and West Hollywood shops offer pies whole, by the slice, in individual-size 5-inch pies, square hand pies, and 2.5-inch pie bites. (Because sometimes you just need a bite of pie, right?) The focus here is Southern classics made with all-butter crusts, so you can expect options such as the sweet-tart Dixie Cherry, Southern pecan and the Blue Ridge Blueberry in addition to key lime pies and other staples. For Thanksgiving, Winston Pies is offering daily pickups throughout the week—preorder here.

When celebrity chef Curtis Stone closed his tasting menu restaurant during the early pandemic, he brought us a little taste of his Australian upbringing in the form of meat pies and sausage rolls sold out of Maude’s dining room. Now, the Pie Room is back for good in Beverly Hills, with an all-day menu that includes a selection of savory pies and one of the city’s best apple pies.Not only do the pies come in Australian classics—such as cottage pie and beef cheek pie—there’s also an excellent pastry selection, including a standout cinnamon roll with vanilla frosting. Don't forget to grab a bottle of the house condiments; we're partial to the onion-and-date chutney and also the piccalilli.  

Already, the deep-dish apple and cherry pies at Sang Yoon’s newly opened bakery-café fill the cavernous space with the delicate, intoxicating scent of cooked, lightly sweetened fruit. After the Pie Room, it’s my favorite apple pie in the city. While the daily selection often  also includes custard pie options like corn cream topped with whipped cream and figs, the star of the show at Helms Bakery is undoubtedly the thickly layered apple pie. Luckily, for Thanksgiving, Helms Bakery is selling whole apple pies for $85 apiece, plus pumpkin and pecan varieties for $65 each. Head to the bakery’s website starting on November 11 to place a preorder—but don’t delay, since quantities are limited.

The U-shaped counter, the sauce-slathered burgers and especially the pies at this West L.A. institution all somehow seemed to escape time. Burger patties sizzle on the griddle that’s been around for decades (since 1927, to be exact) and get served by friendly waiters who seem to have been around for just as long. But when it comes to sweets, the Apple Pan’s trademark pies are incredibly old-school, topped with fluffy whipped cream and available in the all-American classics. We’re partial to the banana cream pie, which comes stuffed with thick banana slices, but it’s hard to beat the pecan with ice cream, too. Find them all available by the slice at $7.75 apiece, or whole for $39—one of the best pie buys in town.

This morning-to-afternoon bakery and café offers some of the best pastries, quiche and cookies in the city, and we wouldn’t skip over their pies, either. Chef Roxana Jullapat’s pie selection changes regularly, from chocolate chess, pumpkin, apple and pecan for Thanksgiving to fruit galettes and tarts in the summer. Check their Instagram to see what’s baking now. 

Since 2002, the Gourmet Cobbler Factory has offered Pasadena locals and cobbler fanatics some of the best fruit cobblers in Southern California, courtesy of owner and chef Clifton Powell’s Southern family recipes. Powell and his wife Gloria sell a variety of mouthwatering cobblers daily, but their classic peach is by far the most popular. The secret to their success? Fresh, not canned fruit. In recent years, they’ve also begun selling plates of barbecue and sandwiches with traditional sides like mac and cheese, collard greens, baked beans and potato salad.

Republic of Pie looks more like a living room than a coffee shop, but that doesn’t mean their menu is something you could whip up in your kitchen. Beautiful and indulgent pies are made fresh daily—and dare we say, they’re some of the best desserts in the Valley. If you’re craving something sweet, go for the chocolate banana bread pudding pie, the cookies n’ cream, or the coconut cream pie. Wanting something savory? Their mac and cheese pot pie is crazy good, as is their ham and swiss quiche. As for the drinks, a long list of coffee and tea is written out on a blackboard, boasting items like the NoHo cold brew and a refreshing jasmine tea.

Sweet Lady Jane is known for just about everything—cakes, tarts, breads—and especially their signature crowd-pleaser, a Triple Berry Shortcake. But if pies are what you’re in the market for, Sweet Lady Jane’s don’t disappoint: Available by the slice and as entire pies, fillings include apple, blueberry, cherry, and pecan, as well as seasonal favorites such as pumpkin. Plus, there are locations in Encino, Santa Monica and WeHo—and the pie shop is also available on delivery services—so no matter where you are, there’s pie within reach.

Pies normally rely on butter crusts, egg washes and yolk-rich custard fillings, but if you’re looking for vegan pie, Just What I Kneaded has you covered. From homespun Instagram operation to one of the city’s favorite wholesale vegan bakeries, Just What I Kneaded eventually landed a bake shop of its own, and Justine Hernandez’s charming outfit whips up plant-based market-fresh scones, cookies, cinnamon rolls and more with a full coffee program. The bakery case rotates daily, but you can usually find slices of pie once or twice a week, and it's always available for custom orders—giving vegans a reliable, whimsical go-to for whole pies, whatever the occasion.

Some of the best icebox and seasonal fruit pies in Los Angeles don’t come from a bakery or restaurant at all. Instead, they come from the Historic Filipinotown garage of Karla Subero Pittol, an industry-favorite pastry whiz who’s previously worked at Michelin-starred Providence in Hollywood and Koreatown’s Here’s Looking at You. While Subero Pittol has dabbled in savory foods as of late—the Venezuelan American chef now offers lavish private dinners at off-site locations or out of the garage—she typically offers flash pie sales once or twice a month. Follow Chainsaw on Instagram to stay up to date, and you just might catch her latest pie drop.

If you can bake it in a crust, Jongewaard’s will make it. Opened by Roger and Carol Jongewaard in 1965, the family-owned restaurant specializes in dishes that conjure up a meal around grandma’s table: pot roast, chili, chicken fried steak, sandwiches. But it’s the pies (oh, the pies!) that make first-timers become regulars here, a never-ending list of sweet and savory options that include banana meringue, rhubarb, pumpkin streusel, lemon cream, French apple, pecan, boysenberry and more. Pie for every meal, honestly.

Just two and a half blocks shy of the Hollywood border, this West Hollywood restaurant feels like a younger cousin of Dan Tana’s. The main room is straight out of Goodfellas, while the café hearkens back to a family restaurant you might find in Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori. For dinner, there’s pizza and pasta galore, but anyone with a sweet tooth knows to order Jones’ famed apple pie for two: The ooey, gooey slice spills out onto a wrought iron skillet, accompanied by a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s old school, old-fashioned and timeless, and even available for delivery—so you can dig into one of WeHo’s best sweets from the comfort of your couch.

After the success of her mostly-vegan pastry kiosk in Chinatown’s Far East Plaza, French Laundry and Konbi alum Jen Yee now has a charming brick-and-mortar inside the trendy Alpine Street dining complex at the edge of Chinatown. For Thanksgiving, Yee is baking fully plant-based apple ($50), pecan ($48) and pumpkin ($45) pies with sides of vegan maple whipped cream ($8.50). Place preorders for pickup 8am to 3pm on November 27 and 8am to noon on Thanksgiving Day.

Du-par’s has been selling legend-status pies since 1938, and you can certainly feel the old-timey magic—especially given the setting: its Original Farmers Market location, which has been around for even longer. It’s here you’ll find straightforward, homey classics in sliced, whole and mini variety: peach pie, sweet potato pie, apple pie, pecan pie, coconut cream pie, custard pie—each bite is almost like a time warp in and of itself, which makes sense, as some of these recipes date back to the ‘30s.

Don’t be fooled by the relaxed vibe given off by this throwback diner, which first opened in 1963: As the name suggests, when it comes to pies and burgers, they mean business. In addition to the griddle-cooked patties (topped, of course, with a secret recipe house-made sauce), the selection of pie here includes pillowy meringues (banana, peanut butter, chocolate, coconut, lemon, butterscotch), seasonal fruit (strawberry, blackberry, peach and more) and classics (pumpkin, custard, cherry and even mince)—for about $34 apiece. Add ice cream or house-made whipped cream to a slice for $3.