Some like them round, some like them chunky, and without a doubt, some like them plumply.
This article is all about the best doughnut that New York City has to offer. Glazed, jelly-filled, sugar topped, oozing with caramel, everything in between, plus more. There’s nothing quite like a doughnut, and we’ve hunted down the very best.
While Ariana Grande might be the queen of seven rings, we’re the boss of fried rings. And we’re going to reveal to you our exclusive list of dynamite doughnut showstoppers.
Supermoon Bakery
You’ve probably seen Supermoon Bakery in tons of your friend’s Instagram pictures. They have a neon pink ‘Bite Me NYC’ sign outside the bakery, with which customers love to take selfies. Great doughnut and pink lighting, what’s not to love?
Now, Supermoon Bakery changes its menu every week. Yep, that’s right — each week, you’ll be greeted to different types of doughnuts.
The base of their doughnuts is a hand-rolled and perfectly fried brioche. That’s right, brioche, but make it a doughnut.
Right now, they’re rocking a Salted Macadamia Caramel Cream Doughnut. Think creamy salted caramel, with crunchy crushed macadamia nuts sprinkled on top.
To. Die. For.
They also currently have a Passionfruit Doughnut. The same brioche base, pumped with sweet passion fruit curd. Insane.
Everything that Supermoon Bakery bakes is hand-rolled and hand-crafted in their bakehouse. They’re an artisan bakery, who takes their craft seriously. They source their grain, flour, fruit, and vegetables from local farms and mills in Upstate New York. This is so important because they’re supporting other local businesses, and ensuring their ingredients are fresh.
Supermoon Bakery takes their baked goods seriously because you should be able to eat an amazingly delicious doughnut, under ridiculously cool lighting.
The Doughnut Project
Next up, is The Doughnut Project.
This is a handcrafted, small-batch doughnut shop found in the West Village. If you’re looking for a mixture of traditional and unique doughnuts, this is the place for you.
First off, this is all an all-female team. So, hat’s off to the ladies who are running this fantastically creative enterprise.
Try fan favorites like the Manhattan Cream. A chocolate ganache glazed doughnut, filled with in-house pastry cream. Or, adventure to take The Everything Doughnut. It has a sweet cream cheese glaze and is topped with iconic ‘the everything’ seeds. If you prefer traditional types, check out their yummy Maple Glazed Doughnut.
If you’re vegan, or gluten-free — they’ve created some delicious doughnuts for you, too. Vegans, you can try the Maple Glazed Doughnut Vegan or the Cereal Milk Crunch Vegan. My gluten-free friends, you can have the Salted Caramel Gluten-Free doughnut. Yum!
The Doughnut Project takes inspiration for its quirky flavors from a range of sources. Often, it comes from cocktails or food. Plus, they sell weekend species. Every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday you can expect to find some fascinating finds.
Oh, it’s also open 24/7. Yep! Whatever time of the day, or night, you can get your doughnut fix.
Perfect for early birds and late owls alike!
Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
This little doughnut and pastry shop has been around since the 1950s.
If you’re looking for a family-owned business, that is a community staple, check out Peter Pan’s doughnuts.
Try the Sugar Raise, or Powder Jelly Filled if you’re looking for some traditional doughnuts. If you’re looking for a big creamy doughnut, try the Cream Crumb: Old Fashioned. They’ve got a long list of doughnuts and pastries that will make you drool.
They sell original selections and recipes, with some quirky new additions added recently. Peter Pan’s Donut & Pastry Shop seeks to preserve their traditions, so they pride themselves on keeping their original recipes. If you want to support a community-based business, then come to Peter Pan’s.
After all, they’ve served New York City for seventy years — generations of people have tried, tested, make their starters, and loved their doughnuts.
Dough Doughnuts
Next in line, is Dough Doughnuts.
This is a lively little bakery which sells house-made doughnuts. They specialize in inventive glazes and fillings, so all of their doughnuts look, speculators.
What sets Dough Doughnuts apart from the rest, is that they produce oversized doughnuts that are booming with unique flavors.
They have an all-year-long menu and a seasonal menu.
All year long, you can enjoy exciting flavors like Café Au Lait. This doughnut is inspired by a classic coffee cake and features a roasted coffee glaze and crunchy pecan topping. They also serve traditional Cinnamon Sugar doughnuts, and Nutella doughnuts, which are always a crowd-pleaser.
On their seasonal menu, you can find even more of a diverse selection. From Pumpkin with Candied Pumpkin Seeds to Cannoli Cream With Pistachio, and even Irish Coffee Cream Filled. Talk about mouthwatering!
Oh, and for our vegan readers — they also have a great little vegan menu. You can try flavors such as Vegan Glazed and Vegan Cinnamon Sugar. They also have a seasonal Vegan Blood Orange doughnut!
All of their staff work tirelessly to master the art of doughnut making, producing fresh and full doughnuts. They only make doughnuts in small batches, throughout the day, so every customer will get a fresh and tasty doughnut.
You can even see how the doughnuts are made when you visit the shop. Dough Doughnuts believes that buying a doughnut is more than ‘buying a doughnut’, it’s a whole experience.
They seek to give you handmade doughnuts that reflect the love and care they have for baking. After all, you deserve the very best.
The Donut Pub
The doors first opened to this little bakery on a cold December morning in 1964.
Since that day, The Donut Pub has been a community staple, having severed New York tasty treats for almost 60 years. It’s a vibrant and fun establishment that features a doughnut wall, which shows their freshly made bakes.
Their cronuts are super popular, with exciting flavors like Maple Bacon and S’mores. Their doughnuts come in a range of flavors, from traditional to modern. Try the Pumpkin Spice flavor, to stick to classics like Chocolate Sprinkles.
If you suffer from nut allergies, this is the perfect doughnut shop for you. All of their baked goods are and nut-free — providing relief to those with allergies.
They also sell a gluten-free option, and a vegan option, making doughnuts accessible to all!
Doughnut Plant
Doughnut Plant is one of the closest bakeries you’re going to get in New York City that resembles French pâtisserie values.
Now, the reason French pastries taste so wonderful is that they pride themselves on authentic ingredients and methods, with no preservatives. This is exactly the values and business model that Doughnut Plant reflects.
Doughnut Plant created their line of Sourdoughnut products. They maketheir yeast starter to create their first doughnuts, meaning no commercial-grade yeast. Don’t be fooled by the name, these doughnuts are far from ‘sour’. They’re an esteemed method of baking goods, which requires a great level of craftsmanship.
Now, they make three different types of doughnuts. Yeast, cake, and filled.
Yeast doughnuts are fluffy, light, and a little chewy. You can find flavors such as Vanilla Bean and Classic Sprinkle. If you’re looking towards the Sourdoughnut, check out the Cacio E Pepe Soughdoughnut. It’s a unique savory doughnut, with Parmesan cheese, black pepper, and butter.
Cake doughnuts have a textual similarity close to the intersection of a classic birthday cake and a pound cake. You can find exciting Wild Blueberry doughnuts, Coffee Cake doughnuts, and even their all-famous Black & White. The latter is half white chocolate and half milk chocolate, perfect for when you can’t decide on one flavor!
Filled doughnuts are, pretty much, filled doughnuts. Either with house-made jams, creams, or custards. Vanilla Bean and Blackjam, Coconut cream, and Crème Brulé are some popular favorites.
All doughnuts are made fresh daily, and only the highest quality all-natural ingredients are used. Again, no preservatives, no article flavorings, and no eggs.
Flavor selections change day-to-day, so be sure to pop in and see what freshly baked goods you can get your paws on.
Fan-Fan
Next on our doughnut tour of NYC, is Fan-Fan.
Dedicated to not only making delicious doughnuts, but to making their community and visitors happy, Fan-Fan is determined to make some of the best doughnuts in NYC. To celebrate diversity, they take inspiration from all the wonderful flavors and traditions that exist around the world.
They have a classic menu and a special’s menu. On their classics menu, you might find Mexican Cinnamon Sugar, Choc-Choc (made with Valrhona sugar), and Danny Boy, a salted brown butter caramel doughnut!
For specials, you can expect to see the likes of the Iran doughnut, which consists of a white chocolate citrus cream cheese frosting, and garnishing of pistachios. You might find a Luna Limón, which has a fresh lemon-lime glaze with candied lemon. Or, you might find a White Fox. This is a coconut doughnut with a delicious dark chocolate cookie crumble.
Like all good bakeries, their doughnuts are made in small batches throughout the day, meaning you can pick up a freshly made doughnut. They strive to bake with the best ingredients possible, and along with their craftsmanship, put a lot of love and care into their baking.
This is truly a community of bakers who bake to love and love to bake.
Dun-Well Doughnuts
Attention all vegans, this is the doughnut shop you’ve been dreaming about!
At Dun-Well Doughnuts, all of their products are free from animal products, making them totally plant-based, totally vegan.
We love Dun-Well Doughnuts and think they are a revolutionary force in the world of doughnut baking. They’re making going vegan easier, and making the world a better place (for vegans, and the animals).
So, what can you expect to see? Popular flavors are Pistachio, the Boston Cream, and Chocolate Frosted. Other must-tries are the Peanut Butter doughnut, and the Maple doughnut. If bold and modern flavors aren’t your thing — don’t fret. They also serve traditional Sugar Ring doughnuts, plus Jelly-Filled doughnuts. So, they pretty much have every doughnut you could want. Magical!
Their mission is to be the premier doughnut shop in not only NYC, but the whole world. They’re seeking to transform the tradition of doughnut-making, into one that combines both ethics and innovation. They source quality ingredients from local businesses, carrying a community mindset.
We praise Dun-Well Doughnuts for their commitment to making a change in the world, and we hope you’ll like their doughnuts just as much as we do.
P.S, they also serve vegan ice cream!
Mike’s Donut Shop
This is our last stop on our tour of the best doughnuts in NYC. And truthfully, we saved one of the bests for last.
Mike’s Donut Shop has been making doughnuts since 1976. It’s a multi-generational family-owned and operated business, which is a community staple. Doughnuts are baked two times a day, right on the premises. So, whether you’re in for a morning or an afternoon doughnut — you’re going to get some fresh goods.
If you’re looking for variety, with the craftsmanship to match, come down to Mike’s Donut Shop. They have around 35 different varieties of delicious doughnuts. All of them are light, soft, fluffy with a bit of chew to them. Traditional doughnut making at their best.
You can expect to see traditional Strawberry Jelly filled doughnuts, Boston Cream, and Sugar Ringed. You can even find some marble crullers. We love the traditional glazed doughnut, but the Creme Pom-Pom is fantastic too.
Oh, there’s even a sign on the wall that states there’s a ‘$5 charge for whining. If you can’t trust Mike and his no-nonsense mantra, then we don’t know who you can trust.
Summary
That brings us to the end of our beloved list of the best doughnuts in NYC. We hope that you visit some of these delicious establishments and get yourself a little snippet of heaven.
There’s nothing quite like a fresh doughnut, and we don’t have to tell you, that there’s nothing like a New York City doughnut.
Also, if you are looking for the best desserts in NYC? there are many delicious desserts to be found in New York City, but which are the best? From old-fashioned favorites like brownies and cake to inventive newcomers like gelato and tiramisu, these are the standout desserts that will leave you wanting more.
