Even though there’s a laundry list of classic doughnut shops in NYC, a bunch of new bakeries, dessert shops, and takeout spots have started serving some top-notch fried dough recently. So if you want to try the kind of baked good that’ll inspire several hours of poetry-writing dedicated to glazed pastries, you’ve come to the right place. Use this guide to find all the best new doughnuts in NYC.
The Spots
Strawberry Shortcake
After working at fine dining restaurants like Eleven Madison Park, and running a pop-up at Maison Yaki during the summer of 2020, pastry chef Camari Mick is now serving excellent doughnuts (and more) out of The Musket Room’s relatively new all-day takeout window in Nolita. The Musket Room’s doughnut flavor changes every week, but we recently tried a strawberry shortcake version filled with an unspeakable amount of glistening strawberry jam. The doughnut was topped with a pink and white crumble reminiscent of the iconic exterior of a Good Humor strawberry shortcake popsicle. It’s fun and messy to eat, and somehow still tasted both balanced and naturally fruit-flavored.
NYC Feature
The Black Chef Series Taking Over Maison Yaki This Fall
Apple Jam & Ricotta Bomboloni
We’ve been religiously watching Stanley Tucci’s Searching For Italy on CNN, a show in which he frolics around the Boot eating various regional carbohydrates. We say this only because, when you inevitably watch it too, you’ll have to suffer through the fact that you can’t taste what he’s eating. The most worthy remedy available in NYC right now is Leo’s delicious bomboloni - a golden bomb lightly fried and filled with a rotating selection of something fruity and something creamy. Recently we tried one with apple jam and ricotta, which was then rolled in granulated sugar. They’re now serving a doughnut with rhubarb jam and vanilla pastry cream (the flavors change fairly often). Hit pause on Stanley Tucci and head straight for this bomboloni in Leo’s slice shop during the mornings. Like just about everything edible at Leo, it’s excellent and you’re going to wish you ordered more.
Sign up for our newsletter.
Be the first to get expert restaurant recommendations for every situation right in your inbox.
Guava & Cheese Fan-Fan
You can’t leave this Clinton Hill spot without ordering at least one of their namesake fan-fan doughnuts. They look like a mashup between a long john and an eclair, and our favorite flavor comes filled with fluffy cream cheese and topped with a tangy guava glaze and crumbled graham crackers. You could line a few of them up like a very soft and sticky lumbar pillow, but then you’d be missing out on the incredible combination of savory and sweet elements happening in every bite.
NYC Guide
The Best New Bakeries In NYC
Hominy Sugar Doughnut
This Texan spot on 3rd Avenue in the East Village has been selling decadent chocolate-frosted and almost-savory hominy sugar doughnuts on Sundays from 9am-3pm (or until whenever they sell out). They also offer a weekly changing third option which, in the past, has ranged from tangelo glaze to horchata pastry cream, and grapefruit donuts with olive oil curd and bay leaf sugar. Alluring fillings and frostings aside, we have yet to meet a lighter doughnut as of late. We may tie a string to the next Yellow Rose doughnut we get and let fly it like a kite in the sky.
Pandan Doughnut filled with Sour Cherry Lime Leaf Jam
At High Low, the incredible pastry lineup is only available Friday through Sunday. That means you only have a limited number of chances to get this sugar-coated pastry filled with cherry lime leaf jelly in a given week. But it’s worth making this baked good a priority since the pandan gives the dough a hint of sweetness that tastes faintly like coconut, which balances nicely with the tart jelly inside. And if you’re like us, you’ll probably find yourself admiring the beauty of this curvy ball of fried dough in between every bite.
Back Alley Bread
Angel Doughnut
We’ve heard of angels taking human form, but we’ve never heard of them taking the form of a beignet-like dough ball covered in honey and powdered sugar. That is, until we tried an angel doughnut from Back Alley Bread. You get six of these genre-defying doughnuts per order from this delivery-only Brooklyn bakery, and each come topped with a small yellow flower. Crispy on the outside and doughy on the inside, these doughnuts have the satisfying crunch of a beignet with the plushy interior of a doughnut hole.
NYC Guide
14 New Delivery-Only Restaurants Born Out Of The Pandemic
Chocolate Pomegranate Doughnut
Le Petit Monstre makes some of the best vegan pastries in Brooklyn, and maybe in the entire city. Their menu changes every day, but we recently tried their chocolate pomegranate doughnut and haven’t stopped thinking about it. This soft, pleasantly-chewy pastry gave us the same sweet pleasure of eating a pomegranate. But unlike the last time we cracked open the fruit and stained our favorite Zoom meeting shirt, our anxiety levels were much lower while eating this plant-based treat.
NYC Guide
The Best New Vegan & Vegetarian Restaurants In NYC
Crème Brûlée Doughnut
From the caramelized dough layered with butter and sugar to the creamy custard that oozes from inside, this fried pastry is an absolute doughnut masterpiece. If Wildair wanted to, they could easily build their own empire doing paid sponsorships centered around this thing. But fame comes with the reality of being very well-known, and in the case of this excellent crème brûlée doughnut, that means preorders sell out fast. The LES spot typically drops its rotating menu of new pastries every Wednesday at noon, so if you want one of these anytime soon, we suggest you set your post notifications accordingly.
