The best cinnamon bun in Newport is inside the market

I did not expect to write a love letter to a cinnamon bun this week, and yet here we are. Newport Market has quietly become one of my favourite corners of the city, and right in the middle of it is Kos Deg — a Scandinavian bakery run by Hayley, who invested everything she had into doing one thing exceptionally well.

I called in on a Thursday morning, ostensibly to talk about our guests, and left having eaten the best cinnamon bun of my life. I am not exaggerating for a blog. Cardamom buns, cinnamon knots (kanelknuter), Norwegian brown cheese, heart-shaped waffles pressed to order, and bagels that hold their own against anywhere I have eaten one — the salmon cream cheese bagel is the one to start with. The counter reads like a small tour of the Nordics, made a few minutes' walk from where our guests wake up.

What stayed with me as much as the baking was Hayley herself: the sort of independent owner who greets you like a neighbour and clearly loves what she does. That is exactly the kind of place Local Connections exists to point our guests towards — not a chain, not an algorithm's idea of breakfast, but a real person doing something with care.

So if you are staying with us in Newport, this is my first tip: walk into the market, find Kos Deg, and ask for Hayley. Show your Guesture guide and she'll take 15% off the bakes. If you want a proper Scandinavian breakfast in your apartment, her breakfast boxes can be pre-ordered directly with Kos Deg a day ahead and collected at the counter. Open Wednesday to Sunday, 10 till 4 — and go before 11, because the knots sell out. Take a cardamom bun for the walk. Thank me later.

— Pedro Reis, Guesture. Kos Deg · Newport Market, High Street, NP20 1FX · kosdeg.uk · @kos.deg.scandi.eats