The Great Pan de Bono Walk-Off
Cornmeal, cassava starch, and cheese, baked until the outside barely holds together and the inside turns chewy and springy in a way no other bread quite manages.
That's pan de bono. It's a Colombian bread roll, usually round, sometimes cracked open on top, and it lives or dies on that yuca starch texture: dense, stretchy, a little squeaky against your teeth in the best way. It's best eaten the same day, still warm, while the cheese inside is soft and the crust still has some snap left in it.
Zack loves pan de bono. Growing up, he had never been to a Hispanic bakery and never tried pan de bono until he was an adult. Now he seeks it out everywhere we go. So on this walk, we started in Sunnyside and worked our way through Woodside and into Jackson Heights with one goal: find the best pan de bono along the way.
Here's how the three stops stacked up, worst to first.
La Gran Uruguaya Bakery
📍 Jackson HeightsWe didn't want this to turn into an exclusively Colombian bake-off, so we made a stop at a Uruguayan bakery to see what their version of pan de bono looked like. At La Gran Uruguaya, you know exactly where you are before you even order. Futbol memorabilia covers the walls, that unmistakable sky-blue color is everywhere, and bags of yerba mate are stacked by the register. It's authentically Uruguayan from the moment you walk in.
The pan de bono here wasn't round like the Colombian versions we know — it came out longer and lighter in color. Zack couldn't wait. He tore into it before I could even get the camera up, and I barely caught this shot before it disappeared. It was solid, genuinely good bread, but it landed in third place on our list. It wasn't quite as fresh as the other two, and it was missing some of that springy, chewy yuca texture that makes pan de bono pan de bono.
Pecoshitas
📍 Jackson HeightsPecoshitas was bumping. The line was nearly out the door, every Colombian tía in the neighborhood seemed to be picking up bread the morning after a big World Cup game. This is a true bakery, with a case that goes way beyond pan de bono. We were thirsty from the walk, so we grabbed a fresh orange juice and sampled a few other breads while we were at it.
The pan de bono itself was excellent: warm, fresh, and hitting every mark we look for — chewy, a little cheesy, the kind of bread you actually have to bite into. The orange juice was fresh-squeezed and the whole bill barely made a dent. Once again, Zack started eating before I could get a photo. The bread just doesn't last long enough for both of us.
Rico Pan
📍 WoodsideRico Pan came into this walk as the heavy favorite. It's a bakery we visit regularly, and we walked in already knowing what we wanted. We ordered the pan de bono along with a few other things, and it came out of the case still warm. We barely made it out the door before pulling a piece apart on the sidewalk.
This pan de bono was close to perfect. Warm, fresh, with that contrast between a thin crust and a soft, chewy center that's exactly what pan de bono should be. There's enough yuca and starch in there to make it look almost underbaked, but that's just the texture doing its thing. Rico Pan is the reigning champion and a must-visit if you're anywhere near Woodside.
5 stars on Z&D Reviews. 🥇