It has been a while since we last shared a donut experience together, so what better way to to get back on track with a post about one of the most famous donut shops across the country, Randy’s Donuts in Los Angeles!  If you have ever visited Los Angeles, this is a place you need to stop by.  Randy’s Donuts is special  because the donuts are delicious, a colossal donut sits on top of the store, and has made numerous cameo appearances in movies.  This truly makes it a unique Los Angeles landmark.  I heard even Iron Man made a “pit stop” during the filming of Iron Man 2.

The Mother of All Donuts!

On this occasion at Randy’s Donuts, which conveniently has 2 drive thru windows on each side of the store for your donut fix, I decided to get a chocolate yeast donut, a sugar donut, an apple fritter, and a bear claw.  I decided to go overboard since I was so excited to finally get to try this place.  The regular donuts are 75 cents while the fancies were 1 dollar, tax included!  The donuts were all fairly good sizes.  Both the chocolate donut and the sugar donut were super soft and airy when I took my first bite.  This was a pleasant surprise since I went on a Sunday afternoon.  They are open 24 hrs a day so I’m assuming they make fresh donuts throughout the day.

Granulated Sugar Donut

Chocolate Donut

The apple fritter had a nice crusty frosting all around with little chunks of apple laced throughout the donut.  The breading for the fritter was soft inside while the frosting just melted in your mouth.  The bear claw was frosted on the outside with a similar taste to the apple fritter but the donut was stuffed with little chunks of  apple cinnamon filling on the inside.

Apple Fritter

Bear Claw

I will definitely be back here to sample all their other flavors such as Devil’s Food Cake which they unfortunately at the time had run out of.  The lady who helped us out was super nice but she was a one woman team as she had to accomodate both sides of the drive thru as well as a walk-up window.  Randy’s Donuts just has a feel of a “throwback” donut shop.  From all the visible racks of donuts in the inside of the store to the outside with the colossal Randy’s Donut, it makes you want to just eat a dozen donuts while washing it down with a couple glasses of milk.  I give it 4.5 donuts out of 5.

It’s that time again for another donut blog post!  Today’s adventure takes us to Royal Donuts on Palms and Sepulveda in Los Angeles, it is across from a Trader Joe’s inside a little strip mall if you’re familiar with the area.

Royal Donuts Store Front

It is a little mom and pop operation that sells all types of goodies ranging from donuts to candy and even hard boild eggs.  They have a good selection of donuts and croissants for those that are interested in croissants but why would you want that if you can have donuts!

Variety of donuts!

In order to vary up my palette, I settled on a cinnamon donut.  The donut looked like a crumb donut from those Hostess donettes you get at the supermarket.  The thing I noticed the most about the donut was its airy bread-like texture.  It almost reminded me of  sweet cinnamon bread as oppose to something fried.  I was thinking this actually might be healthier for me.  The cinnamon wasn’t overpowering but the donut still had a nice subtle sweetness.  It was a good sized donut at a reasonable price of 75 cents.

Royal Donuts: Cinnamon Donut

They even sneaked in a free donut hole treat since my lady friend had ordered an egg and cheese croissant.  I must reiterate that this mom and pop team are extremely nice and friendly which only added to my positive donut experience.  They made me feel like a regular even though this was my first time there.  I give this place 4 donuts out of 5.

Today’s donut blog takes us to Primo’s Donuts on Sawtelle in Los Angeles.  Primo’s has been an West Los Angeles staple for over 53 years!

Primo's Donuts

I have heard wonderful stories about their buttermilk donuts from people who don’t even normally like donuts.  I was thinking if they don’t even like donuts but will eat one at Primo’s then I’ll most likely love their donuts.  My theory proved correct once I took my first bite from a freshly made buttermilk donut.  The outside had a nice crunchy texture but the inside was still warm and soft.  For a cheap price of 95 cents, it was like I was on a “sugary pillow cloud.”  The buttermilk had a nice crusty glaze on the outside which you can tell this place puts a lot of love in each of their fresh donuts.

Primo'a Donuts Buttermilk Donut

The lady at the counter was super nice as well.  I can tell this place has been an institution in Los Angeles because old folks would just hang out there despite the size of the donut shop and read the paper while enjoying their donuts and coffee.  They have a cool website with all sorts of pictures too, and the best part is they have internet specials for you to print out to enjoy donuts at a discount!  I give this place 4 and a half donuts out of 5.

Today’s donut blog post takes us to Doughnut House Co on Overland and Palms.  I have heard good things about this place since they have a vast array of foods ranging from croissants to even boba.  This place is located in a little plaza but it catches your eye because of the neon lights in the store.

Doughnut House

I made an evening donut run and when I got there the only thing open was a walk up window!  I thought, “this is definitely a first.”  For the cost of 1 dollar, I ordered a good sized old fashioned glazed donut.  When I took my first bite, the thing I noticed most was the texture of the donut.  When I think of old fashioned donuts, the most important thing is the nice crunchy texture on the outside but the inside cake needs to be nice and moist.  This donut had all the qualities of a good old fashioned donut.  I could only imagine how good the donut could have been if I went early in the morning when they were fresh.  There was a nice amount of glaze on the donut and the right amount of sweetness.   I didn’t get the nasty burps afterwards either that somtimes happens when old fashion donuts are fried in poor quality oil.  Overall, I would recommend checking out Doughnut House Co if you are in the neighborhood.  I give it 4 donuts out of 5.

Walk Thru Window

Old Fashion Glazed Donut

It is another night and time for another donut place.  Tonight my adventure takes me to Donut Star.  This place got one of the highest reviews on yelp for donuts in West Los Angeles, so I had to blog about it.   At first, when you get to Donut Star from the outside the neon sign is only half lit up and the inside was nothing to boast about.  It was kind of depressing which I always found kind of ironic since when i think of donuts as something to cheer me up.

donutstar

I decided to get a glazed twist donut and a maple frosting cake donut.  Both donuts were pleasant surprises.  The twist donut was light and airy.  It did not taste too bready which can be the down fall of some raised donuts.  The glaze was a nice complement to the donut as it didn’t overpower the donut.  The maple frosting cake donut was light in texture as well and didn’t hit me in the back of the throat like some cake donuts can.  The maple frosting was decent but lacked a “Canadian punch” that I like from a maple frosting.

maple donut and old fashioned twist

Donut Star proves why it gets decent reviews on yelp.  If they could just improve the outer appearance of the store, I think it would definitely make it more inviting.  I give it 4 donuts out of five.

Ever since I could remember, I equated donuts in California with Winchell’s.  I consider Winchell’s the Dunkin’ Donuts of the west coast, because they seem to be at every corner.   My escapade tonight led me to the Winchell’s on Santa Monica Blvd and Sepulveda.  This has to be one of the most famous Winchell’s because if you’re familiar with California traffic, then you know that Santa Monica Blvd is always busy.

Winchell's Donut House

Tonight, I was in the mood for a frosted cake donut.  The donut had a dense texture that made me feel I needed some milk to wash it down.  I think they make their cake donuts for dunking.  Winchell’s calls themselves, “Home of the warm and fresh.”  However, at 10 pm on a Saturday night my donut wasn’t too warm nor fresh.  (I have gotten donuts from here warm and fresh before at 3 am and I must say that was an experience that I will post in a future date)  Despite its texture, the taste was pretty good because it wasn’t overly sweet.  The frosting crusted nicely on top of the donut as well.  I’m used to getting a glazed twist donut from Winchell’s since that is always what my mom got me growing up, and if I could have a donut re-do I would have gotten my usual twist from them.  Winchell’s will always be nostalgic to me and you can usual expect a pretty good donut from location to location.

Frosted Cake Donut with a sprinkle hairdo!

The beauty of Winchell’s is that all the ones I have seen or been to have been 24 hours, so you can get your donut fix at anytime.  I give it 3 and a half donuts.

This donut blog post is coming from the archives of the donut files.  This dates back to 2006 when my family and I went to Kyoto, Japan.  We walked around a street market and I saw an old man making donuts by hand and frying each of them one by one.  Apparently, our friends in the far east enjoy these delectable round treats as much as we do!  The first thing I noticed was the meticulous preparation he put into each donut.  I guess that is why he could justify charging 105 yen which was the equivalent to a little more than 1 US dollar at the time.

Various Japanese Donuts

I pointed out the one I wanted and settled on a cake based donut glazed with bits of corn flakes on top.  The donut was warm and fluffy on the inside but the corn flakes gave it texture and a crunch on the outside.  The frosting was mildly sweet but sweet enough to create harmony with the donut itself.  It was definitely nothing I’ve experienced in the States.  I would definitely say it was “oyishi” which means “delicious” in Japanese.   I give it 4.25 donuts out of 5.

Today I stopped at a legendary landmark in the famed UCLA Westwood Village: Stan’s Donuts.  This place has been aiding to the “freshmen fifteen” since 1965.  Stan’s Donut shares half a store with a place that used to be some diner joint.

Stan's Donuts in Westwood

The first thing I noticed about Stan’s is the large variety of choices.  I looked at Stan’s Donut’s website and they claim that have over 75+ varieties!  I finally settled on the Reese’s Peanut Butter Pocket.  I’m normally more of a glazed type a guy as oppose to a chocolate one but this donut is something else.  There are chocolate chips on top of a chocolate glaze and the inside is filled with a thick-salty peanut butter.

Stan's Donuts Reese's Peanut Butter Pocket

I emphasize filled because each bite I had a good amount of peanut butter which I thoroughly enjoyed because my pet-peeve for filled donuts is a big bite of just dough.  The crispiness of the dough with the sweetness being contrasted with the saltiness of the peanut butter was quite the experience.

The only drawback of Stan’s Donuts is they range from $1-2.50 per donut and up to 30 bucks for a dozen is quite a bit of “dough”  However, there are rumors you can get “bags of donuts” after a certain time at night for 5 bucks.  Let me know if this is true!  I would definitely recommend trying Stan’s at least one time in your life and if you don’t live near West Los Angeles, they can FedEx donuts to you overnight.  I give it 4 donuts out of 5.

Spudnuts Donuts Store

I went inside and was greeted by a nice Asian lady.  The first thing I noticed was the donuts they have there are HUGE. Check out the size of the Apple Fritters and Maple Twists. They’re massive!

Spudnuts Donuts

I ordered my usual favorite, apple fritter, and my lady friend ordered a old-fashioned maple donut.  The apple fritter had a nice sweet crusty outterlayer but what made the donut so good was the light fluffy “doughyness” of the inside.  The potato flour gave it a nice airy texture that didn’t make the donut just sit in your stomach.  I’ll be back again to try all their other flavors.  I give it 4.5 donuts out of 5.