Best Desserts in Salt Lake City: 10 Local Favorites

If you’re anything like the Female Foodie team, you love long walks, newborn puppies, and sugar after every last meal. We find few things more satisfying than topping off an already delicious lunch or dinner (or even breakfast!) with a sweet, decadent dessert of some sort. Please enjoy our list of the best dessert in Salt Lake City!

Disclaimer: we have two separate posts focusing on chocolate shops and bakeries. For further information please check out both of these posts on our favorite chocolate shops in Salt Lake City and our favorite SLC bakeries.

SEE ALSO: 10 BEST BAKERIES IN SALT LAKE CITY

10. Donuts: Banbury Cross

The best donuts in Salt Lake City are from Banbury Cross, on 7th East. Kids love it, adults love it, cops love it (not kidding)- there’s a reason why Banbury Cross is constantly packed and major bonus points for a killer drive-thru. We haven’t met a donut here that we don’t like, but our favorite is the “crumb” donut, a fluffy, glazed donut covered in a cinnamon sugar coating. Become the best version of yourself and treat your co-workers, family, and friends to a Banbury dozen. 

9. Waffles: Bruges Waffles & Frites

There are a decent handful of spots for waffles in the Salt Lake valley, but Bruges Waffles & Frites makes the best authentic Belgian waffles in the state. The Liege waffles have amazing flavor and texture no matter what you pair it with. You have plenty of menu options to choose from here but we recommend getting the Liege waffle with cream and fresh berries. Promise you’ll die and go to heaven.

8. Gelato: Capo Gelateria Italiana

Owned by the creators of Settebello, this is the best gelato you can find in the city of Salt Lake. Period. Come here to find pans of delicious frozen concoctions including stracciatella (pictured), raspberry sorbetto, sweet cream, and coconut. They’ll graciously allow you to sample of any of flavors as you swoon over everything in the case. Capo is the perfect dessert spot after pizza next door or on a hot summer evening- one of the absolute best desserts in Salt Lake City.

SEE ALSO: TOP 10 UNDERRATED RESTAURANTS IN SALT LAKE CITY

7. Cookies: RubySnap

Owner Tami Steggell knows how to make a perfect cookie that tastes just as delicious as it looks! Head over to their location on 300 west and 700 south for some of the best cookies you will have in Salt Lake City including The Mia (vanilla bean sugar cookie with buttercream beet frosting), The Penelope (peanut butter truffle cookie dipped in chocolate), or a Female Foodie favorite, The Ricki (Coconut dough cookie filled with soft coconut, almonds, and semi-sweet chocolate). We love you, Ruby.

6. Pie: The Dodo

The Dodo without question serves some of the best desserts in Salt Lake City, namely pie. They list their daily rotating pie flavors on a chalk board in the restaurant, and the servers here are always happy to tell you what their personal favorites are. But regardless of rotating specials The Dodo always serves their Tollhouse Pie and it’s always a home run! The classic chocolate chip cookie dough baked in pie crust is a definite Salt Lake City must try. Other amazing pies include their key lime, chocolate mousse, and banana cream. #gimme

5. Cookie Delivery: Chip Cookies

Giant chocolate chip cookies and cookie delivery are all the rage in Salt Lake City these days, and our favorite of them all is the OG, Chip Cookies. Chip Cookies serves delicious (and enormous) warm chocolate chip cookies in their brick and mortar location and via delivery, making one of the best desserts in Salt Lake City. Every order is a minimum of four cookies and you can always purchase a glass of cold milk to wash down all of the chocolatey deliciousness. Follow them on Instagram to check out their monthly specials!

4. Custard: Nielsen’s Frozen Custard

There’s nothing better than creamy, thick, homemade custard. Nielsen’s has this art mastered and makes the best custard around. This frozen treat comes great as it is, but if you’re needing a step up from a simple scoop or cone, be sure to try a concrete. Concrete = a very thick shake that you eat with a spoon. Some of our favorites are the caramel cashew, chocolate cookie dough, chocolate almond, and chocolate raspberry (notice a theme??). Nielsen’s also has a great selection of ready-made pints and quarts of their delicious custard to go. 100% one of the best desserts in Salt Lake City

3. Cake: The Chocolate

2. Soft Serve: Normal® Ice Cream

There’s ice cream and then there’s Normal® Ice Cream, a soft serve ice cream truck in Salt Lake City (brick and mortar opening soon!) that serves homemade ice cream that will truly blow your mind. Owner Alexa Norlin and her team are constantly shaking things up with different flavors every month for both their standard soft serve cones as well as their regularly rotating composed cones. Composed cone toppings are always fantastically outrageous and have ranged from homemade cotton candy to carrot cake to homemade honeycomb to chestnut ganache. Not into toppings? The classic soft serve cone is still worth a visit.

1. Everything: Hatch Family Chocolates

Our overall top pick for the best desserts in Salt Lake City is Hatch Family Chocolates. They have a wide variety of fantastic desserts and the locally beloved location in the avenues gives it the best feel ever. This place is a true gold mine for chocolate lovers. Try the chocolate covered raspberries, frozen (or regular) hot chocolate, rice krispy treats, Aztec salted caramels, homemade ice cream, pot de creme, and (wait for it . . . ) their chocolate brownie sundae made with a homemade brownie, homemade ice cream, and topped with homemade hot fudge sauce and whipped cream. Come to mama.

SEE ALSO: 15 BEST RESTAURANTS IN SALT LAKE CITY