Our Seattle Doughnut Awards
You already know Seattle is the coffee capital of the world. We have close to 100 coffee shop reviews on our website and 6 separate posts about our Seattle Coffee Awards. And we believe there is nothing that goes better with a coffee than a doughnut. Doughnuts and coffee make one of the tastiest and formidable combinations on the face of the planet.
If there is a food that all four members of our family clamour for, its doughnuts. When we make at the spontaneous decision to get doughnuts, you can hear cheers along with feet jumping up and down echoing through the house. And as parents, we’ve discovered the extreme power of doughnuts that can be used to bribe our daughters to do their chores, eat their vegetables and to get dressed quickly or else, “no doughnuts”.
Doughnuts are an affordable luxury where each member of the family can window shop and choose their own. We’ve pretty much visited every single doughnut shop in Seattle multiple times, so I guess you can say we are a family of authorized Seattle doughnut connoisseurs
Best Variety – The Donut Factory
Look at the picture above. That says it all. I never thought I’d say it, but they have more choices than Top Pot. From what I can tell the doughnuts on the right side of their display case are your standards like your old fashioned, raised glazed, sprinkle, etc and the doughnuts on the left are your fancy doughnuts. If the Donut Factory doesn’t have the donut you’re looking for then it probably doesn’t exist. As you can tell from the various pictures in our Donut Factory blog post, we go there quite often.
Best One of a Kind Doughnuts- Half N Half Doughnut Co
Get a load of these doughnuts — Banana Foster Filled, Pineapple Fritter, Apple Caramel Fritter, Georgette Cinnamon Twist, Sweet Potato Casserole Filled, Cherry Cola Old Fashioned, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Almond Joy Old Fashioned. You will not find these types of doughnuts anywhere else. These doughnuts have “special treat” written all over them. They have so many one-of-a-kind doughnuts and interesting combination of flavors that it’s difficult to choose. But damn, they good.
Best Mochi Doughnuts – Dochi
Located in the Uwajimaya food court, Dochi specializes in mochi doughnuts. The main differences between the dochi and your regular doughnut is the texture and its unique shape. It’s crispy on the outside and very chewy like mochi on the inside. We really love the shape of the dochi. It’s like 8 doughnut balls that are connected together. You can either eat it as a regular doughnut or tear it apart and divide the 8 little doughnut balls to share. The Strawberry Shortcake is our favorite.
Best Cream Filled Doughnuts – General Porpoise Doughnuts
General Porpoise Doughnuts is the overlord of Seattle cream filled doughnuts. They don’t have much variety at any one time, but they are very well executed. Here are some of the current fillings -Vanilla Custard, Chocolate Marshmallow, Lemon Curd, Raspberry Jam, Gingerbread Cream. They also have seasonal fillings like Rainier Cherry Jam and Peaches and Cream. It’s part of James Beard Award Winner Renee Erickson’s restaurant empire, so you know you’re in for a quality treat.
Best Small Batch Doughnuts – Raised Doughnuts
Best Local Chain- Mighty O
Most Popular Doughnut Shop – Top Pot
These two Seattle doughnut chains are the most well known in Seattle by far. They are joined at the hip when comparing Seattle doughnuts, so much so that we had a Food War blog post comparing their doughnuts one by one, side by side. We agreed that the vegan doughnuts of Mighty O were the better doughnuts, but not by much. The most popular chain is Top Pot which was visited by President Obama on a Seattle visit and also is known for former Seattle Seahawk Golden Tate breaking into a branch because he couldn’t control his urge for a Top Pot doughnut. Top Pot has 18 locations around Seattle compared to Mighty O’s five locations.
Biggest Loss in 2020 – Tempesta Coffee
What a blow to find out that Tempesta Coffee is closing permanently. When I first stumbled upon this coffee shop, I was presently surprised that they also sold doughnuts. And these doughnuts were not your standard doughnuts. It was one of the best kept secrets in Seattle. I never heard anybody ever mention Tempesta for their doughnuts though. I remember bringing a batch into work and people absolutely raved about them. Damn you, Covid 19!!!
Best Overall – Family Donut Shop
When you talk about solid, cost efficient and consistent doughnuts, Family Donut Shop is the standard. As their name states, they are family owned and you can feel it in their customer service. Their apple turnover made it into our Top 2020 Seattle Dishes of the Year. It is that damn good. They have a few out of the ordinary doughnuts, but they really excel in your standard doughnuts- old fashioned, cinnamon rolls, vanilla sprinkle, maple bars, Bavarian cream, apple fritter, chocolate glazed, jelly filled, etc. They have a wide variety and their popularity is evidenced by normally having a line out the door. This is our favorite doughnut shop in Seattle.
Thanks for reading Our Seattle Doughnut blog post.
Related:
Chi Mac – Korean Fried Chicken
Recommended by: We talked about The Ave(University Ave) in the University District becoming a Korean Fried Chicken epicenter with the opening of Bok A Bok and bb.q Chicken. We review another such spot, Chi Mac.
Description on the Chi Mac’s website: Inspired by this national dining culture and pastime, we created “Chi Mac”—“Chi”—short for Chicken in English; and “Mac” short for Beer, or “maekju” in Korean; as a way to bring this uniquely Korean-American experience and delicacy to Seattle—where East and West go together like chicken and beer.
Neighborhood/Type: University District
Address: 4525 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
What we ate/drank: See Below
Comments: We visited Chi Mac at the brick and mortar location prior to Covid-19 and have ordered take out a few times after that.
Their physical location has a massive Banksy-Inspired mural, which is cool, but we’d say the cleanliness of the place is on par with normal restaurants on The Ave. Take that for what you will. It’s definitely more of a “shoot the shit” with your boys type of place having some wings and beer versus an “impress-your-date” or “bring the parents” type of place. Nothing wrong with that. Just letting you know what to expect.
Their chicken sandwich was just okay. The flavors were there, but as you can see from the picture below, the cheese was cold and not close to being melted. We also had some wings and fries and while the wings were good the fries were pretty sad. So this made our decision for future orders to be strictly chicken and mainly wings only.
So our normal take out dishes from Chi Mac are as follows:
We’ve gotta say the Popcorn Chicken is better than what we’d expected. We typically get these for our girls because it’s easy to eat with no bones. Normally when we get this from other places, they can be rock hard small pieces of chicken. These were much bigger pieces and are quite tender, so this dish is definitely one of our regulars.
My favorite is the snow wings that has parmesan and onion powder. It has a bit of sweetness to it and the right amount of powder that’s not overpowering.
This ain’t fried chicken. This is Pride Chicken. I believe this is their standard base fried chicken and you can get either a 5 pc or 10 pc chicken. It’s not earth shattering, but it’s decent. Nice and crispy on the outside and super tender on the inside.
This is my wife’s favorite. Again perfectly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. This is a bit spicy, but not mouth-on-fire spicy. Definitely flavorful and another regular dish we order.
Our suggestion is to stick with the wings and popcorn chicken. This is where they really shine. We’d put Chi Mac ahead of b.q Chicken and slight being Bok A Bok. If The Ave ain’t your style, they have another location in Bellevue.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 3.75
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.25
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.25
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Staying with our theme of ethnic foods found on The Ave, we’ll be visiting Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen right down the street.
Winner of our Best Small Batch Doughnut Award: Raised Doughnuts
Recommended by: One of our friends recommended Raised Doughnuts after seeing our Family Donut Shop review.
Description on the Raised Doughnut’s website: WE START OUR DAY AT 2AM. Scaling ingredients and mixing our dough. It takes five to six hours for our doughnuts to be made from start to finish. The dough is mixed in small batches, hand cut, shaped, fried and glazed every morning! FROM SCRATCH Our glazes, toppings and fillings are made from scratch using whole ingredients. We don’t use preservatives, fillers, or artificial coloring! Because of this, our doughnuts are best enjoyed as soon as possible!
Neighborhood/Type: Central District
Address: 1101 23rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
What we ate/drank: See below
Comments: One of our friends told us we should try Raised Doughnuts. We’d heard great things about them since they opened up back in the summer of 2018, but we’d never visited Raised Doughnuts since it’s a bit out of the way for us.
We decided to go early on a Monday morning and made it there right before 9:00am. Even though we arrived early on a weekday, one of their doughnuts(the mochi sugar) was already sold out. They have 6 original doughnuts which they serve daily. They also have 4 monthly special doughnuts and have also have 3 weekend special doughnuts.
On this particular occasion we ordered each of the 4 monthly special doughnuts along with a couple of their originals, the maple bar and the apple fritter. The person serving us( I believe the owner) gave us a extra apple fritter for free because she deemed the fritter a bit on the small size. Score!
Before talking about the doughnuts, we wanted to talk about Raised Doughnuts. During the time we visited, dine-in wasn’t an option due to the Covid-19 situation, so we were met at the door with a menu posted on the wall for available doughnuts. Although we weren’t allowed inside we could see inside and it looks like it’s somebody’s house with doughnut shop inside it.
Finding parking was a bitch. I think they have two spots outside their building otherwise it’s street parking.
The owner worked at Macrina Bakery for 10 years, so she definitely has a pedigree. For those of you not familiar with Macrina Bakery, they are probably the most popular bakery in Seattle. And not only did she work there, she was actually the head pastry chef.
With that background, it’s no wonder the owner of Eastern Cafe decided to form a business partnership to make Raised Doughnuts into a brick and mortar business after having done numerous pop-ups around Seattle.
During regular times(non-Covid), Raised Doughnuts also offers classes for making doughnuts, cakes and cookies.
And here are some other interesting things about Raised Doughnuts from their website:
- ANTI WASTE There is a lot of food waste in our industry and we don’t want to add to it! We strive to avoid waste at all costs. This is why we choose to make one big batch a day and sell them until they’re gone! We also use every last bit of our dough, recycling the scraps into fritters and holes.
- WEEKENDS We bust out our maximum capacity. Which comes out to approx. 1500+ doughnuts a day on the weekend.
- WEEKDAYS Our weekday batches vary and are determined using our gut and past sales. Sometimes we sell dozens at a time and other days just a few per person. Because of this unpredictability, some days we sell out quickly while other days we last all day. We encourage preordering or calling ahead to put some aside. No minimum required! We just ask you to pick them up by 1PM!
On to the doughnuts. The Cranberry Thyme had a nice thick glaze with sprinkled cranberries on it. It was nice and sweet and perfect with a cup of coffee, but couldn’t really taste the cranberry. Perhaps it’s mainly for aesthetics. Another of the monthly specials was the Gingerbread Fritter, which again had ample amounts of glaze and definitely had a festive look with red(peppermint?) and white toppings and was the favorite of our daughter. The Pandan Mochi is all about the texture. It’s light, but chewy like a mochi doughnut should. We both took a bite and were surprised by the chewiness. We’re thinking it’s harder to make a mochi doughnut in a traditional doughnut shape versus the connected little balls at Dochi.
White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar -$3.50
The White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar was my personal favorite. It was like eating a candy cane doughnut. Really minty fresh. Perfect for the holiday season. The apple fritter doesn’t look like your traditional round flat fritter. The fritter here is actually dense, shaped almost like a muffin. Fluffy with bits of apple, this was another winner. I’m not a huge fan of maple bars and usually maple bars may have a hint of maple syrup. The Raised Doughnut maple bar strongly tastes like maple syrup, so if you’re a fan, grab one of these.
The higher quality(and higher prices) and the one-of-a-kind doughnuts remind us of Half N Half Doughnut Co.
As mentioned Raised Doughnuts is a bit of a trek for us and the doughnuts are a bit on the higher priced side, but you just get the feeling a lot of thought, care and personal touch is put into these one-of-a-kind doughnuts. Our recommendation is to try the specials. The originals are good but, the specials are exceptional. If we have a hankering for doughnuts we’re likely to go to some of the donut places closer to home, but on special occasions or if we want to impress out-of-town visitors, we’ll definitely hit up Raised Doughnuts.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A (During Covid 19, so no entry)
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.65
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
Related Articles:
bb.q Chicken
Recommended by: After publishing our Bok A Bok review, we noticed another Korean fried chicken restaurant opening up in the old Radio Shack spot down The Ave.
Description on the bb.q Chicken’s website: Established in 1995, bb.q Chicken’s visions to always provide the most delicious and healthiest premium chicken in the world. bb.q Chicken is continually motivated to prepare and share only the best flavors with you as our brand name.
Neighborhood/Type: University District
Address: 4223 University Way Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
What we ate/drank: Golden Original Chicken, Kimchi Fried Rice, Secret Sauced Chicken, Cheese Balls.
Comments: The Ave in the University District has become ground zero for Korean fried chicken- There’s Bok A Bok, Chi Mac Chicglet and now, bb.q Chicken.
bb.q Chicken has been in rapid expansion mode after opening over 1000 stores in Korea. They have a facility dedicated to research, development and franchisee education called, Chicken University.
They’ve become so ubiquitous in Korea that bbq.Chicken has been prominently featured in many Korean movies and TV shows. They’ve now set their sights on the rest of the world with a lofty goal of opening 50,000 franchises around the world by this year. One of which just opened in the University District.
“WE NOT MAKE CHICKEN; WE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE” – bb.q Chicken
bb.q Chicken specializes in fried chicken, so you may ask, why is it called, “bb.q”. Don’t let the name fool you. “bb.q” stand for “best of the best quality”
The various types of chicken include spicy, honey garlic, soy garlic, cheeseling. In addition to whole chicken(20 pc), half chicken(10 pc) and wings(8 pc), they also have chicken sandwiches. They also have a few roast chicken options and sides such as fries, kimchi fried rice and cheese balls.
We ended up getting the “half and half” of the secret sauce and golden fried chicken at $27.99. We also got a side of kimchi fried rice and complimentary cheese balls(holla!).
The chicken was decent. The secret sauce was a sweet and a bit spicy. It reminded us of a gochujang flavor you might find in bibibop. The golden original fried chicken was crispy and juicy and well seasoned, but the pieces are a bit on the small side.
The cheese balls were sweet with savory cheese and had a consistency similar to mochi. Best of all they were free.
This is your quintessential simple Korea fried chicken place for college students and optimal for sharing. If we’re being honest we prefer our local Korean fried chicken spots on The Ave, Bok A Bok and Chi Mac a little better, but we’ll definitely try some of the other flavors and give it a chance.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 3.75
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 3.75
Bang for the Buck: 3.00
Overall: 3.75
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: We mentioned the Chi Mac comparison, so we’ll visit this other Korean fried chicken spot on The Ave
Related Articles:
****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
La Conasupo Market
Recommended by: In our D’La Santa review we mentioned La Conasupo Market in our list of Mexican restaurants in Seattle.
Description on the La Conasupo Market’s website: They ain’t got one.
Neighborhood/Type: Greenwood
Address: 8532 Greenwood Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
What we ate/drank: Barbacoa Taco, Carnitas Taco, Asada Taco, Carne Asada Quesadilla.
Comments: As we have mentioned before there are three tiers of Mexican restaurants in Seattle.
- The fancy modernish ones like Barrio, Mezcaleria Oaxaca,
Chavez(RIP), Fogon Cocina Mexicana, Poquitos, Pablo Y Pablo - The mid-tier ones like D’La Santa, La Carta de Oaxaca, El Quetzal, Casco Antiguo, El Borracho,
418 Public House(RIP), Senor Moose - The hole-in-the-wall cheaper ones like La Conasupo, Mendoza’s Mercado, Taco Chukis, Gorditos
This is our 200th post on Seattle Unexplored and La Conasupo Market is a fitting review for such a milestone as it’s one of our favorite eateries in all of Seattle and bonafide secret.
Of all the “secrets” on this blog, this is the one I’m most scared about being “discovered”. What makes La Conasupo Market a secret. First it’s located in the back of an unassuming Mexican general store. It doesn’t stand out while your driving down Greenwood Ave, because it’s one of a long line of businesses located in the area.
Parking is hard to come by around here, so the only way you’ll find La Conasupo Market is if somebody tells you about it or if you happen to be walking in the area and accidentally stumble upon it.
As you enter the door it looks like it’s just a normal general store, but if you head all the way back you’ll see a small restaurant with a few tables in the back. We’ve never actually eaten here. We normally do take out and eat at home, but we often take it down the street to Flying Bike Cooperative Brewery and enjoy our meal with brews.
Our favorites are the tacos and the La Conasupo Market tacos actually made Our Top 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 post and came in at #5. Here’s an excerpt from that post:
5. La Conasupo – Carne Asada and Carnitas Tacos
Take a look at these bad boys in the pictures. Each dish pictured below is just two tacos! If you take this home and have some extra tortillas you can easily turn this into 4 or 5 tacos. These are definitely the best tacos when looking at bang for your buck due to the portion size, but these are also the best tasting tacos in Seattle. I defy anybody to name me a better taco in Seattle.
As mentioned in the excerpt above, these tacos are huge. Not only are they huge, but for what you pay, it’s a total bargain. And not only are the portions huge and a bargain, but they are yummy as hell. Ordering just two tacos will have our family of four happily fed and full without breaking the bank.
Quesadillas are another option. Like the tacos, the quesadilla is huge, a bargain and yummy. It’s the perfect dish for sharing. Whenever we meet friends at Flying Bike Coop for beers and bring back a quesadilla from La Conasupo Market, their eyes widen in astonishment how big it is and then they start tearing off pieces of it and stuff it in their mouths.
Truly one of the best kept secrets in Seattle. Whenever we mention La Conasupo Market, most people are aware of it, but have never been there because they think it’s just a general store, not knowing what deliciousness lurks in the back of the store. Us Seattleites also know how badly we are lacking in really good, authentic and reasonably priced Mexican food. Check them out, but don’t spread the word. We want this to remain a secret.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 5.00
Bang for the Buck: 5.00
Overall: 4.75
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
Related Articles:
Red Arrow Coffee
Description on Red Arrow Coffee’s website: Wander through the garden gates, 7 days a week, from 7 am – 1 pm to our little studio to find us pulling espresso and serving up a cup of joe in a quaint, fast & casual coffee shop.
Neighborhood: Fremont/Ballard
Address: 425 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Macchiato
Comments: One day we were driving down NW Market St and saw a Red Arrow Coffee sign out on the sidewalk next to one of our favorite restaurants, Brimmer and Heeltap. Our interest was piqued. It turns out their outdoor section has been turned into a an outdoor cafe.
If you circle around the back of Brimmer & Heeltap building, what you’ll find is a Secret Garden-type oasis that is unlike any coffee spot in Seattle.
In a brilliant move to pivot and get creative, the owners of Brimmer & Heeltap decided to use their unused outdoor space as a cafe while the restaurant was shut down due to Covid-19. Red Arrow Coffee was opened in July and I’m really hoping they continue this space even when they reopen the restaurant.
The name Red Arrow came from the name of the general store that occupied this building many years ago. You can read more about its history here.
The cafe is located in a garage-style covered area. Coffee is from Caffe Umbria and they’ve also got Chai and Tea. They also have some liqueurs if you’d like to spice up your drinks. Not only does Red Arrow Coffee have a normal selection of house made pastries(also $1.00 pastries. Holla!) like cookies, cake slices, scones and muffins, but also house made ricotta, salad and sandwiches straight out of the Brimmer and Heeltap kitchen.
There’s a few covered tables inside the garage area, but the real attraction is the outdoor area. There’s just so much green as you can see from the pictures and a variety of outdoor sections. There are overhead heaters and a fire pit for the cold mornings. There’s a long table with barstools and there are numerous individual tables with a string of lights overhead. The small running fountain gives it that tranquil feel.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: The entire patio full of green.
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food Options: 4.75
Overall: 4.85
Eavedropping Convo:
Related:
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seattle Coffee Shops
- Best Seattle Coffee Shops For Each Stage of Dating
- Part 4 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visitors, Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs, Make Visitors Feel Like Locals.
- Part 5 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops for Food Options, Friendliest Service
Best Seattle Doughnut Shop Award: Family Donut Shop
Recommended by: Nobody. We’ve been to Family Donut Shop many times, but never got around to adding it to our reviews of Seattle donut shops.
Description on the Donut Factory’s website: Don’t Worry, Be Happy. We exist to help everyone achieve delightful experiences. We believe in quality, especially when it comes to a donut, taste is the key ingredient to happiness.
Neighborhood/Type: Northgate
Address: 2100 N Northgate Way, Seattle, WA 98133
What we ate/drank: See various pics below
Comments: We’ve mentioned before we consider ourselves donut connoisseurs and due to our love of donuts we’ve unintentionally turned our two daughters into budding donut experts. So it’s apropos that Family Donut Shop has become one of our favorites since family donut picking has now become a full-fledged sport in our family.
You can see our review on the two Seattle doughnut empires, Top Pot and Mighty-O, the trendy, General Porpoise Doughnuts and Dochi and the secret doughnut spot that nobody seems to talk about, Tempesta Coffee (RIP). We also just tried the relatively new Half N Half Doughnut Company and Raised Doughnuts. And we can’t forget nearby Donut Factory.
Family Donut is of course a family owned business that’s been in existence since 1993. It’s not in a trendy neighborhood nor is it’s decor modern and sleek. It’s located in a nondescript strip mall shared with a 7-Eleven. You also won’t find fancy toppings or exotic fillings.
So what do you get with Family Donut? You get a huge variety of simple solid classic doughnuts that are freshly made. And once they run out for the day, you are out of luck. So coming in early will ensure you get your full selection. They’ve got your classic maple bar, old fashioned, jelly filled, Bavarian cream filled, lemon frosting, blueberry frosting, chocolate cake, etc. They’ve also got donut holes, apple fritters, cinnamon rolls and even ham/cheese croissants.
Just take a look at the size of their apple turnover and cinnamon roll in the picture below that has a butter knife for size reference. It’s not just the size of the donut, but the taste and texture of the donut is on point. The selection is so vast and the donuts so good that when our family visits there is literally a battle royale that occurs over picking donuts. Their apple turnover made it in to our Top 15 Seattle Dishes of 2020. It’s that damn good!
It’s gotten to the point where we order a dozen instead of half a dozen because it gives every family member an equal amount of donuts divisible by four. There’s also been occasions where I wake up early, sneak out of the house and get a dozen donuts from Family Donuts to bring home, so there’s not the fighting and indecision when the entire family goes.
The customer service is what you’d expect from a family run business. It’s personal and exceptionally friendly. They’ve provided suggestions, answered all our questions and even gave our girls free donut holes while we’re picking donuts. If you get a dozen on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you get a free latte.
The best thing about Family Donuts is the price. It is by far the best bang for your buck for Seattle donuts. The picture of the dozen donuts that includes the huge apple turnover and cinnamon roll was a total of $16.99. The is a steal in Seattle!! It also came with a free latte. Half a dozen at Top Pot is $15.39.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 5.00
Overall: 4.70
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers locals recommendation to visit in the future: One of our friends recommended Raised Doughnuts after seeing our Family Donut Shop review.
Related Articles:
****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
Chiang’s Gourmet
Recommended by: We realized upon writing a blog post for Dumpling The Noodle that we have never done a review of one of our favorites, Chiang’s Gourmet.
Description on the Chiang Gourmet’s website:Whether you are looking for a light lunch of award-winning dim sum, a relaxing dinner, or an elegant party, the Chiang’s attentive staff will make your visit a memorable one.
Neighborhood/Type: Lake City
Address: 7845 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
What we ate/drank: Pan Fried Noodle In Spicy Hot Sauce With Shrimp, Fish Fillet w/Spicy Hot Sauce On Soybean Cake, Fried Or Steamed Dumpling (8), Spicy Fried Chicken, Pan Fried Noodles Shanghai Style With Chicken, Fried Rice W/Chicken
Comments: Don’t be surprised if you’re looking for Chiang’s Gourmet and all you see is an abandoned building. The building is actually not abandoned. It just looks like it. If I had to guess, there have been no updates to Chiang’s Gourmet since it was Triple XXX Barrel Drive-In from the 1930’s that you can read about here.
Once inside Chiang’s Gourmet, there’s not much difference either. It looks like it’s been stuck in time since the building’s inception. It’s almost like you’re eating in somebody’s house. The word, “comfort” comes to mind. But let’s get one thing straight, you don’t come to Chiang’s Gourmet for ambiance. You go there for some damn good Chinese food and if making no updates to the building keeps the costs down, we’re all for it.
Chiang’s Gourmet is our favorite Chinese restaurant in Seattle and a Seattle institution for our family. We’ve eaten here when our families have come into town to visit us from other states and countries and have had many a impromptu lunches and dinners with friends. We’ve done take out on Christmas, coming home from the hospital after our daughter’s birth or whenever we’re too lazy to cook.
First thing you need to know is that there are multiple menus at Chiang’s Gourmet and if there’s one piece of advice we can give, don’t order off the “American” menu. I don’t want to disparage anybody from getting their normal egg roll, sweet & sour pork or General Tso’s chicken, but you can get these from any Chinese restaurant. I encourage you to be a bit more adventurous and order off the Chinese menu. Whenever we’ve done the ordering on behalf of family or friends who tend to “stay in their lane” when it comes to Chinese food, they’ve been pleasantly surprised.
We tend to mix it up with more traditional dishes like pan fried noodles and fried rice, but we’ve also had the more exotic spicy hot lamb w/cumin, crispy pig’s intestine in garlic & hot pepper and shredded beef tripe w/hot sauce. Our absolute favorite dish which a server recommended is the fish fillet w/spicy sauce on tofu. This was actually our 6th favorite dish of 2018:
….our favorite dish is the Fish Fillet with Spicy Sauce and Tofu. It may not look so appetizing from the photo below, but it’s damn tasty. It has generous portions of fish, but the main reason you get this dish is the sauce. It’s not overly spicy and ohh sooo.. flavorful. A hack we learned is to take the sauce home even if we eat all the fish. We then pour the sauce over rice at home and create a brand new dish. Two yummy dishes for the price of one!
We’ve made some light hearted comments about the physical appearance of Chiang’s Gourmet, which we feel adds to its charm, but there is no denying the quality of their food. There are so many dishes on their menu that we have yet to try, but we always have our mainstay dishes, because it is so damn good. Don’t forget to be adventurous.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.75
Overall: 4.65
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
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****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
Miss Cafe in Pike Place Market
Recommended by: While walking to pick up some take out from Pasta Casalinga, I noticed Miss Cafe and remembered a co-worker mentioned that they had “surfboard pizzas” there.
Description on the Miss Cafe’s website: We offer a home-style, Turkish food experience in the heart of Seattle. Our shop is filled with a variety of delicious Pide, delectable desserts and healthy platters. Our signature Turkish Pizzas are baked to perfection and topped with fresh ground beef and vegetables.
Neighborhood/Type: Downtown / Pike Place Market
Address: 1523 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
What we ate/drank: Doner Meat & Cheese Pide
Comments: Pide (Pronounced Pee- Day) is a flat bread with toppings baked in an oven. Pide and its various varieties are wide spread throughout Turkey, but the only other place in Seattle besides Cafe Miss that we’re aware of that serves pide is Cafe Turko.
Traditional pide as well as the pide served at Miss Cafe is indeed shaped like a surfboard. The other difference from your normal pizza is there’s no tomato sauce.
I believe the location Miss Cafe is in, which is connected to Pike Place Market, used to be a Cajun restaurant. We ordered the Donor meat and cheese pide, which comes with beef and lamb gyro meat, mozzarella cheese and tomato. It comes with a squeeze bottle of tzatiki sauce. It went well with the pide, but honestly the pide was delicious without the sauce.
The decor is nothing fancy. It’s simple with some booth seating and some outdoor benches and tables
Besides various types of pide(Vegan, pepperoni, ground beef, chicken and more), they also have various salads, meatballs, kebab, and grilled chicken. There are a couple of other dishes that caught our eye that we’ll definitely try the next time we visit Miss Cafe. One is the Lahmacun which s a flatbread with ground beef and a mix of onion, garlic, green and red peppers, and tomato. The other was the Turkish Dumplings-spiced ground beef, onion with butter sauce and yogurt.
On this occasion we were only able to have a pide, but we’ll definitely be back to try some of their other dishes. It’s also another place we can take out of town visitors when visiting Pike Place Market along with Storyville Coffee Co , Alibi Room, White Horse Trading, Maxmillien, Radiator Whiskey, Country Dough, Chan, Le Pichet, Matt’s in the Market, The Pink Door.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.40
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Cafe Turko
Related Articles:
****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
Dumpling The Noodle
Recommended by: A friend told us about a new place that just opened up similar to Xian Noodles. We thought we’d check it out for ourselves.
Description on the Dumpling The Noodle’s Facebook page: Hand-pulled Noodle(Lamen), Rice Noodle, Dumplings, Buns, Wontons, and Bubble Tea! Hand-made always tastes the best!
Neighborhood/Type: Wallingford
Address:1719 n 45th st. Seattle, Washington 98103
What we ate/drank: See below-various
Comments: First off, what a strange name – Dumpling the Noodle? One thing is for sure, we’ll never forget the name. Dumpling the Noodle is in the former Wallybuger location.
We’ve actually done take-out and eaten in. There’s nothing special about the seating arrangement, but the decor is quite unexpected with the large pictures and descriptions.
On to the food. One thing we really appreciated was that the dumplings are available in orders of 6 or 12, which makes it easier to come here with just one or two people and still be able to try a few different dishes without getting totally stuffed.
We tried different types of dumplings and in our opinion it’s a step below Little Ting’s or Dough Zone. The wontons and bao buns are a good quality for not having to go all the way to the ID. Our favorite dish by far was the Braised Beef Lamen in Chile. The noodles were imperfect, which means they’re hand made. It’s the prefect combo of beef, bean sprouts, cilantro and noodles. This might give Xian Noodles a run for their money. We also enjoyed the Seasoned Fried Chicken Bites, which is a perfect dish with beer. Our daughters’ favorite was the JaJang Beef Pancake Roll.
It’s a good dumpling/noodles/wonton/bao option if you live in Wallingford. Another nice thing is that they offer delivery for 99 cents depending on a minimum order and their delivery diameter is pretty big. Yes, you read that right, 99 cents! We’ve added Dumpling the Noodle to our rotation of Chinese take out restaurants along with Xian Noodles and Chiang’s Gourmet.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.25
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: We realized upon writing this blog post that we have not done a review of one of our favorites, Chiang’s Gourmet. We’ll be doing a post on this tried and true spot next.
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