Photo Friday: How Much Is That Donut in the Window?

It's $3, and the lemon blueberry donut is just as delicious as it looks.

Destination Donuts at North Market.
Dec. 19, 2015

The Delicious Donut Burger of DK Diner

I always think of New York as the place that pretty much has every food I could ever imagine, and even more that I couldn't. After all, it was in New York that I first heard of a donut burger.

It was an occasional special at a burger joint in our Bay Ridge neighborhood -- a slab of beef with a glazed donut acting as the buns. I was eager to try it, but it was never on the menu when we ate there.

Then we returned to Columbus. DK Diner in Grandview, just west of downtown, had been on my list of places to try, particularly for its donuts and patio. When I read that they, too, served a donut burger ... well, it just begged to be eaten.

The DK Diner donut burger was every bit as grand as I anticipated. The burger was topped with cheese and three crispy slices of bacon, but of course the highlight was the glazed donut bun. It provided just a tinge of sweetness -- I actually would have been perfectly fine with a stronger donut taste to my burger.

The only downside -- the donut was split lengthwise, with half acting as the bottom bun and the other half on top. That made the bottom bun a tad soggy, but delicious nonetheless.

I often say how good a meal is and then forget to return for weeks or months or years. But Paul and I are already planning a return trip to DK Diner for the donut burger ASAP.

Doughnut Plant: Bigger and Better

It's food week here at Pay a Visit! Today: breakfast. Wednesday: The main course. Friday: Dessert. Now let's start eating.

Calling today's topic "breakfast" may be a misnomer. That's because the doughnuts at the Doughnut Plant are just as much a dessert as anything you'd eat with your morning coffee. But it doesn't matter when you eat them as long as you do.

Paul and I went to the original Doughnut Factory on the Lower East Side in 2010, and I had a delicious blackout chocolate cake doughnut. Since then, a second outpost opened in the Chelsea Hotel, and I was eager to try it. A visit to New York by my friend Sarah gave me the perfect opportunity.

The Chelsea location is much better than the Lower East Side one; not only is it more convenient to the subway lines I use the most, but it actually has seating. Sarah and I didn't get seats under the doughnut-shaped wall hangings, but we did snag a pair of bar stools along the wall.

For doughnuts, the offerings are expensive: around $3 apiece. Another reason to think of them as dessert: they're cheap compared to a good bake shop's slices of cake or pie. That way I can justify buying two doughnuts.

This time I tried the rich Valrhona chocolate yeast doughnut, and a tres leches cake doughnut with a ribbon of cream in the middle.

Also consider the cost of your doughnut(s) as admission to the fancy disco-style bathroom with little mirrors covering the entire space. I'm kind of glad I didn't have to actually use it, but I would have liked to see more than just the peak I sneaked when someone else had to use the restroom. Next time. And maybe a separate post.

Mike's Donuts: Best of Bay Ridge?

I don't know what it is with me and doughnuts lately.

Mmmmm, doughnuts.

I've always liked doughnuts, but lately I've been seriously craving them. And no, I'm not pregnant again.

Sounds silly, but I think I had almost forgotten how much I really do love doughnuts. But then Paul's sister shared some from her favorite local doughnut shop when we were visiting Ohio in January. And then Fat Tuesday was a few weeks later, and you have to have a doughnut on Fat Tuesday. Who am I to say no to tradition?

Dunkin' Donuts just doesn't cut it, but luckily Bay Ridge has at least one other option. And it consistently gets raves both in and outside of the neighborhood: Mike's Donuts. And it's only about a half mile from here! How I had not yet sampled a doughnut from Mike's is beyond my understanding.

So Edith and I celebrated Fat Tuesday by walking to Mike's and getting two cinnamon cake doughnuts. Edith will have to wait a while for her first bite, but Paul and I sure enjoyed them. Excellent consistency, excellent taste. A solid doughnut I could definitely have twice. And by that, I mean I wish I would have purchased a second for me. Since they're only 75 cents apiece, I should have.

Mike's Donuts was good, obviously, but it did not eliminate my now all-consuming need for doughnuts. When my friend Sarah visited in February, I immediately suggested a trip to the Doughnut Plant (blog post forthcoming!). And when I was at my parents' house earlier this month, I think I had a chocolate-covered Entenmann's doughnut every morning. It was like eating a candy bar for breakfast.

My quest isn't over. I may not find New York's best doughnut, but I'll do my best to gain a few pounds trying.

NYC's Best Doughnut Search: Dough

My search for the best doughnut in New York City took an unexpected turn to the Brooklyn Flea.

When we visited the outdoor flea market a few weekends ago, amid the old typewriters and ironic t-shirts was Dough. The doughnut shop, based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, was displaying doughnuts like I've seen nowhere else -- certainly not in the cookie-cutter doughnut shops of New York.

Dough offered classic flavors like cinnamon sugar as well as more unique ones like hibiscus, and I couldn't resist the bright pink frosting of the latter. I forked over $2 and got the doughnut wrapped up in a brown paper bag to go. I couldn't wait to get home, eat lunch and take a big bite.

The doughnut was the size of a big grapefruit and had about the same heft. But the weight was pure frosting -- the doughnut itself was light and airy. The frosting tasted, well, pink. It was super sweet with a slightly sour, fruity punch. Maybe it tasted just like hibiscus. I've never tasted it before, not even in tea, so I'm not sure.

Overall, delicious. So much better than Dunkin' Donuts or Tim Horton's that it's not even a fair comparison. My mouth is watering just typing these sentences. I'll definitely be returning.

NYC's Best Doughnut Search: Doughnut Plant

New York is known for its bagels and for its pizza. It definitely is not known for its doughnuts.

You can find a cannoli on every corner in Little Italy, and you can order a knish at nearly any given deli. But a plain, simple doughnut? No can do.

Of course, a good doughnut isn't really plain or simple. And, as I wrote in September 2009, a good donut does not come from either Tim Horton's or Dunkin' Donuts. Since these two chains are nearly as omnipresent as McDonald's and Starbucks, it's difficult to look past them. It took some research. A few fancy restaurants, I found out, have high-end doughnuts on the menu, but I'm looking for a doughnut that doesn't come with a waiter or a linen tablecloth.

And so I have begun my search for New York's best doughnut. First stop: Doughnut Plant.

This Lower East Side doughnut mecca gets high marks for drool-inducing flavors like creme brulee and tres leches. It has about an equal number of yeast donuts and cake doughnuts on the menu, and they all looked equally appetizing. The long Sunday afternoon line gave me plenty of time to second-guess the doughnut I had already decided I wanted to sample: the Blackout.

This chocolate cake doughnut (bottom left corner in the top photo) was covered in a chocolate glaze and topped with chocolate cake crumbs. A few bites in I noticed it was also filled with chocolate pudding -- the first time I'd ever had a filled doughnut that also had a hole in the center.

Paul opted for a vanilla yeast donut, and the bite I begged off him convinced me it was a high-end Krispy Kreme.

Judge's marks: Three doughnut holes (out of a maximum of five). The doughnuts were by far the best I've had in New York, but it doesn't match the ones I've had in Ohio -- particularly the vanilla frosting-filled selections at Schuler's in Springfield, or even the bismarcks at Buckeye Donuts on a good night. And at $3 a pop, you won't be seeing me bring in a dozen for my coworkers anytime soon. Still, the Doughnut Plant offers delicious treats, albeit more for dessert than for breakfast.