Big Dog Donuts & Deli

What: Maple old fashioned, blueberry cake
When: Tuesday, September 5th, 2017
Where: Florence, OR

Website

On our first full day in Florence, OR we decided to hit up the local donut place which happened to have one of the best names ever, Big Dog! Sadly, it was pretty late in the day so the donut selection was pretty slim. The maple old fashioned was ok, but I don't really like old fashioned donuts anyways, so I don't know why I got it. I'm not going to rate it because it wouldn't be fair. The blueberry was much better, great blueberry flavor. I'd give that one a 4/5.

Dundee's Donuts

What: Maple cake donut and a Holy Moly

When: August 29th, 2017

Where: Seaside, OR

Website

While in one of the cutest towns ever on the Oregon coast, we found Dundee Donuts. It was next too the Dundee Restaurant and looked like it had opened recently as an offshoot of the restaurant. They didn't have the biggest selection (did I tell you we've been having trouble getting up early recently? We gotta work on not sleeping away half the day!). I got the maple cake, sort of obviously, and hubby got the Holy Moly which was just a string of donut holes on a stick and frosted. It was pretty good, more memorable than my cake donut! I'd give the cake donut a 2.5/5 and the Holy Moly a 4/5 because who doesn't love food on a stick?

Blue Star

What: Chocolate Ganache, Buttermilk Old Fashioned, Maple Bacon
Where: Somewhere in Portland, OR
When: Saturday, July 25th, 2015
website

While we were in Seattle for a wedding in July, we had the chance to meet up with one of my very best friends (from 7th grade!) and her husband in Centralia, WA. And they brought us donuts! It was very fitting because it was 2 years ago that I started my donut tour of the west coast with this very same friend that led to the birth of this blog!

They brought us three donuts, a chocolate ganache with peanut sprinkles, a large old fashioned, and the ever popular maple with bacon sprinkles.

This was the second time I had an old fashioned, ever, and within the same month. It was my favorite of the three, so nice and pure tasting. The shape was also really fun with a distinct square on top. The maple had a subdued maple flavor with a very distinct bacon taste. You could tell that this wasn't the cheapest bacon they could buy. The chocolate ganache was slightly sticky and had almost a bittersweet chocolate flavor. The peanut flavor was almost totally lost in the ganache. The husband was not a fan of the ganache, but I didn't mind it. I've never had a donut with ganache on it. And for those of you trying to figure out what I'm talking about, ganache is whipped chocolate and cream without butter or sugar added like a more standard frosting.

I would give the old fashioned a 4.5/5, the maple a 3.5/5 and the chocolate a 3.5/5. Checking out their website get's me excited to try other flavors next time I'm in Portland!

Coco Donuts

Where: 814 SW 6th, Portland OR
What: Maple frosted cake donut
When: Saturday, April 6th, 2013
Website: http://cocodonuts.com/

So for my final day in Portland, we had to find another donut place to finish my tour out. But it was hard to find anywhere online with a comprehensive list of awesome donut places to go while traveling. And that's the start of an idea! If you can't find the source you want online, make one yourself! :-)

Coco's had a stylish decor and looked very trendy. The downtown location we went to was very small, just room for a large display case and a bar off to the side, but no stools at it to sit.

The maple cake donut I had was my least favorite of the Portland donuts. It was small and dense, and the maple flavoring was more authentic than the frosting I'm used it. 3/5. My friend got a lavender cake donut. I wasn't brave enough to try it, lavender scares me from a bad experience when I was in college.

Sesame Donuts, a 4-in-1 review!

Where: 6990 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy, Portland
What: Maple raised with vanilla custard. Again. For comparison sake.
When: Friday, April 5th, 2013
Website: http://sesamedonuts.com/

I am a band nerd. This story sort of has to do with the donut tour. Most of my best friends are band nerds. And a lot of them are from middle school band. Crazy, right? Who is still friends with people they were friends with in middle school? Who is even remotely similar to the person they were in middle school? I'm not sure if I am or not, but we're all still friends. Maybe it was the band teacher. She did introduce my friend and I when we were both new on the first day of seventh grade. I may never have had a donut blog if not for that fateful introduction (and the trip to see her, my friend, not my former band teacher, in Portland about 15 years later...).

I have one photo from this stop so let me just make it really big...

Anyways, the second stop on the donut tour was at my friend's favorite donut placem Sesame Donuts. Apparently Voodoo wasn't good enough for her! Although, really, I wasn't complaining.

On to the review!

So the worker/owner(?) was hilarious from the moment we walked in, offering us shots instead of donuts. A half dozen was $5.50, and yes, we got 6 donuts. There were three of us, so it wasn't that ridiculous. This particular location shared the space with a Baskin Robins and had outdoor seating.

I had what they called a Portland Creme and a pumpkin spice. I had totally forgotten about having the second donut until looking at my notes. Oh wow. So many donuts! Anyways, the Portfoland creme was good, not as decadent tasting as the Vood Doughnot one, but definitely worth going back for. The pumpkin spice was a dake donut but had little to no pumpkin taste. As a cake donut it was ok, as a pumpkin donut it would get a 1/5 simply for lack of flavoring.

I tried a bite of a French Crueler which was my friend and her roommate's favorite. Very eggy, reminded me of challah bread. The glaze was nice, I would give it a 3/5. Possible a good donut for people who do not like the heavy Dunk Donuts' taste.

I also tried a bite of a blueberry cake donut. 4/5. Very flavorful and moist, which I feel DD has a hard time getting in their cake donuts. The blueberry flavoring was strong and possibly a little artificial tasting, I probably would not have been able to eat an entire one.

Where it all started...Voodoo Doughnuts

Where: 22 SW 3rd Ave, Portland
What: Maple raised filled with vanilla custard
When: Thursday, April 4th, 2013
Website: http://voodoodoughnut.com/index.php

Back in April I took a West Coast Road Trip (can you still call it a road trip if you fly from city to city? I did hit four cities in a 10 day span so I think it should count.). My second destination of the trip was Portland and I decided I wanted to see this donut place everyone talks about, Voodoo Doughnuts (possibly the only review I'll do where they spell out doughnuts. So pretentious.). My friend said she would take me, but that there were better donuts to be had. So we went, on the condition that the next day I would try her favorite place, and thus the donut tour began. So here is my first ever donut review!


The place is very touristy and novely driven with donuts ranging from $1-$6. There was a special on Thursday with some local filling (Kelly's Jelly) but it was labeled spicy so I avoided it. Plus everyone knows that I go for maple first and formost. The place was small, the line was large. There was outdoor seating and it was cash only. As you can see in the case, there were some crazy intricate donuts. A lot with cereals for sprinkles. I'm getting hungry just thinking about all those donuts again!

My mustache got smeared in
in the bag. I was sad. Until
I tasted the deliciousness!

I had a maple donut filled with vanilla custard (think the creme from a Boston Creme donut). There was a small mustache drawn on it with white icing because mustaches are everywhere right now. The donut was larger than a Dunkin Donuts donut and more than I could eat in one donut setting, but it was awesome. Definitely worth the visit. It was a good mixture between light and fluffy donut and creamy filling. 5/5.