Parlor Doughnuts

Where: 3920 Florida A1A, St. Augustine FL
When: 1/18/24
What: Maple Pecan, PB Cup, Sandy Beach
Website: Parlor Doughnuts

Our second donut stop in St. Augustine and I sort of found this one on accident. We had to go to the bank across the street so when I was checking on Google maps where the bank was, the donut shop just popped out at me! So we had to check them out.

This is a chain, mainly in the east and heavily along the I-75 corridor, but this was my first visit to them. From the car I could see an a-frame sign that said at this time of the day they glaze the donuts fresh (around 1pm). So when they run out of the standard set-up in the morning, they glaze them on demand in the afternoon! Kind of nice that you get a fresh donut in that sense, but the glaze was very messy and definitely not car food if you are getting them in the afternoon.

I ordered my two selections based on the a-frame, but while she was making those I saw that on the display they had written that "Sandy beach" tastes like a cinnamon roll so I figured I had to try that one as well. The three donuts cost about $11 dollars, but were quite fancy. They also had a sign about how they were the layered donut. Again, no idea what that meant. Maybe I should do some research before trying out these donut places? Turns out, the layered donut was kind of like what other places may call a "cronut" or "dossaint" but basically a mix between a croissant and a donut. Very light and airy.

On to the donuts!

1. Maple Pecan: I chose this for the hubby as I am not a pecan person. Sorry. I did get a little bit of an edge so I could try the maple glaze and it was a-maze-ing. Great flavor without being sugary and artificial. Spot on. There were not quite as many pecans on the doughnut as in the photo, but I think my husband enjoyed the crunch regardless.

2. PB Cup: this one had a chocolate glaze with a peanut butter drizzle. Good ratio of chocolate to peanut butter and the peanut butter was the right consistency for a frosting/glaze. Sometimes you get peanut butter frostings that you have to chew, which would have made the doughnut too much, but this one was light enough to blend in with the chocolate glaze.

3. Sandy Beach: this one was the most interesting, it was a layered doughnut, with a heavy glaze, and then some cinnamon dusting on top. At first I didn't even realize that it had glaze underneath the cinnamon because the color all blended together. It was definitely better with the glaze than just being a cinnamon sugar doughnut. I did not think it tasted just like a cinnamon roll, but I liked the uniqueness of the flavors as something I haven't seen at other doughnut places (I'm trying to spell doughnut like Parlor does in this post, but I keep spelling it like I normally default to so there is a lot of editing while I type going on here!).

I would say these donuts were 3.5/5, good and interesting to try, but not something I would go back for regularly and very messy to eat because of the fresh glaze.

Island Donuts

Where: 400 A1A Beach Blvs, St Augustin FL
When: 1/14/24    
What: Strawberry Chocolate raised, Key Lime Filled, Boston Creme, Maple Bacon, etc etc
Website: Island Donuts

You all, it has been awhile. I'm sorry! Don't worry though, I've still been eating donuts! I was recently inspired to write up some reviews because I went to two really good donut places recently. So the first one, Island Donuts!

There are two locations for this local donut place and I went to the one in St. Augustine on a Sunday morning. They are open early until 1pm, or sell out. I've realized I like donut places with these types of hours. It's nice that their sell out regularly enough that they have to let people know that it is a possibility of them closing early. You know the donuts are fresh! In fact, but the time I got there around 10am, they had already sold out of various flavors, including their island fritter which is a pineapple fritter instead of the traditional apple fritter. I was not the only one looking for that.

I got 26 random donuts (we had friends coming over, don't worry about me eating too many!). 24 were for later and two in a bag for us to eat right away. However, by the time everyone got to the house I forgot what half the donuts were that I chose! We got out the trusty butter knife and started cutting them in half so multiple people could try different ones. I heard the orange creamsicle was really good. The maple bacon barely had any bacon on it, so maybe the woman misheard me and just gave us a standard maple.

The chocolate strawberry and the key lime were my favorite. So let me tell you about those!

1. Chocolate Strawberry: raised donut with strawberry frosting and a chocolate drizzle. First of all, the strawberry frosting had little red bits of strawberries in it. You know it's going to be good and real when you can see actual evidence of fruit in the frosting! The chocolate was subtle and the perfect complement to the strawberry. The frosting also had a nice skin to it, not too thick like it's old but just enough to make it a finished donut. Amazing, 5/5.

2. Key Lime: this donut was a filled raised donut. The key lime was the filling inside, which a nice vanilla frosting dusted with graham cracker crumbs. I am not normally a vanilla frosting fan at a donut place, but this frosting worked great with the key lime filing. The filling was evenly distributed throughout the donut and while sweet, was not overwhelming. Again, the fruit flavor tasted so authentic and not artificial. Another 5/5.

Hopefully I'll have a review for the pineapple fritter sometime soon!