Whether you spell the word as donuts or doughnuts, the truth is that you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t enjoy indulging on these sweet circular pastries every now and then. Nothing pairs quite as well with a hot, strong cup of coffee as a donut, whether it’s for your guilt-ridden morning breakfast, or an afternoon pick-me-up. Finding donuts are pretty easy, most coffee chains sell them and you can always grab a box of stale ones from the grocery store, but finding really delicious, fresh donuts—the kind that you can’t help but think about hours later after you’ve already eaten it—is no easy task.
While Tim Hortons is a Canadian go-to for donuts, let’s just be honest for a moment: you can do a lot better than a Tim’s donut. No offence to Tims! But what we’re looking for is not those mass produced ones. We’re looking for ones that are made with love. London just so happens to have a number of great donut spots, but the catch is that many of these spots are little-known. So here is the scoop on all of the best places in London to grab a seriously great donut for when those sugary carb cravings kick in.
RHINO LOUNGE
If you have not tried the Rhino Lounge yet, you’re seriously missing out. Pastry Chef Michele Lenhardt creates wonderfully delicious delights that are surprisingly vegan. Trust me, you will NOT be missing the butter. There are also gluten-free pastry options within the Rhino Lounge. When you go for the donuts, don’t forget to try one of their cronuts (but note that they only offer them on Thursdays), which are a croissant and donut mix and are seriously worth the additional calories.
The Rhino Lounge is actually located within museum London. Beyond donuts, baked goods, and delicious pastries, they offer specialty drinks, smoothies, and incredible lunch fair. Oh, and they’re also licensed, which means you can totally sip on Baileys in your coffee while you enjoy your donut. Awesome!
V FOOD SPOT
Those who have tried the donuts at V Spot will attest to just how good these doughy delights are. They are a popular favourite among those who have had the pleasure of partaking in these sugary circles. Since it’s actually located within The Neighbourhood Laundromat Cafe, the V Spot is considered a hidden gem that not everyone knows about. Grabbing a seriously scrumptious donut and bringing a good book with you is enough to make laundry day the highlight of the week.
At V Spot they have a passion for creating plant based deliciousness. They make comfort food that is totally vegan, which means that they’re looking after animal welfare and sustainability. So you can feel good about indulging in these perfect creations.
When it comes to flavours, they have some classics like sprinkled, glazed, fritters, chocolate dipped, maple dipped, coconut, and old fashioned with cinnamon sugar. On top of those, they have seasonal and special donuts like cookie crumb, maple walnut, and candy cane.
DONUT DIVA FOOD TRUCK
Oh food trucks, how we love you. The Donut Diva is a well known food truck that you can find at different locations in London, depending on the day and time. They post their location and schedule on their Facebook every week.
These are the only mini donuts on this list, and if you have not tried them yet, you are totally missing out. They come out hot, fresh, and addictive. Here is how it works: first, you order the flavour that you want. The Donut Diva will whip up a batch of hot, fresh donuts plain mini donuts for you and will give you a bag full of the sugary coating. The mini donuts go into the bag and you shake it, shake it, shake it like a polaroid picture. Then enjoy your hot and delicious flavoured mini donuts.
Some of their regular features are: cinnamon, birthday cake, chocolate, blueberry, white razzleberry, and salted caramel. They have over 25 of their regular flavours. They also offer fun, festive, and seasonal flavours like Lime Margarita, Chili Chocolate, Turtle Cheesecake, Apple Pie Delight, Better Tart, Banana Rama and Charmellow Gourmet, Sweet Heart, Gingerbread S’More’s, Pumpkin Spice, and Candy Cane Crunch. In the winter they also have gourmet hot chocolate with delicious flavours like chocolate orange, chocolate hazelnut.
The Donut Diva’s mini donuts may be small in size, but not in flavour.
SPICER'S BAKERY
Spicer’s Bakery has been around since 1950 and is a family run business. The baton has recently been passed, with all of the recipes and secrets, to Steve Nakonecznyj and his wife Tracy, who have been working to improve the Spicer’s products by reducing refined sugars, reducing salt, and reducing the trans fats in many of their products, as a way of making their delicious baked goods more wholesome for your family.
They host a large array of donuts, which means that whatever you’re craving, they have something to satisfy. Their donuts are broken down into three kinds: regular, premium, and filled. For their regular donuts, you can find the classics like honey dip, maple dip, chocolate dip, apple fritter, chocolate with sprinkles, chocolate with peanuts, cinnamon, and icing with toppings. Their premium donuts have nostalgic and trendy kinds like Eclairs, Long Johns, Maple
Bacon, and Apple Fritter with Caramel. For those who don’t want holes in their donuts and would rather have them stuffed with goodness, their filled donuts include Boston cream, whip cream, and jelly filled powdered. They also do seasonal donuts such as the mini egg donut and have special kinds, such as ice cream stuffed donuts.
PLANT MATTER KICTHEN
Plant Matter Kitchen is an award winning restaurant that is showing Londoners that vegan food is delicious food. Their food is both local and organic, and demonstrates the importance of creating yumminess that is sustainable and gentle on the earth.
While Plant Matter Kitchen isn’t a donut shop, they do serve delicious donuts among the other great dishes. They offer both gluten-free and regular donuts. Their donuts come in incredible flavors like Mocha Espresso, Old Fashioned, Lavender Lemon, Chocolate Vanilla Sundae, Raspberry Chocolate Dip, Vanila Silver Sprinkle, Orange Cream, White Chocolate Sprinkle, Chocolate Dip, Boston Cream, Caramel Apple, Double Chocolate Dip, and Maple Walnut.
CHICK BOSS CAKE
Chic Cake Boss is a really cool bakery that creates incredibly unique, custom, and incredible desserts. Among those desserts is seriously awesome donuts with innovative, creative and mouth-watering flavours with the most beautiful presentation. These Instagram-worthy concoctions are all completely hand made from scratch and, honestly, are just lots of fun. Chic Cake Boss is all about quality over quantity, so if you’re wanting to get a box of these beautiful treats, it’s best to order in advance.
They offer both cake and yeast fried donuts, so no matter what your preference is, they’ve got you covered. Put these donuts on your food bucket-list because not only do they look incredible and will up your Instagram game, but they come in creative flavours like Fuzzy Peach, Champagne Strawberry, Bubble Gum, Toasted S’mores, Lucky Charm Milk & Cereal, Root Beer Float, Willy Wonka, Chai Cheesecake, and Apple Curro, which is not only drool-worthy, but will hit you right in your nostalgia bone.
BOXCAR DONUTS
Boxcar Donuts is another great hidden gem in London. You can find these incredible treats tucked away inside of CommonWealth Coffee Co., where you can have delectable coffee to pair with your sugary treat. These donuts are the epitome of gourmet donuts. They come in creative flavours like Sour Patch Kids Cereal Milk, Blueberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Cocoa Pebbles, Almond Hibiscus, Boston Annie, Birthday Cake with Sprinkles, and Pink Lemonade. But beware that these babies sell out like hotcakes, so you’re going to want to head there in the morning because they’re usually sold out by noon.
