So many SF donut shops!
As a transplant from Boston, where the vile Dunkin' Donuts somehow continues to proliferate, I'm in awe of all the independent (and seemingly mostly Asian-owned) donut shops in the city. So, are any of them any good? We sampled a bear claw and apple fritter from the Noe Valley Happy Donuts. Admittedly, these were not donuts, but we were underwhelmed with the bear claw, and the apple fritter was almost cloyingly sweet. This morning, we had a somewhat better experience with Donut World in Inner Sunset, sampling sticks, twists, and donuts. The one thing of note was the jelly donut, which had an interesting, almost sour jelly filling.
I've yet to try Dynamo and Pepples, but they are both on my list. So, are there other places worth sampling in the city? And if so, what specifically is tasty?
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Yes, it is interesting to see so many mom and pop donut shops around. Here they seem to specialize in the cake donuts rather than the raised yeast variety of Dunkin Donuts. I pretty much never ate donuts before but now hanker after the buttermilk variety-- crunchy on the outside with a tangy vanilla flavored batter. They look like a donut that someone pressed a cup into and flattened. Sadly, no one serves the DD coffee the way DD does-- ie a gallon of kind of weak coffee mixed with an equal amount of cream and a pound of sugar in every cup.
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re: sugartoof
Windy
Oct 17, 2011 08:26 AM
They used to say that about Chock Full of Nuts when I was growing up. I don't remember anyone claiming Dunkin was great coffee. Starbucks was a cut above when it appeared everywhere in the early 90s.
When I was in NY in June, I was at the Dunkin Donuts booth at a fair in Central Park. They were giving away t-shirts to people who could identify items on their new menus which apparently include healthy breakfasts and salads. Bizarre.
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I was in the City the other night and near Bob's so I stopped and got a dozen, freshly made. Fresh they are as good as advertised. But they also held up the next day and still had a crisp exterior on the cake donuts and were still soft 2 days later but nothing special. $7.90 for a regular dozen.
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Don't bother with preeples if your looking for something like Dunkin donuts. they're way to healthy tasting
Bobs is good fresh. I've have their popular apple fritter a few times and always find them overbooked or bordering in burnt
If you're over in the east bay, try Andy's in Richmond. They're the best doughnuts I've had in The bay area and they're open 24/7
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Not really. The only one that I found acceptable was Happy Donuts at 761 3rd St.
The place you mentioned on Noe was not good. I don't understand these recs for Bobs; maybe I tried the wrong place on Polk, but I think that I tried Bobs (is there another nearby?). Note worth a repeat. Or, maybe it's improved in the past few years.
I occasional stop for a Dynamo. Keep in mind that it's much more expensive.
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little big al
Sep 5, 2011 09:44 PM
Don't be dissin' the dunkin'! Actually as a transplant myself I sometimes miss the "flagship""Dunkin' Donut", which I believe the corporate overlords discontinued. It was a donut with a "handle" on the side and according to the pledge taken at DDUniversity was made every 4 hours, 24 hours a day.A lot of donut shops are currently run by Cambodian immigrants in one of those strange ethnic affiliation things that once led to Greek pasta based chili parlors in the mid-west. Try Bob's for real donut value. Also the things called "french crullers" at a lot of places seem unique to San Francisco to me. Kind of like a fried pop-over with chocolate on it and how bad could that be?
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