Von Doughnuts

Its a very good thing that Von Doughnuts are far, and out of the way for me to get to.  They are DELICIOUS!  I would be such a frequent buyer.  For those of you who do not share my love of yeast based doughnuts, no need to read any further.  I was kinda worried that by time we got to buying these delicious treats, that they would be sold out, it was late in the afternoon.  But to my delight, they still had a pretty decent selection.  We picked up 6, to share with friends, although I wished I ate them all myself!  I hope I remember correctly what we bought, I believe they were, malibu passion punch, rocher, burtle (bacon & turtle chocolate), pucker up sucker (lemon meringue), raspberry rush (raspberry filled), and caramel salt n'pepa.  Of the 4 that I got to try (didn't get to try the malibu passion punch and the raspberry rush), they were all very good.  I think my favourite was the pucker up sucker.

Von Doughnuts

Von Doughnuts
713 Danforth Ave.,
Toronto, ON
M4J 1L2

Phone:  (416) 901-8663

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8:00a-6:00p
             Saturday 9:00a - 6:00p
             Sunday 10:00a - 5:00p

http://vondoughnuts.com

Little Nicky's Coffee

I have a good friend who likes to drop off treats every so often because he knows I like trying new places.  The goods are usually pastries or donuts.  Thats how I heard about Little Nicky's.  Little Nicky's donuts are not the gourmet style donuts that most of the newer donut shops produce.    Little Nicky's donuts are more like carnival style donuts.  Small, two bite like.  But when compared to the typical carnival donuts, they are a little bit more dense, a little more bready like than cake like.  I actually prefer these ones more than the ones from the carnivals.

Little Nicky's Donut

Little Nicky's Coffee
375 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON

416-260-0500

Hours:  Monday - Friday 7:30am - 6:00pm
             Saturday 9:30am - 6:00pm

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Nickys-Coffee/135570936459654

Calabria Bakery

This bakery is located in a plaza that I didn't even know existed.  Ok, thats an exaggeration, but there's nothing really in the plaza that necessary will draw people in, so I never went to the plaza.  So thats why I never noticed the bakery there before.  The reason why I even heard of this bakery was actually through a 'best donuts' thread on Chowhound.  Within that thread, it mentioned that not only does Calabria Bakery make awesome donuts, but they also do great pizza.  Since I had a craving for pizza, off we went.

We ordered a margherita, and the other one I kinda forgot.  The oven was not a stone oven.  But from what I read, their Scarborough location does use a stone oven.  Sounds like the pizza there may potentially have a better crust.  Overall, the pizza here was passable.  I was disappointed their their margarita pizza didn't have fresh basil on it, and the cheese just looked like shredded mozzarella, not fresh mozzarella.  Thats what makes a margherita pizza does it not?  The other pizza was just overly salty in my opinion.

Margherita Pizza

Other Pizza

Donuts for dessert!  I have a bad memory, so I can't remember the flavour of one of the donuts.  The other one was strawberry filled.  The donuts themselves, minus the toppings/fillings were so good!  I love yeast donuts, so light and fluffy.  The icing on one of the donuts were too sweet though.  And the jam filling was a bit artificial, tasting.  If they improve the quality of the fillings/toppings, they would make an amazing donut for sure!

Donuts

Calabria Bakery

5694 Highway 7 E

Markham, ON

L3P 0E3

905-471-1033

Hours:  Monday - Friday 8am - 8pm

             Saturday 8am - 7pm

http://www.calabriabakery.ca

Lisa Marie

This was supposed to be dessert after dinner.  My friend suggested Lisa Marie because of her fascination with Fidel Gastro and because they make desserts in little jars.  Apparently food tastes better coming from jars.

Walking in, it had a very industrial feel to it, the tables were all made with reclaimed wood and the legs of the chairs were made from plumbing.  The lighting inside drove me nuts though.  It was way too dark for my liking.  It would be nice to see what you're eating.  So please excuse the dark and fuzzy pictures.

We ended up ordering duck confit pizza, Elvis in a jar and marrow donuts.  Duck confit pizza essentially tasted like Peking duck on a pizza crust.  Instead of tomato sauce, it was hoisin sauce.  So for someone Chinese, it really wasn't that special.

Duck Confit Pizza

Elvis in a jar was pretty darned tasty.  It was french toast, peanut butter, banana, and bacon, recreated in a trifle type format and put into a mason jar.  Needed more bacon flavour.

Elvis in a Jar

Lastly, the marrow donuts.  We originally wasn't sure if we should order this.  None of us particularly like marrow.  And the combination of the marrow and being deep fried seemed a little too heavy.  But our server said that it was her favourite.  So thats why we ordered it.  The donuts were not heavy at all, super light, and there was no funny taste (animal/meat) taste to it either.  If someone gave me a donut to try, there would be no way that I would suspect that there would be marrow in it.  The donuts came with a side of cherry sauce which complimented each other quite well.
 

Marrow Donuts

Great environment and good food, just wished that it was brighter so my eyes didn't feel so strained after.

Lisa Marie
638 Queen St. W
Toronto, ON
M6J 1E3
647-748-6822
http://fidelgastro.ca

Jelly Modern Donuts

Late night donut delivery!!!!  That is how I got to try my first Jelly Modern Donuts donut! Most of my friends know, that I’m really bad with my phone.  I don’t have it glued to me like most of my friends and family do.  When I’m at work it’s on my desk charging.  When I’m at home, it’s usually left in my purse.  So if you text me at night, I probably won’t see it until I’m at work the next morning.  You are better off calling me the old fashioned way…RING RING….RING RING……

My friend had sent me a FB message around 9pm asking if I was at home.  It wasn’t until my friend rang my doorbell and showed up with a donut for me and him telling me that he messaged me before I went to my phone to check.  Surprises are always nicer than pre-arranged things right?  For most people yes, but I think I prefer the latter.

The donut that I had gotten was maple cream (I originally thought it might have been maple bacon, missing the piece of bacon).  And it was HUGE!  I should have taken a picture of it with something as a size reference, but didn't think of it at the time.  My friend thought it was lemon cream, but there was no lemon flavor.  The base of the donut was good.  It’s a yeast based donut, so it was very light.  Exactly the kind of donut I like.  The only thing is, some parts of the donut tasted/felt kind of doughy.  Not sure if this particular one was slightly undercooked, or if the heavy maple cream sitting on it all day soaked into the donut too much.

Maple Cream Donut

While shopping at Holts (on Bloor) last weekend (mid August), Jelly Modern Donuts had setup a little stand upstairs on the second floor with donut centres to sample, and donuts to sell.  Sampling the donut hole, made me want to eat a donut.  So we bought the Oreo one.  The size of this donut was significantly smaller than the one my friend brought over.  Not sure if they have adjusted the size, or if they just made it smaller to sell at Holts.  But nevertheless, this donut base was very good!   The Oreo frosting was too sweet for me though.  I think I would prefer it if they came out with a plain donut.

Jelly Modern Donuts

376 College Street,

Toronto, ON

M5T 1S6

416-962-2053

Hours: Monday Pre-ordered pickups only

            Tuesday - Thursday 7am-8pm

            Friday 7am-9pm

            Saturday 10am-9pm

            Sunday 11am-8pm

http://jellymoderndoughnuts.com

Glory Hole Donuts

I wanted to Glory Hole Donuts, months and months and months ago.  I first read about them in the Toronto Star.  At the time, there were only 2 places that sold these donuts, Glory Hole did not have their own retail location at the time.  I stopped by that coffee shop on a Saturday afternoon, and walked out with no donuts.  Because of the Toronto Star, these donuts have been selling out early in the mornings.

After my exams, I finally had the time to make a trip to Glory Hole's Queen West shop.  The location isn't exactly convenient.  The surrounding area is kind of dumpish like.  But I guess thats what they could afford since they kind of 'begged' for donations to open up a retail store.  When we walked in, they only had 2 flavours available.  We waited for upwards of 30 minutes for them to bring out some additional flavours.  We picked up a dozen donuts to try and share with friends.  I think they charged us wrong, because a dozen donuts ended up costing us only $31.  If I remember correctly, one dozen of their donuts (pre-retail location) was closer to $50.

The flavours we picked up include:  Banana Cream, Maple Bacon, Chocolate Pretzel, Black Forest, Pistachio and some Lemon Ricotta Balls.  My fave was the Lemon Ricotta Balls.  The texture was more cake like whereas the other donuts had a fluffier bread like texture.  Hubby did not like the Maple Bacon.  I didn't get to taste all of the donuts as they were given to friends.  I would definitely recommend calling in before hand for donuts so you don't have to waste time waiting...and waiting for these donuts. 

Box O' Donuts

Banana Cream Donut

Glory Hole Donuts

1596 Queen St W

Toronto, ON

647-352-4848

http://www.gloryholedoughnuts.com

The Beast: Donuts

I have been to The Beast once before, after one of my 10k runs (to re-fuel) for brunch.  I had no idea The Beast made donuts until a friend bought us two to try.  We got to sample the margherita and the maple bacon.  The texture of the donut is not like a typical donut.  It seemed more like a light airy and slightly sweet bread.

The margherita had a lime glaze on top and was filled with a lime custard.  So yummy and tangy and custardy.  The fact that the base of the donut wasn't too sweet  worked well with the sweet glaze.  The maple bacon donut when I first looked at it, I thought it was a coconut donut.  The crumbled bits of donut looked like toasted coconut shavings.  I thought I would hate the combination of meat and donut.  But it was delicious, better than the margherita.

Maple Bacon Donut (left), Margherita Donut (right)

The Beast
96 Tecumseth St.
Toronto, ON M6J 2H1
Hours: Monday & Tuesday CLOSED
              Wednesday & Thursday 5pm - 9pm
              Friday 5pm - 10pm
              Saturday 11am - 3pm, 5pm - 10pm
              Sunday 10am - 3pm
http://thebeastrestaurant.com/