Donuts in LA

It’s weird to think that I’ve been living in LA nearly full-time for about… three years now. Not sure how that happened! But I’ve definitely learned many of the pros and cons to living here. Sometimes it feels like the cons outweigh the pros. Sometimes it feels like the pros make the cons worth it.

Mainly, it’s weird to live in a city that’s known as a tourist destination! I forget sometimes that people actually want to travel to LA and do things like see the Hollywood Walk of Fame or the Chinese Theater or Griffith or the beach. And with working from home, I don’t get out the house very much.

But sometimes my internal monologue gets very loud and says: “You live in a massive metropolitan city! There’s so much to do! Food to eat! Museums to see! Places to go! Get out there! People travel from all over the world to visit here and you’re just going to sit inside?! You don’t even have AC!” (The reality is, doing anything in LA comes with the massive headache of traffic and then finding parking, and then paying exorbitant fees for parking. My internal monologue usually remembers this as soon as I do go out.)

But LA does have one major pro – and that is the abundance and diversity of restaurants. So I’ve decided, in an effort to get out of the house and make the most of living in LA despite the headaches it sometimes causes, that I’m going to do my own research on different categories of food here in LA. First up: Donuts. (To come? Burgers, breweries, pizza… etc) At the end of it, I want to be able to say things like, “Oh yeah, my favorite place to get donuts in LA is ___”.

I probably won’t even be scratching the surface, and my lists will not be exhaustive, but it’s a way for me to direct my exploration of LA and document it here on the blog! 

I also didn’t have strict rules in this ranking and exploration. I tried to get a “classic” basic glazed or old fashioned at each place to have a baseline, but I didn’t want to get the exact same at each place so that I could just get what look good in the moment.

So without further ado, here’s my review on 8 different donut shops here in LA:

Krispe Kreme (the Baseline)

First stop on the list was Krispe Kreme, purely for nostalgia and for doing a baseline test. I used to go to Krispe Kreme all the time when I lived back in Iowa as a small small child, and I have good memories of going for the fresh donuts and wearing the hat and generally being the cutest form of myself. (Picture below, me age 2 or 3 eating my favorite donut: the glazed chocolate cake)

But then all the Krispe Kremes in the Midwest vanished and they just became a grocery store donut. I thought they closed everywhere, but turns out they’re still open out here in California! This Krispe Kreme location (with this mountain view) was crazy… a long ways from the Iowa Krispe Kremes I remember.

They took a donuts fresh off the conveyor for me, and then I got my favorites from when I was a kid, and they really were so much better than store bought Krispe Kremes. So, these, the platonic form of the donut:

Colorado Donuts

Colorado Donuts had a nice blend of classics and more exciting flavors, and it is definitely the place to go if you want a vegan donut. I got a vegan raised blueberry and they tossed in a free vegan cake donut, and both were excellent. They stood up against all the other regular donuts, you probably could not have figured out which was which! A very solid donut establishment.

Sidecar Donuts

Sidecar Donuts is a very *fancy* feeling donut shop. Their thing is that they make their donuts fresh every hour, and they present them lined up very neatly on a counter. The donuts are not cheap, but they were delicious. The chocolate one had cacao nibs (in case you didn’t believe my saying they were fancy) but the real standout was the Saigon Cinnamon Crumb. It was in my top three donuts from every place on this list. It was a perfect coffee-cake donut hybrid and it was very drool worthy.

Trejo’s Coffee and Donuts

For all that they are talked about here in LA I found these donuts to just… not live up to the hype. They were incredibly mediocre, and even though I went early (7:30 am) they didn’t have a robust selection. Maybe it was a bad day though!

Ms Donuts

Ms Donuts is very much a classic mom and pop donut shop. I got three donuts for $3.50 and they tossed in some free donut holes. They weren’t quite as gorumet and deluxe as some other shops I went to, but they were delicious. In particular, the donut holes stood out as just being the most quintessential, Platonic form of donut flavor I’ve had in… a long time. That first bite of donut hole that I snuck on the car ride home was very standout for me. Enough that is deserves spcific mention!

Mochinut

These were definitely the least traditional donuts on the list, but they were very up there taste wise. They were nice and light and had a distinctive chew but still tasted like donut. They were also fun to break into little chunks and eat bite by bite. The perfect mix between mochi and donut. Perfect for a mid-afternoon snack when walking around Melrose. Bonus points for the matcha boba.

Randy’s Donuts

Randy’s Donuts is a bit of a destination place, not just because there’s not any locations near me, but also because they are well-known. They have an iconic giant donut statue outside or on the roof of all their locations. I went to the one in Pasadena, and they definitely delivered. I particularly enjoyed the lemon old fashioned and coffee crumb donuts I got. I also had to impulse buy the “Texas Glazed” donut, which was the most massive donut I’ve ever seen (outside of Universal Theme Park’s Simpsons donut). It was a bit much and definitely just felt like a massive bit of fried dough. But it was fun for the gimmick, and would be great for sharing. Or you can just get a bunch of the more exciting flavors and split. Either way, Randy’s is a donut shop worth the drive! 

Kettle Glazed Donuts

And finally, to conclude, the donut shop I deemed to be my favorite. After trying all these different places, Kettle Glazed donuts ended up being the best. They had the perfect blend of exciting flavors and classics, an incredibly friendly staff that was very chipper at 7:30am and were chatting up another customer who walked in after me who was clearly a regular. I also got three deluxe donuts and a large cold brew for $10 (a steal in LA!). And they’re less than 10 minutes from my house (for LA this is also great!). They’re located in a very nondescript average strip mall, but they are anything but. I loved every flavor I chose – Blueberry Maple, Fluffernutter, and Ube Glazed. Looking forward to going back!