Ranking every doughnut place in Metro Vancouver, #20-#11
This is a hidden gem of a ranking.
It’s an iconic ranking, a beloved ranking, a hot new ranking, a highly anticipated soft launch of a ranking.
This is how local food is talked about now online, increasingly in video form: a series of buzzy words that sound positive but ultimately mean very little.
Scroll through a dozen videos or listicles about food in Metro Vancouver, and you’re left with the warm but empty feeling that every place you can get food is equally good yet equally devoid of specific qualities; the digital content machine churning along for vibes over substance, the influencer-based online square prioritizing positivity over honesty.
But some things are bad. Some things are good.
And sometimes, a thing that is good is ranking everything in a single category.
Like, say, doughnuts.
Methodology and FAQ
Wait, every doughnut shop?
Well, not exactly — there are simply too many places that make their own doughnuts in Vancouver, and our stomachs can only handle so much.
However! What we did do was scour the Internet for every doughnut listicle that came before us and included places that made multiple “best of” lists — or were part of social media debates about which place was the best — and included a few places that may not be 100% about doughnuts, but some up from time in conversations. Every place had to be Metro Vancouver owned and operated, which is to say “no, Tim Horton’s won’t be on here.”
That gave us a short list of 20, which aside from being a nice round number, seemed like a manageable amount to eat through during the summer and fall.
How were they scored?
Like previous rankings involving ice cream and burgers and parks and welcome signs and hahahahaha what a strange thing to commit one’s life to, other fun things!, we visited a bunch of places, gave each establishment a score out of 15, and took the average.
(Thanks, as always, to the friends that took part in this annual exercise — Steve Masuch, Gerald Deo, Ricardo Bortolon, Micki Cowan, Isabel Ferreras, Andrew Carne, Layne Bruin, Samantha Bruin, Alyssa Koehn, Hans Seidermann, Stephanie Ryan, Kat Green, Justin Stevens, Daniel Wanis-Ruiz, and Laura Rodgers — which exists mostly as an opportunity for a bunch of 30somethings to have spend time together having mostly meaningless arguments, at an age where that becomes harder to devote time to)
How did we break down those 15 points?
Body (4 points): The base of a doughnut, whether it be cake or yeast or mochi, is integral to its success: chewy but not too chewy, not too dry but not too moist, being complementary to the flavours inside and on top, but not mattering so little that the taste becomes an over the top flavour bomb with no substance. Some of our rankers inherently liked the flavour of one type of base more than another, but we tried to focus our scoring mostly on balance and consistency between doughnuts.
Flavour (4 points): Most of us are simple creatures, focusing less on the base of a doughnut and more on the fun flavours on top or inside: creams and fruits, sprinkles and icings, creations topped with infinite ingredients, and those topped with a straightforward glaze. Were the flavours fresh and feel somewhat natural? Were they well distributed across the doughnut? Did they leave behind a pleasing sugary feeling, without curdling into a stomach ache?
Joy (4 points): The thing about doughnuts is that they’re an inherently silly yet joyous food product — at the end of the day, it’s just an affordable snack. So part of the value of a doughnut shop comes from all the joy derived from the overall experience: is it neat to order from there? Do you get a strong sense of nostalgia, or whimsy, or eccentricity, or something else that enhances the experience? Are they ambitious in what they’re trying to do? It’s obviously a subjective question, but an important one when considering this most serious of topics.
Diversity (2 points): Less crucial, but still mattering, are the number of doughnuts available. A place shouldn’t be overly punished for only making 3 or 4 doughnuts — or excessively praised if they make 25 — but a good variety gives a greater chance for everyone to get a flavour they like, and that’s important.
Value (1 point): And so too is price. Doughnuts are a snack of the masses, and if you’re going to charge more than 3 or 4 dollars for a single one…it’s definitely not a dealbreaker, but you better show that it’s worth that much.
“Best Doughnut” vs. “Best Doughnut Place”
It’s also important to underline how we scored each place: by getting a bunch of doughnuts for the group, and splitting them into multiple pieces (generally 4 or so), such that everyone could have a bunch of different individual doughnuts at each establishment.
It meant that people judged a shop on the totality of its products, and not just the one type of doughnut they liked the most.
Consequently, you might feel that a ranking is flawed because “So and sos honey maple glaze is amazing!”, and that may well be, but a) to individually rank every single doughnut at every single place would be just a tad difficult, b) when people talk about doughnuts in this city, we find they focus on the places first, and the specific doughnuts second.
So that’s our scoring system and our justifications. You may, of course, disagree — in which case, we encourage you, as always, to come up with your own ranking.
Now, on to the doughnuts. Beginning with the lesser ones.
TIER 6: MEDIOCRE
#20: Swiss Bakery (6.33 points)
One thing we quickly learned on our doughy journey: dedicated doughnut shops tend to be significantly better than bakeries. Because while doughnut shops are trying to do a single thing well, bakeries are trying to do many things — and sometimes they strike out.
Case in point, Swiss Bakery. You might be tempted to get a doughnut from their venerable Mt. Pleasant location because of its famed “frissant”. It’s essentially a variation on a cronut, a croissant-and-fritter combination that was genuinely very appealing to us, with fun textures and lots of flavour.
But in our multiple trips, it was evident that they put a lot of care into the frissant, but much less into the standard doughnuts. With generally devoid of flavour, overly bready texture, and flavours that evoke day-old basic icing, we’d encourage you to pass.
We can only hope the rest of their non-doughnut options are closer in quality to the frissant (judging by their 30 years of existence, we’d imagine so), but recommend you take your doughnut-exclusive shopping elsewhere.
#19: Disco Biscuits (6.86 points)
Disco Biscuits advertises itself as “Vancouver’s Only Mobile Vegan Donut Shop!”, which is a wonderful slogan, but tells you nothing about the actual quality of the concoction you are ordering.
And the unfortunate truth is we found the actual doughnuts at Disco Biscuits to be many things, but “good” is not one of them.
The flavours could best be described as eclectic and ambitious: a “Boston Dream” vanilla-filled chocolate glaze with an Oreo on top, an “Earl Grey Boba” with mango custard and boba pearls inside, and plenty of other mix-and-match combinations of cream fillings and interesting secondary elements.
However, we saw few of them come together in an appealing way. The interplay between the cream and boba texture was lumpy. Often the flavours overpowered the base of the doughnut. And because they cost nearly $5 each and need to be ordered in quantities of 6 or 12, it’s an expense not worth the risk.
It’s possible we simply had the bad luck of getting them on a bad day. And rest assured there are vegan options at some of the higher-ranked places that we enjoyed more.
But we definitely admire the ambition more than the execution here.
#18: YUM! Gourmet Donuts (7.1 points)
It would seem entirely consistent with New Westminster’s delightfully earnest brand to have many great doughnut shops, and yet they’ve had a string of bad luck in recent years.
Dipped Doughnuts moved to Langley (before going on seemingly indefinite hiatus), while Donuteria was bought and rebranded to Delicia Cafe & Bakery, losing the doughnuts in the process.
Which leaves only Yum (or rather, “YUM!”) doughnuts remaining in the city, and regrettably, we have concerns about false advertising.
This is another place that goes heavy on the flavour train: chocolate flan, blueberry cheesecake, raspberry coffee…name a combination, and chances are Yum will have made it.
But have they made it well? Ultimately, we found a wide range of opinions on Yum’s doughnuts, some people finding them just around average, but others finding them to be flavour bombs without many redeeming factors.
The two things that everyone could agree on were a) that the dough was extremely fluffy, creating a weird texture that was unappetizing to some, and b) with prices around $5 for the vast majority of them, it was not exactly a bargain option.
The fact they regularly post that they’re sold out may indicate that they’re a community favourite regardless, and that we simply got unlucky.
Still, we’re left wishing that Yum was…well, more yummy than it was.
TIER 5: FINE
#17: Breka (7.97 points)
First off: Breka is awesome.
From a single location in south Vancouver 17 years ago to seven across the city today, Breka has become the 24-hour institution in Vancouver, with a combination of choices and prices that is freakishly good when you consider the prices of anything in Vancouver in 2023 and the difficulty in starting any small business.
Coffee? Cake? Sandwiches? Pretzels? The sheer number of things Breka does at a decent quality makes it valuable to many people in many parts of the city for many reasons, to the extent that we’re slightly worried that singing its praises again might uncover some dark secret about its success that would force us to find another option for a late night snack after a 9pm curling game.
The doughnuts though?
The doughnuts are just fine.
A big part of this, we have collectively decided, is due to the sheer number they put out: it’s just one part of a giant daily operation, and you definitely feel the mass-produced effects of brioche base doughnut after brioche base doughnut when it comes to the actual quality.
The flavours are all there (a couple basics, a bunch of glazes, a cream-filled thing or two, probably a fritter), yet none of them really grabbed us, the general consensus being that Breka delivers competent yet unadventurous doughnuts.
A dash of salt might help, as might a bit more meltiness of the toppings (again, the mass-produced nature means a lot of the icings seem quickly pasted on).
If you’re in a pinch late at night, or at Breka for a larger group meetup, their doughnuts are serviceable.
But of the many things to wax eloquently about when it comes to Breka, the doughnuts aren’t really one of them.
#16: PNE Doughnuts (8.00 points)
It says something delightful about this city that on a summer Monday last year, one of the top stories of the day was the fate of the PNE mini doughnuts.
So iconic, so sugary, so greasy, so delightful had the doughnuts been for decades — generally under the brand name “Those Little Donuts” — that it created a legitimate PR crisis for the PNE.
Yet it quickly passed for a number of reasons, chief among them being that there were still three other doughnut vendors at the fair, and to most folks, they all taste similar enough.
Because ultimately, you aren’t scarfing down a bunch of cinnamon dough balls and judging them on the same scale you would judge other doughnuts. You’re enjoying them for a quick sugar rush, a pint of nostalgia, and at less than $10, a better deal than a lot of what you’ll end up being charged for at the fair.
You can’t have a quintessential Vancouver fair experience without its quintessential culinary offering. But you’d be hard pressed to justify it almost anywhere else.
#15: Honey Doughnuts & Goodies (8.34 points)
No, we’re not kidding.
In the middle of Deep Cove sits a doughnut shop and cafe equally beloved by locals from North Vancouver, daytrippers from the rest of Metro Vancouver, and even the odd celebrity or two.
Honey’s is a great doughnut, they say. Honey’s is the perfect snack, they say.
Well, they’re wrong.
You want to know what Honey’s is?
Honey’s is a big doughy carb bomb with seven flavours that taste the same. Honey’s is a baking powder-heavy pancake mix masquerading as a doughnut. Honey’s is an example of how nostalgia and celebrity endorsements can brainwash well-meaning people into stanning an inferior product. Honey’s is for people that want to be seen as being in the know for what makes a great doughnut because they watched a Reel on 604Buzz Dishes, not for people that actually want a great doughnut.
Honey’s is a glorified muffin.
Here’s the thing about Honey’s, at the end of the day: the doughnuts are fine. The toppings are well-applied and consistent. The experience of lining up can feel like a rite of passage. They’re big enough that you’ll be filled up by just one.
But the “dough” in the “doughnuts” is incredibly underwhelming, overly dense and a chore to get through. The variety is minimal — you better enjoy a giant cake-based doughnut with a sugary, chocolate honey glaze, because that’s really all you’re getting.
Honey’s is such a (we hate to use the word) iconic part of the doughnut scene that we know this review won’t hurt them, and that people will continue to search them out at the end of every Quarry Rock hike and Indian Arm kayak they plan next summer.
And that’s fine for them. Just know that there are plenty of better options out there.
#14: Gourmet Donuts & Coffee (8.93 points)
Now where were we?
From an outlet with an outsized reputation, we move to a humble hole in the wall in suburban strip mall Langley, where Gourmet Donuts puts out treats that aren’t actually all that “gourmet”, but are certainly tasty enough.
Gourmet knows what it is: a place to get a bunch of perfectly acceptable doughnuts, in almost any style you can name, for about two bucks each. Grab your dozen anyway you like, get your coffee, and then head to the kid’s soccer game/birthday party/choir concert/there are so many things to do as a parent but at least you bought a decent townhouse in Willoughby for $500,000 a decade ago and don’t have the existential dread about how you’ll afford to continue living in Vancouver other family event!
The doughnuts themselves are on the basic end, lacking in advanced flavours, but they weren’t badly done, and there’s definitely value in having dips and glazes and fritters and frostings that meet everyone’s needs, because one shouldn’t be too picky with doughnuts.
The value and charm are definitely there, and we appreciate a place that meets its expectations.
#13: Ikoi Mochi Donuts (8.95 points)
Mochi doughnuts tend to be a divisive breed.
Some people love their moist and small structure, enjoying the texture more than the heavier yeast and cake varieties. Others find them too sweet and chewy, the tapioca or rice flour overriding the rest of the flavour of the doughnut.
For our part, we enjoyed all three mochi places we tried in Metro Vancouver, while realizing that they end up being one-trick ponies in a lot of ways.
Ikoi Mochi was the one we were most indifferent to, owing mainly to its smaller size and toppings that, while they changed in colour, didn’t have as much difference when it came to their various one-note flavours (matcha, strawberry, mango and pistachio tend to be the mainstays).
Still, they were well-proportioned, fun to share, just interesting enough to keep our attention, and under four bucks each.
It’s not quite enough to be considered “good”, in part due to its limited options and basic flavours, but it’s still the first place on this list where we can’t name any major drawbacks…provided you’re picking up what mochi’s throwing down.
TIER 4: GOOD
#12: Their There (9.12 points)
If you were to ask ChatGPT to come up with a Vancouver doughnut place in 2023, it would probably look a lot like Their There: a cramped hipster brunch place in Kitsilano with bright bold flavours, a merchandise table, a popular Instagram account, and doughnuts that go for nearly $6 bucks each.
Incidentally, there’s usually only two or three types of doughnuts available at Their There and they’re all mochi flavour (with some seasonals sprinkled in).
Duffin's, this ain’t.
At the same time, those doughnuts are actually quite good — moist but heavy enough that it balances out well, with the brown butter option comfortably in our Top 10 doughnuts in the region (and the cereal one wasn’t bad either).
But this isn’t just about the best doughnuts, it’s about the best doughnut places, and on that front Their There has too much going against it: the prices, the limited selection, and the cramped space (the lineup for doughnuts and coffee is jammed in between the kitchen and the brunch tables, making any sort of wait unpleasant), so we can only recommend it as “good” and no more.
Rest assured though, if you have a friend who enjoys a thicker and sugary doughnut, give them the brown butter. Just make sure to wake them up from the ensuing food coma.
#11: Mello (9.14 points)
It only opened its Chinatown location in late 2019, but Mello has quickly made a buzz in the city’s doughnut scene for a number of very valid reasons.
For one, its focus on cream/jelly/nutella-filled doughnuts, stuffed into large brioche buns and sprinkled with sugar, made it stand out in a market where most places either gravitate to traditional dips or exuberant sugar-and-toppings creations.
For another, a few of their offerings — particular the Everything Bagel Donut, which is what it sounds like, complete with chive cream cheese — had just enough curiousity to them to inspire visitors. In addition, their minimalist yellow branding and fun seasonal choices, like a Valentine’s Day very berry yogurt, adds to its unique identity.
And Mello ranks 6th overall for flavour for us, because all those things we mentioned are tasty, particularly the cream-filled choices.
But the brioche doughnuts themselves are too chewy, and while this more or less works for the cream-filled options (because the filling surrounds the bun) it presents a problem for the dipped doughnuts, because the glaze on top doesn’t balance well with the overall doughnut. In addition, while those cream fillings are tasty, there’s a certain sameness to everything when you’re trying pieces from 4 or 5 of them all in a row…except the Everything Bagel, which ended up being divisive in our group.
Still, there’s enough here to warrant a tempered recommendation, particularly if you stick to Mello’s strengths.
Coming later this week — the Top 10! Won’t that be exciting?
As a North Shore resident, thank you for finally laying the hammer down on Honey's. If you want a dry, tasteless, fist-sized piece of cake with a miser's-spread of chocolate on top, nobody does it better.
Harmony or Cream Pony are infinitely superior donuts (both offer their own twists) and don't involve partaking in the blood sport of searching for a parking spot in Deep Cove.
Gourmet Donuts is such a favourite of mine; I’m really pleased that it made the list and you have described it to a “t”—except that I would like to add it is also one of the friendliest places on the Lower Mainland. I was there a few days ago and found myself chatting with both staff and customers. I am not really a chatter but I always chat at Gourmet Donuts, and enjoy doing it, and it’s probably good for me. Oh, and the perfectly fine coffee is also about $2.