Only in LA
One came from a grocery store.
One came from a gas station.
One reminded me of my nana.
After eating my way across Los Angeles, these are the cookies I’d happily spend my calories on.
By Karen Lepp
Everyone in Los Angeles has an opinion about the best chocolate chip cookie.
Not just an opinion—a passionate, “I’ll die on this hill” opinion.
Only in LA can a simple chocolate chip cookie inspire hour-long lines, neighborhood rivalries, and heated debates over brown butter, flaky sea salt, and whether a cookie should cost more than lunch.
So naturally…
I decided to eat my way across the city.
Should the perfect cookie be soft or crispy?
Chewy or crunchy?
Finished with flaky sea salt or left alone?
Made with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, bittersweet—or all three?
Should it be the size of your palm or your entire face?
And perhaps the biggest question of all…
Is any cookie really worth $7.50?
Over the next two weeks, I happily sacrificed my waistline in the name of journalism, tasting some of Los Angeles’ most talked-about chocolate chip cookies.
Some lived up to the hype.
Some didn’t.
But only ten earned a place on this list.
As new bakeries open—and let’s be honest, in LA that’s probably happening tomorrow—I’ll keep updating these rankings one cookie at a time.
🍪 No. 10
Bristol Farms – “The Cookie”
📍 Where: Bristol Farms (Various Los Angeles locations)
One of the top 10 cookies on this list actually came from a grocery store.
I almost didn’t include it.
Then I walked past the bakery at Bristol Farms and caught the intoxicating aroma of “The Cookie” fresh from the oven.
Game over.
Served warm in a simple wax paper bag proudly stamped The Cookie, this massive chocolate chip cookie delivers crispy golden edges and a soft, gooey center loaded with your choice of milk or dark chocolate chunks, with or without walnuts.
At $3.75, it’s also one of the best bargains on this list.
Sure, you can pick up milk and eggs while you’re there…
But let’s be honest—you came for the cookie.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $3.75
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every warm, buttery bite.
🚗 Worth the Drive? If you’re already near a Bristol Farms, absolutely. I wouldn’t cross LA just for it—but I’d happily make a detour.
🥛 Needs Milk? It certainly wouldn’t hurt.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Never underestimate a grocery store bakery. Sometimes the best surprise is waiting next to the produce department.
🍪 No. 9: Zooies Cookies – The Gooie
📍 Where: Zooies Cookies, 9815 National Blvd., Los Angeles
Who would’ve thought a gas station would be home to one of the best chocolate chip cookies in Los Angeles?
Apparently, a lot of people.
Fresh cookies come out of the oven throughout the day, and while filling up your tank, you can choose from nearly ten varieties of chocolate chip cookies, including vegan, paleo, and nut-free options.
My favorite is The Gooie.
The name says it all.
This cookie delivers a perfectly gooey center packed with both dark and milk chocolate, crispy golden edges, and just the right sprinkle of flaky sea salt to balance every bite.
At $3, it’s also one of the best values on this list.
Come for the gas…
Leave with cookies.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $3.00
🍫 Worth the Calories? Absolutely.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Yes—and you can fill up your tank while you’re there.
🥛 Needs Milk? Optional.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Only in LA could one of the city’s best chocolate chip cookies come from a gas station.
🍪 No. 8: Levain Bakery – Two Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie
📍 Where: Levain Bakery, Larchmont Village (and other Los Angeles locations)
Coming in at No. 8 is a true heavyweight—and I mean that literally.
Originally from New York, Levain Bakery has made quite a name for itself in Los Angeles, and one bite explains why. Their famous Two Chip Chocolate Chip Cookie weighs in at an astonishing six ounces, making it the largest cookie on this list.
Don’t let the size fool you.
This cookie isn’t just big for the sake of being big.
Beneath its perfectly crisp exterior is a thick, gooey center packed with both semi-sweet and dark chocolate chips. Every bite is rich, buttery, and incredibly satisfying without ever feeling overly sweet.
At $6, it’s definitely a splurge for a cookie, but it’s also big enough to share…
Although you probably won’t want to.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $6.00
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every decadent bite.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Absolutely.
🥛 Needs Milk? It certainly doesn’t hurt.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Everything really is bigger at Levain—including the cravings you’ll have after the first bite.
🍪 No. 7: Clementine – Chocolate Chip Cookie
📍 Where: Clementine, 1751 Ensley Ave., Los Angeles (near Century City)
Tucked away on a quiet side street near Century City, Clementine has been quietly baking one of LA’s best chocolate chip cookies since 2000.
For $4, you get a cookie with crisp, toffee-like edges, a wonderfully chewy center, and pockets of bittersweet chocolate that melt into every bite.
There’s something wonderfully nostalgic about this cookie.
Out of every cookie I tasted, this one reminded me the most of the kind Mom would pull fresh from the oven after school.
It’s simple.
It’s comforting.
And sometimes…
That’s exactly what you’re craving.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $4.00
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every homemade-tasting bite.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Absolutely.
🥛 Needs Milk? Yes…this one practically asks for a cold glass.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Sometimes the best cookie isn’t the flashiest one. It’s the one that tastes like home.
🍪 No. 6: The Very Best Cookie in the Whole Wide World – The O.G.
📍 Where: 2625 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles (near Culver City)
With a name like The Very Best Cookie in the Whole Wide World, this tiny bake shop sets the bar pretty high.
Fortunately…
It delivers.
Their signature O.G. Cookie is made in small batches using premium ingredients, including Plugrá European butter, Maldon sea salt, TCHO organic chocolate, and Callebaut Belgian chocolate. The result is a beautifully balanced cookie with a soft center, crisp edges, and generous chunks of semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate in every bite.
The sprinkle of flaky sea salt ties everything together, creating a rich, buttery cookie that’s indulgent without ever feeling too sweet.
At $5.50, it’s not inexpensive, but the quality of the ingredients shines through from the very first bite.
This little bakery may have the longest name in Los Angeles…
But it also makes one unforgettable cookie.
🍪 No. 5: Lei’d Cookies – Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie with Flaky Sea Salt
📍 Where: Lei’d Cookies, 8588 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City
Coming in at No. 5 is Lei’d Cookies, a fun, globally inspired bakery bringing flavors from around the world to Culver City.
While the menu is packed with creative cookie combinations, it was the Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie with Flaky Sea Salt that completely won me over.
The brown butter adds a rich, nutty flavor, while dark chocolate chips melt into the dough, creating deep caramel notes in every bite. Crispy edges give way to a perfectly soft center, and the finishing sprinkle of flaky sea salt ties everything together beautifully.
At $5, this cookie proves that sometimes simple ingredients, done exceptionally well, are all you need.
And if you really want to take it over the top…
Pair it with a scoop of Sad Girl Creamery ice cream.
You can thank me later.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $5.00
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every single one.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Absolutely.
🥛 Needs Milk? Skip the milk…get the ice cream.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Brown butter and flaky sea salt might just be the greatest love story ever baked into a cookie.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $5.50
🍫 Worth the Calories? Without question.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Absolutely.
🥛 Needs Milk? Optional.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Sometimes a bakery with the biggest name really does live up to the hype.
🍪 No. 4: Petitgrain Boulangerie – Classic Chocolate Chunk Cookie
📍 Where: Petitgrain Boulangerie, 1209 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica
From here on out, we’re in serious cookie territory.
Every one of these cookies is worth driving across LA for.
There’s always a line outside Petitgrain.
After one visit, it’s easy to understand why.
The bakery’s motto is “Kindness and Hustle,” and unlike a lot of catchy slogans, they actually live by it. Every employee is trained in every part of the business. That means today’s dishwasher knows how to bake cookies, and today’s baker isn’t above washing dishes.
That kind of teamwork says a lot about a place.
So does the cookie.
The Classic Chocolate Chunk Cookie is one of the largest—and definitely one of the butteriest—on this list. The crisp exterior gives way to a soft center packed with oversized chocolate chunks, while organic dark brown sugar and whole-grain flour add a rich, almost nutty depth of flavor.
At $6, it’s a cookie that proves premium ingredients really do make a difference.
While you’re there, keep an eye out for Jim’s Famous Thin & Crispy Rye Chocolate Chip Cookie. It’s completely different from the Classic, with delicate chocolate bits scattered throughout an impossibly thin, crisp rye cookie. It’s usually sold only by the dozen and only on certain days, making it one of LA’s hardest cookies to score.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $6.00
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every buttery bite.
🚗 Worth the Drive? Without question.
🥛 Needs Milk? Optional.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Great ingredients make a great cookie. Great people make a great bakery.
🍪 No. 3: Pantry by Baker – Chocolate Chip Sea Salt Cookie
📍 Where: Online only • Brentwood • Order at PantryByBaker.com
Coming in at No. 3 is Pantry by Baker, a small home bakery operating out of a Brentwood kitchen and proving that you don’t need a storefront to make one of the best chocolate chip cookies in LA.
Before we go any further…
Full disclosure: the owner is the son of a good friend of mine.
In fact, I almost left these cookies off the list because I didn’t want anyone to think I was playing favorites.
Then I took another bite.
If this cookie weren’t this good, it wouldn’t be on this list.
At $7.50, it’s also the most expensive cookie I tasted, and I’ll admit it—that price made me wince.
But once you taste it, you understand exactly where the money went.
Everything is made with organic ingredients, from the flour and butter to the vanilla, while hand-cut pieces of single-origin Valrhona chocolate melt into a rich, buttery dough before each cookie is finished with flaky Maldon sea salt.
The result is a cookie with beautifully caramelized edges, a soft, gooey center, and layers of chocolate that taste both rich and refined without ever feeling overdone.
Would I pay $7.50 every time I wanted a cookie?
Probably not.
Would I order these again for a special occasion or as a gift?
Absolutely.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $7.50
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every bite.
🚗 Worth the Drive? No driving required—they’re delivered or available for pickup.
🥛 Needs Milk? Optional.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: The price made me hesitate. The cookie made me understand.
🍪 No. 2: Bread + Butter – Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie
📍 Where: Bread + Butter, 2645 Main St., Santa Monica
Choosing between my top two cookies was like picking a favorite child…
…if my children were made of butter and chocolate.
If Gjusta didn’t exist, this would be my No. 1.
Bread + Butter is one of those bakeries with a line out the door from the moment it opens, and after one bite, it’s easy to understand why. Tucked beside a motel on Main Street in Santa Monica, it’s quietly baking one of the best chocolate chip cookies in Los Angeles.
This isn’t an over-the-top Instagram cookie.
It’s rustic.
Thick.
Wonderfully chewy.
With deeply caramelized edges and the unmistakable nutty richness of brown butter.
The first bite took me somewhere I wasn’t expecting.
It reminded me of my nana wrapping her arms around me.
Warm.
Comforting.
Safe.
Sometimes the best cookies aren’t the most complicated.
They’re the ones that make you feel something.
At $4.50, it’s also one of the best values on this list. In a city where some cookies are pushing $8, Bread + Butter proves you don’t have to spend a fortune to eat one of LA’s very best.
These cookies sell out quickly, so get there early.
Trust me…
This is one line worth standing in.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $4.50
🍫 Worth the Calories? Without hesitation.
🚗 Worth the Drive? I’d cross LA for this one.
🥛 Needs Milk? Not a chance. This cookie stands perfectly well on its own.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: Some cookies impress you. This one hugged me back.
🍪 No. 1: Gjusta Bakery – Chocolate Chunk Cookie
📍 Where: Gjusta Bakery, 320 Sunset Ave., Venice
Before I started this cookie crawl, I had a feeling I already knew how it would end.
I just needed to make sure I was right.
After eating my way across Los Angeles, one cookie still stands above the rest.
For years, Gjusta has been the chocolate chip cookie I’ve measured every other cookie against.
After tasting ten of LA’s most talked-about cookies…
It still is.
Don’t expect to find it displayed under a fancy glass dome or perched on an elegant cake stand.
At Gjusta, it’s tucked inside an unpretentious bakery case, quietly waiting for anyone lucky enough to grab one.
The cookie is everything I want a chocolate chip cookie to be.
A deeply nutty brown butter base.
A perfectly soft center.
Crisp, caramelized edges.
Generous chunks of chocolate—not chips—in every bite.
Finished with just enough flaky sea salt to make every ingredient shine.
I’ve eaten a lot of chocolate chip cookies.
I’ve never had one where I could taste every single ingredient so distinctly.
The butter.
The chocolate.
The brown sugar.
The sea salt.
Nothing gets lost.
At $4.50, it’s the most reasonably priced cookie on this list.
And it’s the only one I’d happily pay that price for again…
and again.
If you’re only buying one chocolate chip cookie in Los Angeles…
Make it this one.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs
💰 Price: $4.50
🍫 Worth the Calories? Every last one.
🚗 Worth the Drive? I’d drive across LA without checking traffic.
🥛 Needs Milk? Absolutely not.
🍪 Karen’s Crumbs: If you’re only buying one chocolate chip cookie in LA…this is the one.
The Final Bite
So…
Did I find the best chocolate chip cookie in Los Angeles?
I think I did.
Along the way, I discovered one inside a grocery store, another at a gas station, one that reminded me of my nana, and one that made me understand why someone would spend $7.50 on a cookie.
That’s the fun of living in LA.
Around every corner is another bakery convinced they have the city’s best chocolate chip cookie.
And knowing this city…
Someone is probably opening another one while you’re reading this.
Looks like I’ll have to start eating again.
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