Melbourne's donuts

Lately, I've been feeling like indulging in anything sweet (PMS is to blame *roll eyes*) and that's when I knew I had to wander around the city to find the best donut in town. I consider myself lucky because I swear donut shops abound all over the CBD! Several donut joints that I visited were compiled below :)

Shortstop Coffee & Donuts

12 Sutherland St, Melbourne VIC 3000

Each and every donut at Shortstop looks amazingly delicious and I ended up getting the earl grey & rose (thanks for the recommendation, Kak Mel). I'm not the kind of person who's keen on having a flower taste (or petals) in my desserts, but for a doughnut as pretty as this is, I'll definitely make an exception.

The texture was quite dense, dry, and crumbly (think of a banana bread) and after just eating a piece, I felt quite full already. What I love about the doughnut (or should I just call it as is; a cake?) is that it wasn't too sweet. Never thought that the subtle earl grey flavour with a hint of the rose could be complementing each other so beautifully.

I went to Shortstop the next day and got to try the honey & sea salt and this month's special, which was cookies & cream, as well. The honey & sea salt tasted a bit more to the savoury side and had a more complex and unexpected taste profile, but the cookies & cream easily comes to be my favourite! The custard was definitely creamy but not too thick and sweet. Also, your order comes with a glass of sparkling water by default. All in all, Shortstop sells a more elevated version of donuts although they're not something that I would constantly crave.

While you can now have a dine-in, be advised that the number of customers was limited to only 6 people at a time, although it wasn't anywhere near crowded (but I guess it also depends on what time you visit). 

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Walker's Doughnuts

276 Flinders St, Melbourne VIC 3000

As far as I can remember, the jam donut from Walker's was the first of its kind that I tried in the city (I've definitely had them elsewhere but then it wouldn't be pertinent to this post's title hehe). When the huge yellow signage was the first thing I saw upon exiting the station, I had no other options but to head over and try it out!

If you were into sweet and classic recipes, I think you would love Walker's. You'll see an assortment of different flavours and toppings but I decided to go with the hot jam and raspberry cheesecake (I was subconsciously influenced to try the former as it appeared to be the most popular). 

There was nothing special about the raspberry cheesecake, all I could taste was just a thick spread of cream on a donut and I barely picked up the cheesecake flavour. The hot jam was my preferred flavour as they were so comforting, sweet, and indulging though a tad sugary for my liking. The texture was airy and even though they were deep-fried, they were not greasy. I'd also prefer my donuts to be microwaved for 10 seconds just because I like mine even softer and warmer.

On the whole, Walker's donuts were decent although not so fantastic. I would probably come back for the jam donut (AU $8.00 for half a dozen) if I were on the lookout for late-night sweet munchies since the one on Flinders St is open for 24 hours.

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Lukumades

82 Peel St, West Melbourne VIC 3000

This is where my entire donut odyssey actually began. These Greek donuts are smaller, softer, and slightly remind me of poffertjes aka those little Dutch pancakes. The options range from classic honey & cinnamon to Nutella but I usually order mine with dark chocolate sprinkled with pistachio. You can add another topping like icing sugar if you're inclined --which was what I did (usually overly-sweet bites are not to my fancy but I feel like dark chocolate and icing sugar are just *chef's kiss*).

Pricewise, I feel like it's a bit steep on the wallet (AU $12.00 for 10 pieces), but that's probably because I'm already satisfied from eating only half of them --I usually share these bites with a friend. You can also have two flavours on the same plate for an added cost of AU $2.00. Since I ordered the half-half, I also got to try the one filled with strawberry jam and coated in cinnamon sugar, but the chocolate ones remain my absolute go-to.

Of all the donuts I tried in Melbourne, Lukumades is hands-down my number one favourite. The donut has a crunchy skin yet it's soft on the inside, and the chocolate-pistachio combination is second to none. So addicting and sinful!

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American Doughnut Kitchen

Queen St, Melbourne VIC 3000

It wouldn't be a legit donut review if ADK is left out of the list. I've actually been seeing and hearing about this donut truck in Queen Victoria Market way before I came to Melbourne. When I found out that the QVM was only 15 minutes away from where I live, it's only natural for me to think that getting myself a bag of these jam donuts is undoubtedly a must. 

ADK donut truck wasn't difficult to locate, and when I arrived, there was already a line up of people ahead of me. For some reason, I always have reservations about the kind of food/snack where you have to wait in a snaking line just to get it (probably because I always get my hopes too high most of the time lol). However, after trying their donuts, I could understand why ADK sees queues every day! I'm not gonna lie, it was hard not to salivate while waiting in the inevitable line! Luckily it only took less than 5 minutes to get my hands on these sweets.

ADK only sells one type of donut which is the raspberry-plum jam-filled donut dusted in sugar. The donut texture was dense yet fluffy, chewy, and pillowy, plus they were served very warm --just the way I like it! The jam was not too sweet and sour, so I genuinely loooved these delights. Despite the long queue, the cashier was kind and friendly so that's a bonus point. 

I'm definitely visiting American Doughnut Kitchen should I crave hot jam-filled donuts (sorry, Walker's!). My only regret was that I only got 5 pieces (I wished I had ordered 10 instead lol call me obsessed). Overall, these jam donuts definitely exceeded my expectations. Strolling around QVM with these delicious treats was absolutely the perfect way to end this donut crawl.

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In conclusion, I totally recommend you to head over to Lukumades for chocolate-covered donut bites (their Nutella and dark chocolate variants are to die for) and American Doughnut Kitchen when you crave hot-jam ones (in addition to their value-for-money).

I hope you enjoyed reading this review! Also sorry for using the word donut and doughnut interchangeably I'm too lazy to double-check lol.