The Best Donuts in Melbourne
I heart donuts. What’s not to love about donuts?! Cakey or fluffy, raised, filled or even the cruller, I love them all! The boy and I escaped to Melbourne for the weekend where I plotted to hit all the donut places that I’d seen so much about on Instagram. There were spreadsheets involved. Google maps too. It was epic. So below are all the donut places we hit, in the order that I liked. Ready? LET‘S GO!
Doughboys Doughnuts (535 Bourke St, Melbourne) is the winner and tops my list as the donuts are made with free range eggs from Gippsland and butter from Warrnambool, fried in batches and are hand dipped to order.
It’s kinda funny how they look like they’ve just set up shop randomly but they’ve got their donut making down to a science! Check out the display of what flavours are available for the day and pay at the register and salivate as they dip and top the donuts as you wait.
I’d chosen the Salted Caramel ($5.80), the Maple Bacon ($4.80) and the PBJ ($5.80) and they are all GLORIOUS. The salted caramel was my fave- rich, sweet with a hit of salt and a bit of crunch from the caramelised buckinis (google tells me it’s activated buckwheat hmm ohhkaay) followed ever so closely by the maple bacon with a light maple syrup icing and crunchy bacon pieces. Noods was enamoured by the PBJ with peanut butter and a boysenberry jam dip topped with roasted hazelnuts and walnuts. The boysenberry jam was sweet but the pb brought it down a notch.
It was a sunny day so we sat outside on the deck and the combination of fluffy donuts with a sneaky cider was just perfect and a memory I want to hold onto until someone opens a licensed donut store in Syd 😛 While paying more than $5 a donut did sting a little, they were pretty damn awesome donuts. Donuts that I will have dreams about.
Shortstop Coffee & Donuts (12 Sutherland St, Melbourne) is second only by a whisker, mainly because they sell out of donuts super early and it takes a LOT of effort to roll out of bed early enough to tram over and queue for donuts. Hey it’s the holidays! I value my sleep!
This is the sight that greeted us when we arrived just past 10am. THE SIGHT OF DISAPPOINTMENT AND BROKEN DREAMS. I mean yes, we could have pre ordered but the minimum order was 9 donuts and I wasn’t about to spend 45 smackeroonies on donuts when I had an epic donut list to get through.
Luckily they did have a couple left of the Banana and Chocolate Hazelnut ($4.50) and the Red Velvet ($4.50). I had my heart set on other flavours but wasn’t willing to leave without trying something and I’m glad we did because the banana & chocolate hazelnut was da bomb! I’m a sucker for hazelnuts and this combination just worked, the banana taste was exactly like fresh bananas and not the nasty lolly that I just can’t abide. The red velvet is definitely for the sweet tooths out there and probably not the best first thing in the morning lol oh and sidenote they only do two types of coffee: black or white.
We were almost done eating when we saw a guy pick up his pre ordered boxes of donuts. That’s right, boxes. The dude had at least 6 boxes! Anyways one of the boxes was incorrect so the staff put the contents of the box back on display and my brain freaked out because behold, the Peanut Butter and Jam ($5) and the Apple, Bacon, Honey & Thyme ($5)!!! That bacon one? INSANE. I loved that the icing was apple instead of the usual maple so it wasn’t mega sweet and the bacon bits were super crunchy. Couldn’t detect much thyme flavour which was good for me because I have issues with thyme. And the pb&j was cray cray, the donut was fluffy and light, filled with house made jam and dunked into a chunky peanut butter glaze.
Mmm layers
Tivoli Road Bakery (3 Tivoli Rd, South Yarra), formerly MoVida Bakery was pretty incredible. The bakery had a gorgeous fitout with freshly baked bread lining the shelves and all manner of delicious treats under the glass cabinets. But I was here for one thing: DONUTS! We’d visited on the first day of our Melb trip but got there too late but I was determined to visit and managed to convince our cabbie to swing by on the way to the airport 😀
One of each please! Salted Caramel, Lemon Curd, and Roché ($5 each). The donuts here are worthy of the hype, fried dough pillows of happiness they were! The salted caramel was amazing as expected (because really how can you go wrong with salted caramel) but it was the lemon curd donut that blew my mind. It was zingy and zesty and set the tastebuds alive and wanting more. The roché was good, chocolatey and tasty but not really as amazing as the other two.
Candied Bakery (81A Hudsons Rd, Spotswood) is dubbed the Australian bakery with an American twist. There’s lamingtons aplenty, stacks of giant cookies and of course donuts! On offer that day was a jam donut but I only had eyes for the special- THE S’MORE DONUT!
This S’more Donut ($3.80) was everything I’d hoped for and more! The donut itself was light and fluffy with pockets of rich chocolate, smothered in toasted marshmallow and topped with crunchy graham crumbs. Yes it was sweet and bordering on cloying but well, it’s a s’more!
Next stop: Cobb Lane Bakery (13 Anderson St, Yarraville), a tiny 16 seater cafe in a suburban area out west. There’s giant loaves of fresh bread and baguettes, coffee a-brewing and a dine in menu buuut we’re here for the donuts! The Salted Caramel ($4.50) is a must order, the caramel is darker with an incredible richness and leaves me beaming through the sugar crystals all over my face.
The Peanut Butter and Blackcurrent Jelly ($4.50) isn’t as epic as the Salted Caramel and feels a tad on the oily side possibly because of the uber creamy peanut butter filling. The blackcurrent jelly does help to cut the richness but yeah the salted caramel donut wins.
The American Doughnut Kitchen (Queen St, Queen Victoria Market Melbourne) is a bit of an institution, pumping out hot jam doughnuts since 1950. After wandering through the markets picking up cheeses and cured meats to snack on we always end up here to ogle the glorious donut making process right before our eyes.
Jam Donuts (80c each) are always piping hot with a generous coating of sugar and filling of sweet jam. Normally we would buy 5 for $5.50 but Noods was suffering from donut overload and refused to let me buy more. Party pooper.
Walker’s Doughnuts (26/2 Elizabeth St, Melbourne) is another place I always visit whenever I’m in Melbs, not so much for their donuts but for their half pound chocolate eclair stuffed with whipped cream. One for the attack of the late night munchies with a side of Lord of the Fries 😛
Olympic Doughnuts (51 Irving St, Footscray) is a bit out of the way in the burbs and gone are the days of their iconic ramshackle caravan and instead is a boring grey box. But the iconic dolphin pumping jam into the donuts is still there!
The Jam Donuts (80c each) are a little misshapen but are fresh from the fryer. The sugar coating on the donuts were a bit sparse and I wasn’t really a fan of the jam filling as I found it a bit too runny and with a weird artificial taste. But eh it’s a donut.
Aaaaand that’s all folks! The end of my epic donut eats. I hope Sydney follows suit and opens up some donut stores soon! If you guys know of any more donut places to hit in Melb or know of any good ones in Syd hit me up in the comments!
