Nova Bakehouse: Leeds Dock bakery ranked as one of Britain's Best Bakeries for 2025 by The Good Food Guide
A popular bakery by Leeds Dock has been named among the 50 best in Britain in The Good Food Guide.
Nova Bakehouse, which is co-owned by sisters Sarah Lemakski and Hannah Mather, has been named as one of the 50 best bakeries in Great Britain by the esteemed food guide.
Mrs Lemanski said that she found out last week about being included in the list, just weeks after finding out that they were featured in the guide for the third year running.
She said: “To then find out this was even better. You are being narrowed down and singled out even more.
“It was a nice surprise and great to see the rest of the list.”
She said that she was proud to see such an emphasis this year among the bakeries included on sourcing local produce and ingredients such as flour, chocolate and honey and supporting the local agricultural industry.
Mrs Lemanski said: “We work quite close together on issues around produce we use so it was really important to see quite a few others who work with a similar ethos to us in there.”
Nova Bakehouse was set up at a unit in Leeds Dock in 2019 by the two sisters before moving to its current spot in January last year. With the addition of seating space and more room, the company has flourished over the last 15 months.
“Customers can come in and spend a bit of time and watch the bakers at work now”, said Mrs Lemanski. “Everything we do is a three-day process and done by hand.
“We used to do more wholesale stuff but the idea was to come away from that and have our own place so we can have interactions and talk and explain the produce.”
The list, announced today (Wednesday), is the product of expert on-the-ground knowledge from The Good Food Guide’s network of anonymous inspectors gathered from hundreds of miles covered searching for the freshest croissants and the most flavoursome sourdough loaves.
Also featured among Britain’s 50 top bakeries is the northernmost entry ever to appear in The Good Food Guide in its 75-year history. Cereal Bakery in Tongue, a small village on coast of the northwest Scottish Highlands, is led by British Chinese baker Wing Mon Cheung.
Editor of The Good Food Guide, Chloë Hamilton, said: “Some of the best talent on the food scene right now is in Britain’s bakeries.
“The bakers are the people most connected to their local food systems and celebrating the best of the British seasons, and the quality of craftsmanship outshines the pastry sections of some of the country’s top restaurants.
“The best part is, you can get a taste of it for (mostly) less than a fiver. You’ll just have to join the queue.”
The Good Food Guide’s list of Britain's Best Bakeries 2025
- Almond Thief, Dartington, Devon
- Aran Bakery, Dunkeld, Perthshire & Kinross
- Bakers Yard Bakery, Sheffield, South Yorkshire
- Bake Shop, Ely, Cambridgeshire
- Beefcake Cafe, Glasgow, Strathclyde
- Bostock Bakery, North Berwick, Lothians
- Bunhead Bakery, Herne Hill, London
- Cereal Bakery, Lairg, Highlands & Islands
- Company Bakery, Musselburgh, Lothians
- Crwst, Cardigan, Ceredigion
- Dusty Knuckle, Harringay, London
- E5 Bakehouse, Hackney, London
- Eric's, East Dulwich, London
- Farro, Bristol
- Field Bakery, Bridgwater, Somerset
- Flint Owl Bakery, Brighton, East Sussex
- Gorse Bakery, Newquay, Cornwall
- Grain & Hearth, Whitstable, Kent
- Hamblin Bread, Oxford, Oxfordshire
- Hart's Bakery, Bristol
- Haxby Bakehouse, York, North Yorkshire
- Hearth , Hackney Wick, London
- Hobz Bakery, Edinburgh, Lothians
- Kanto, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
- Landrace Bakery, Bath, Somerset
- Lannan Bakery, Edinburgh, East Lothian
- Levain & Cherry, Birmingham, West Midlands
- Lockdown Loaves, Winterbourne, Bristol
- Long Boi's Bakehouse, Manchester, Greater Manchester
- Longstraw Bakery, Taunton , Somerset
- Lovingly Artisan, Altrincham, Greater Manchester
- Mabel, Downham Market, Norfolk
- Mhor Bread & Store, Callander, Stirling
- Nova Bakehouse, Leeds, West Yorkshire
- Oast, Margate, Kent
- Pipit Bakery, Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
- Pollen Bakery (Kampus), Manchester, Greater Manchester
- Rye Bakery, Frome, Somerset
- Six Chimneys, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
- Small Food Bakery, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
- Tarn Bakery, Highgate, London
- The Angel Bakery, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
- The Garage Bakehouse, Market Harborough, Leicestershire
- The Old Store, Snettisham, Norfolk
- The Wild Loaf, Liverpool, Merseyside
- Toad Bakery, Camberwell, London
- Toklas Bakery, Temple, London
- Tough Mary's Bakehouse, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire
- Twelve Triangles, Edinburgh, Lothians
- Wooster's Bakery, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk