The North End cannoli is a Sicilian-style fried pastry tube filled to order with sweetened ricotta cheese and dusted with powdered sugar or chocolate. The defining Italian-American pastry in Boston since the 1920s.

Sicilian immigrants brought the cannolo to Boston's North End in the 1880s and 1890s, when the neighbourhood became the city's Little Italy. Mike's Pastry opened on Hanover Street in 1946 and codified the to-order ricotta-filling template that prevents the shell going soggy. Modern Pastry, a few doors down at 257 Hanover, has filled cannoli at the counter since 1930. The Mike's-versus-Modern argument is the North End's longest-running tourist debate: Mike's wins on shell crunch and filling variety, Modern wins on cream balance and chocolate-dipped shells. Either house fills the shell only at the moment of purchase, never in advance.

2 editor picks for North End cannoli in Boston, ranked by editorial score. All Boston signature dishes · North End cannoli across every city.