Food & Drink
The Best Doughnuts in Seattle
In a city with so much great food, we wanted to know: What really takes the prize? Our critics tasted dozens of the very best doughnuts to find out
By Chelsea Lin August 21, 2018
This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.
This article appears in print as the cover story of the September 2018 issue. Read more from the Best of the Best Restaurants feature story here. Click here to subscribe.
Best of the Best: The Flour Box
Generally, it’s hard to beat an old-school doughnut, particularly if you can score one fresh from the fryer. There are few simpler pleasures, particularly because doughnuts are generally less than $2.
But our editorial pick for the city’s best doughnuts convinced us otherwise: This is not your grandma’s doughnut, and in this case, that’s a very good thing. Pamela Vuong is a self-taught baking whiz who launched her filled brioche doughnut company (hot on the heels of General Porpoise) in late 2017, and the lines have been building at her periodic pop-up shops ever since. Making the dough is a two-day process—resulting in a quality of lightness in each bite—and each doughnut is cut, shaped, coated and filled with creams, jams or custards by hand ($70 for two dozen, the minimum custom order, or $3.50–$4 each at her pop-ups).
Though the sweets are excellent, the runaway sleeper hit is a delightfully light, savory doughnut inspired by “everything” bagels and stuffed with cream cheese.
Pop-up shop and custom orders; theflourboxseattle.com
OTHER FAVORITES
Side Hustle (inside Lowercase Brewing)
Georgetown, 6235 Airport Way S; 206.258.4987; sidehustledoughnuts.com
King Donuts
Rainier Valley, 9232 Rainier Ave. S; 206.721.3103; Facebook, “King Donuts”
TIP: Although the shop opens at 7 a.m., fritters aren’t usually done until 9:30 a.m. or so—get ’em while they’re hot.
General Porpoise
Capitol Hill, 1020 E Union St.; 206.900.8770; gpdoughnuts.com
In addition to our expert picks, we put the Best of the Best to the test on social media, March Madness bracket style, to discover our readers’ favorite pizza, doughnuts and burgers. Behold the doughnut bracket results:
Follow Us
Seattle’s Most Exciting Restaurant Openings
Check out these four new restaurants as the weather heats up
[addtoany]As Seattle warms up to summer weather, so too does the restaurant scene, with a bunch of exciting restaurant openings this month and next — some already in soft opening and waiting for you to come sample creative Vietnamese food and crunch through Lebanese tacos. Lupe’s Situ Tacos Opening mid-May A pandemic pop-up that spent…
‘10 Things I Hate About You’ Turns 25
Tour 10 locations from the iconic '90s movie filmed in Seattle and Tacoma
Released 25 years ago in 1999, 10 Things I Hate About You perfectly encapsulates the '90s and stands out as an excellent adaptation of Shakespeare. It’s Heath Ledger’s American debut and a travel postcard from Seattle and Tacoma to the world. So, get those cameras ready and crank up Letters to Cleo — let’s hit the
Uncommon Thinkers: Sam Cho
Director, Strategic Initiatives, Office of the Mayor. Commissioner, Port of Seattle
Not many can say they were elected to public office before the age of 30. Fewer can still say that, by the time they did so, they'd founded and sold a business. #UncommonThinkersWelcome Photo by Andrew Ge