Restaurant Review: Doughnut Party
DOUGHNUT PARTY 11980 104th Avenue ~ doughnutparty.ca Instagram: @doughnutparty Co-Diner: Tim Golem
A few years ago "fancy" donuts were blowing up everywhere and were a major trend. Now they're more of a thing that we have simply come to expect. The bar has now been set too high for crappy donuts to stand a chance. In Edmonton, one of the most popular donut shops that you'll hear about is Doughnut Party. Their original location is in Oliver, in the Brewery District, and they've since expanded to a second spot in Ritchie as well. It's hard to miss their branding, which is pretty adorable and blasting with a rainbow of bright colours. They've got a little donut creature as a logo/mascot and he's so cute that you can buy him on merch. Voted #1 Best Doughnuts 2018 by VUE Weekly, these are the fried circles of dough that you need to be aware of in this city. I visited the Oliver location because when given the option, I usually prefer to hit the OGs. You'll find them in a bumpin' plaza filled will all sorts of cool businesses - and Doughnut Party fits right in. Entering the small space, you'll note that it's strictly a take-out situation with no seating whatsoever. I liked the glass block back wall, the giant mountain of pink donut boxes, and especially enjoyed their use of fluorescent tube lighting (which I feel is making a comeback). The space feels like a fun, laid-back shop with a great attitude toward inclusion and good vibes. The long glass case is filled with a rotating selection of at least ten different donut flavours, like colourful jewels inside a box. You can't choose just one. Plus they serve coffee. On my recent Monday morning visit their full donut selection was on display and I eagerly chose the ones that I wanted to sample. Doughnut Party will often run different weekly themes and this particular week is "Halfway to Halloween" which means that they've brought back a bunch of their spooky flavours. I also grabbed a Fast Coffee ($3.00) to drink.
The coffee isn't anything fancy - it's exactly as they claim: a fast coffee. They pour it into the cup black (it didn't seem obvious that they're using beans from a cool local roaster or anything) and you can add your own cream and sugar to taste. It's like the old days before latte art. The coffee was perfectly fine though. As we are well aware coffee and donuts are good friends. Let’s talk about what’s inside the bright pink box! It’s donuts!!! Doughnut Party does yeast donuts, which makes me happy because I far prefer them to cake donuts. I selected a Half Dozen ($19.95) and stuck to the flavours that interested me the most! Donuts are best eaten immediately because that's when they're the softest and the freshest.
In order of how much I liked them, here are the donuts that I got!: Salty Witch (Chocolate + saltine crumble + butterscotch + PB chips.) Easily my favourite overall because I'm way into the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I also enjoyed that this one had even more going on with the interesting and salty use of crumbled saltine cracker - which really worked and added great texture. You can't go wrong with a chocolatey, salty/sweet combo in my opinion. Loved! Caramel Apple Crunch I enjoyed the way that this flavour really captured the essence of apple. Plus the irresistible bits of crunchy brittle on top just do it for me. This really was a great take on a caramel apple - in donut form. Death by Chocolate (Chocolate + chocolate + chocolate.) If you're a fan of chocolate, this is the donut for you! It's just chocolate on more chocolate, however it's done well because I appreciated the use of different textures and methods of providing more chocolate. Raspberry Bismarck This puffy little cloud was absolutely covered in icing sugar and packed full of oozy raspberry jam. This one felt like a very classic donut and it was done well. Ooky Spooky Cookie Crumble A fun one for sure, I liked the colours and the crumble of cookie but I felt that the flavour was a bit one-noted. I guess it was mainly just vanilla? Which is fine, but if a donut looks like a party, I'm gonna want it to taste like one too. I think that they actually always have a version of this one available, they simply change the colour of the sprinkles to match the season/holiday. Vancouver Fog (Maple + orange + earl grey.) First of all, I love that I'm seeing the name "Vancouver fog" more and more, replacing the old "London fog." I appreciate the patriotism. Everything about this donut should've been things that I love but unfortunately I didn't get much of the flavour. It just tasted sweet. I wish that more of the maple, orange and earl grey had been able to come through in a more dynamic way.
Overall, I liked the donuts at Doughnut Party quite a lot and I do think they're doing a great job of creating the fancy and fun donuts that everyone now craves. Their dough is very soft and expertly made, which I give them high marks for. (However, they're not quite the most pillowy donuts that I've ever experienced. These ones did have a slight denseness to them.) I found that several of the flavours suffered from being overly sweet, which caused them to lack in a more diverse flavour profile. I somehow wanted something more gooey, warm and irresistible in some cases, and less of a hard shell of sugar. I'm also not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that the donut flavours are completely different every single week. On the plus side, there's always something new and exciting to try, which I'm here for. On the down side, if there's a flavour that you really love, you may never see it again. I enjoy the model of some of my other favourite donut shops, where they'll have about 5-10 of their best flavours that are always available and then they'll do a monthly or weekly special set of flavours that rotate. It's the best of both worlds. However, it is very fun to keep track of the new flavours at Doughnut Party on social media and to pop in to try the ones that sound the most delicious and interesting. I love a fun donut and I love the big, bold, and wacky ideas at Doughnut Party. The quality of their product is very good and I love their whole vibrant attitude. Any time that they're serving up a donut that is remotely peanut butter and chocolate themed, I will be there. Here are some of the other boxes from Doughnut Party that I have gotten in the past!
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