Doughnut Plant: Top 10 Best Doughnuts in America (and in our hearts)

For breakfast on Saturday, Ida, Lauren and I traipsed back down to the Lower East Side for doughnuts.  Not just any doughnuts.  Doughnut Plant doughnuts.

Doughnut Plant is one of my favorite finds in NYC.  It's a gem of a small storefront that smells unbelievably of spices and sweetness and offers seasonal and interesting flavors of gourmet doughnuts.  They are recognized by just about everyone, including recently by Bon Appetit, as one of the top doughnut places in the nation. 

I couldn't agree with Bon Appetit more: I've been to the Doughnut Plant more times than I would like to admit, and I try to take just about everyone I know here so that they can also experience the beauty of the Doughnut Plant.  So of course that applied to Ida + Lauren as well.

The current seasonal flavor was mango.  Previous flavors this year have been strawberries, orange and sunflower.  You can check the featured flavors through their great website.

When you enter, you can look at their flavors in the flesh on the metal shelves to the left and right of the cash register.  All the doughnuts are on display with namecards.  To the left of the cash register are yeasty doughnuts. 

In a glass display case to the right of the cash register are the cake doughnuts.  The cake doughnuts are by and large my favorite, but I love cake.  And doughnuts.  And I find their union a most joyous one.

I was this close to just licking that glazed shelf.

Here was what we got:

Mango doughnut with a beautiful glaze.

It was a bit too sweet for me and did not have the strong mango flavor that I had hoped.  It tasted like something but not quite like mango.  I couldn't finish more than a few bites of it unfortunately. ;(

Cinnamon bun.

I like my cinnamon buns like I like my men...tall and spicy.  I don't know if that even makes sense, but this cinnamon bun was definitely a beaut!

Inside the bun were the most ginormous raisins.  Confession: I don't even like raisins, so I picked all of these off.  The bun itself was amazing though - the yeast dough was nice and light, and the cinnamon tasted great.  Total recommend.

Super organic strawberry lemonade: organic cane sugar, organic strawberries and organic lemons.  Not too tart.  Lovely for a summer afternoon.

Coconut doughnut with coconut cream.  Ida really loved this.  She had also ordered the mango, but the coconut was clearly the more exciting one.

Creme brulee doughnut.  Lauren ordered this, and I have also had it before.  It's remarkable because it does have the crackly sugar top of a creme brulee and the cream inside is plentiful and delicious.  Lauren also ordered the peanut butter and blackberry jelly filled doughnut which she found synonymous with a peanut butter jelly sandwich.

We pretty much ignored each other while we ate them.  No time for chatting when you have giant doughnuts to eat.

And here are scenes from past visits to Doughnut Plant:

Rose petal doughnuts.  They had this in the peak of summer last year in addition to rose water doughnuts.

Toasted almond cake doughnut.  Also solid.

Pomegranate doughnuts.

I've had several other doughnuts from here including the Tres Leches, which is my favorite because it has a gooshy inside of condensed milk (bonafide instant gratification), the Blackout, chocolate cake doughnut filled with chocolate cream and topped with devil's food cake crumbles and the gingerbread doughnuts that come around wintertime and have amazing candied ginger pieces sprinkled all over the top (another favorite). 

What I especially love about Doughnut Plant is that their jelly-filled doughnuts are square (so that you can get a piece of jelly in every bite) and the jelly is house-made.  That's a serious New York attraction right there.

Doughnut Plant.  Totally get some and eat them in line while waiting at Shopsin's!

Doughnut Plant

379 Grand Street

New York, NY 10002

(212) 505-3700