The Best Donuts in NYC

Discover 14 donut shops not to miss during your next NYC donut crawl.

Move over bagels! You’re not New York City’s only round treat with a hole in the middle.

This status is nothing new. New Yorkers have been frying sweet rings of dough for centuries, long before bagels arrived in the city.

Donut vs. Doughnut
The only difference between a donut and a doughnut is the spelling of the two words. Many believe that the word was originally spelled in “gh” form, with the shorter word emerging from the popularity of Dunkin’ Donuts and Mister Donut in the mid 20th century.

History reveals that Dutch immigrant Anna Joralemon opened NYC’s first donut shop in the 17th century. Her donuts were called oliekoecken and they didn’t have holes. Now, when you walk in any direction in NYC, you’ll probably bump into a donut shop or bakery selling donuts before you reach your destination. And, in a sign of the times, most will have holes in the middle.

Today, New York donuts run the gamut in size, shape and flavor. Some channel Joralemon’s spirit while others derive inspiration from desserts in France, Italy and even Asia. The best NYC donuts have one thing in common: they’re simply impossible to resist.

Discover more great donuts in the US and around the world.

Finding donuts in NYC is easy. There are so many donut shops. Sure, you could hit up the Krispy Kreme donut stand at Penn Station or its flagship shop in Times Square. Those donuts are great but there are great donuts all over the city – maybe too many. The challenge is to eat just enough donuts to leave room for the city’s best food at the city’s best restaurants. You don’t want to be so full that you can’t eat pizza, bagels, pastrami sandwiches, etc.

Beyond Manhattan, every NYC borough has enough donut shops to satisfy the hungry masses. Many of these donut shops sell traditional donuts. Some sell fancy-schmancy hipster donuts. Others sell vegan donuts. And, as it turns out, quite a few of the city’s best donuts aren’t sold at dedicated donut shops.

Read on to discover where to find and eat the best donuts in NYC:

1. Doughnut Plant

Mark Israel started selling yeast donuts inspired by his grandfather’s recipe in 1994 and opened the original Doughnut Plant store six years later. Fast forward to the present and there are now five Doughnut Plant shops in three boroughs.

Israel is a donut innovator. He’s kept busy during the past three decades experimenting with both donut shapes and ingredients. As a result, current Doughnut Plant offerings include cake donuts, jam-filled square donuts, rose-shaped donuts, vegan donuts, gluten-free donuts, sourdough donuts and donut ice cream sandwiches.

Popular Doughnut Plant flavors include Brooklyn blackout, carrot cake, crème brûlée, tres leches and vanilla bean. However, we couldn’t resist ordering (and devouring!) a black & white cake donut. Inspired by the classic NYC cookie, the donut’s exterior was half dark chocolate and half white chocolate. Once we bit into it, we were pleasantly shocked to find that inside was black and white too. Equally important, the donut was tender and tasted great.

Pro Tip
Order a doughseed donut if you want the full Doughnut Plant experience in a smaller package. Flavors include the shop’s signature crème brûlee as well as chocolate hazelnut and Manhattan cream.

The original Doughnut Plant is located at 379 Grand Street, New York, NY 10002, United States.

The donut concept was revolutionized when Dominique Ansel sold his very first cronut in 2013. That croissant-donut hybrid created a frenzy that involved lines snaking around the original Dominique Ansel Bakery in Soho each morning.

We were late to the party though we did eat copycat pastries in cities like Barcelona, Cape Town and Nashville. Finally, in 2019, we visited the popular bakery. The shop, while still teeming with people lining up for Ansel’s pastries, shockingly had plenty of cronuts available. Infused with cream, that cinnamon roll custard cronut justified the trip and our multi-year wait.

Ansel, a James Beard Award-winning baker, currently has bakeries in Hong Kong and Las Vegas in addition to his New York City bakeries. Each shop sells one cronut flavor each month and that flavor isn’t repeated.

Pro Tip
Don’t limit yourself to a cronut when you visit Dominique Ansel Bakery. Consider ordering a DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann) and/or a blossoming hot chocolate too.

The original Dominique Ansel Bakery is located at 189 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012, United States.

Fan-Fan Doughnuts is both a fan favorite (no pun intended) and a critical darling. Crowds queue seven days a week for the Bedford-Stuyvesant shop’s yeast donuts. Some of teadhose donuts are round while others are eclair-shaped. They’re all baked in small batches without any food colors throughout the day. One flavor, guava & cheese, was recognized by the New York Times as a top NYC treat. After trying one ourselves, we agree.

While Fan-Fan is far from the only donut shop in Brooklyn, it’s the only one that’s helmed by a James Beard Foundation semi-finalist. Fany Gerson’s background is fascinating. The Jewish chef grew up Mexico City before attending the Culinary Institute of America and working at Eleven Madison Park. Gerson plunged into the donut world in 2010 with Dough Doughnuts (see below), a business that she exited a decade later. And, while she’s still immersed in the donut world, Gerson is also a paleta (Mexican popsicle) expert.

You won’t find traditional donuts at Fan-Fan. Instead, the shop incorporates international ingredients and cheffy touches into its recipes. Popular flavors include churros & chocolate, danny boy (salted brown butter caramel), mango lassi, white coffee and the aforementioned guava & cheese. Those flavors are typically at the shop along with seasonal surprises and sticky buns.

Pro Tip
Order the house hot chocolate topped with donut croutons and housemade marshmallows unless you’re more in the mood for spicy hot chocolate topped with homemade spicy marshmallows. Either drink will warm you from the inside out.

Fan-Fan Doughnuts is located at 448 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11205, United States.

Dan Dunbar and Christopher Hollowell opened Dun-Well Doughnuts in 2011 and have remained true to their mission. All of the shop’s products are free of animal or animal-derived ingredients, which is certainly commendable. However, you’re probably wondering how their vegan donuts taste.

We somehow missed the memo regarding the quirky Brooklyn donut shop’s vegan status when we walked through its Bushwick doors. Proving that ignorance is indeed bliss, we can objectively say that Dun-Well’s donuts are as good as many non-vegan donuts we’ve eaten and better than most. Not only did we not miss ingredients like eggs, milk and cream, but we also didn’t notice their absence.

Dun-Well’s flavors rotate with vegan versions of caramel apple pie, salted caramel pecan and Boston cream in the mix. At the counter server’s recommendation, we chose a PB&J donut during our visit. Glazed with chocolate and loaded with flavor, that dense yeast donut was a great choice. We’re still kind of in shock that it was vegan. However, most of our shock faded faster than it took us to eat the decadent yet comforting donut.

Pro Tip
Order a coffee crafted with Brooklyn Roasting Company beans and soy milk to go with your donut.

Dun-Well Doughnuts is located at 222 Montrose Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States.

Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop, a family-owned shop, has been serving cake and yeast donuts to Brooklyn locals (plus the occasional tourist) since 1954. Crowds clamor for old-fashioned donuts of their youth (plus some new-fangled flavors) at two U-shaped counters inside the Greenpoint shop starting at 4:30 am on weekdays and a bit later on weekends.

Locals know to arrive early for a full selection – especially if they’re jonesing for a popular flavor like apple crumb or red velvet. We learned this lesson the hard way. The shop was completely sold out of donuts during our initial afternoon visit. Our second visit was more fruitful. Literally. We happily nabbed a donut filled with raspberry jam during visit number two.

Pro Tip
Order a donut ice cream sandwich if your visit is during the summer months. Also, be sure to bring cash regardless of the season. Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop doesn’t take credit card payments.

Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop is located at 727 Manhattan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222, United States.

The Donut Pub has been making Manhattan sweeter since 1964 when Buzzy Geduld opened the original Donut Pub shop. Today, there are two Donut Pubs that stay open 24 hours a day in “the city that never sleeps.” Both locations are south of 14th Street – a key factor for the borough’s coolest cats.

Donuts here range from old-fashioned favorites to niche flavors like cannoli ‘kreme’ and birthday cake. Some donuts are vegan while others are gluten-free. Many mimic Dominique Ansel Bakery’s laminated donut concept (see above). Yes, The Donut Pub sells a range of croissant donuts including the French toast croissant donut that we ordered during our most recent visit. (They’re not nearly as flaky as Ansel’s version but they still taste great.)

Pro Tip
Don’t worry about nut allergies when you eat donuts at The Donut Pub. The donuts sold at both shops are peanut-and-tree-nut-free.

The Donut Pub has two Manhattan locations. We visited the Astor Place shop located at 740 Broadway, NY, 10003, United States.

Dough Doughnuts specializes in two things – ginormous donuts and creative flavors. Originally located in Bed-Stuy when it opened in 2010, Dough now has multiple locations including a store at Rockefeller Center and a booth at Smorgasburg in Williamsburg. While it has a dozen year-round donuts on its roster, a mix of seasonal and vegan donuts complete Dough’s menu.

Struck by a counter filled with donuts, we agreed to share a hibiscus donut topped with a candied hibiscus flower. The bright pink donut was one of the biggest donuts we’ve ever encountered. It was also sugary with an acidic floral flavor. We later learned that the unique flavor is the shop’s most popular donut. And, for the confectionary curious, the dulce de leche donut is the shop’s second most popular.

Pro Tip
Dough Doughnuts is a good option for those who follow a kosher diet. Its vegan donuts are pareve while its other donuts are kosher and dairy.

Dough Doughnuts has multiple locations. We visited the Flatiron shop located at 14 West 19th Street, New York, NY 10011, United States.

We didn’t plan to eat a donut when we walked into Orwashers’ original Upper East Side location – the centenarian bakery is better known for its babka and rugelach. However, once we saw a shelf of donuts next to three magic words (Made To Order), there was no other choice. The sign is legit – the folks at Orwashers hand-fill the bakery’s donuts with jams locally produced in Hudson Valley and they do it on the spot.

Though ordering an Orwashers donut filled with cherry apricot jam was a solid game day decision, eating it was a sweet pleasure. And, as thrilled as we were with the donut’s taste and texture, we were equally thrilled to eat it without any of the jam dripping on to our shirts.

Pro Tip
Go big and order a chocolate-glazed donut and have it filled with the jam of your choice.

Orwashers Bakery has multiple locations. We visited the original bakery located at 308 E 78th Street, New York, NY 10075, United States.

Merriam-Webster defines a cruller as ‘a small sweet cake in the form of a twisted strip fried in deep fat’. (In our words – it’s a fancy donut.) Open since 2017, Danny Meyer’s Daily Provisions brings that definition to life in the best way possible – by baking the donut varietal to flaky perfection.

Perfection is a big word but it’s difficult to imagine a better cruller that the Meyer lemon poppy cruller that we ate at Daily Provision. Not only did the moist French-style choux pastry ring have a crunchy outer shell, but its flavors were also spot on the money – lemony and sweet without being overly sweet.

Pro Tip
Avoid donut disappointment by bringing a credit card. Daily Provisions is a cashless cafe.

Daily Provisions has multiple locations. We visited two – the original Union Square location and the Upper West Side cafe located at 375 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10024, United States.

We weren’t the first to discover the Supermoon Bakeshop and we won’t be the last. Despite its spartan decor and simple display of pastries, the Lower East Side bakery has been selling some of the city’s best donuts since Stephen Ry and Anon Tzimas opened the shop in 2017.

About those donuts – Supermoon only offers three flavors which change every other week. These aren’t typical donut flavors. During our visit, the three flavors on offer were passionfruit, pandan + coconut and strawberry cream. Other weeks, you may find Ferrero Rocher, lime curd or triple chocolate.

Not initially enthralled by the donut flavors or the lack of indoor seating at the time of our visit, our frowns quickly turned upside down after we bit into a sugary brioche donut that literally oozed with bright yellow passionfruit filling. It was sweet. It was tart. It was gone before we knew it.

Pro Tip
Check Supermoon Bakehouse’s website or sign up for the bakery’s emails if you’re set on trying a specific donut flavor during your visit.

Supermoon Bakehouse is located at 120 Rivington Street, New York, NY 10002, United States.

Open since 2019 as an offshoot to Win Son, a popular Taiwanese restaurant, Win Son Bakery only has two donuts, the gluten-free millet mochi donut that we ate plus a fermented red rice donut, on its eclectic menu.

Our initial visit to the bakery was far from auspicious. The Williamsburg bakery’s dining room was closed due to the pandemic and it was raining cats and dogs. After ordering a donut and a pastry, our only option was to eat them at a nearby bus stop which provided us with a temporary respite from the rain.

It all sounds awful and yet it wasn’t. With its sweet and savory flavors, our freshly fried millet mochi donut was excellent enough to make the other issues moot. It was also the chewiest, most satisfying gluten-free donut we’ve ever eaten. (If you’re wondering, the pastry was great too.)

Pro Tip
Go hungry to Win Son Bakery. Beyond donuts and pastries, the bakery serves savory treats like egg sandos and fried chicken boxes.

The original Win Son Bakery is located at 164 Graham Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11206, United States.

After learning the art of bread baking in Italy, baking legend Jim Lahey opened the original Sullivan Street Bakery in 1994 with wild Italian yeast and a mission to bake and sell handcrafted, small-batch bread to the masses. To say that he succeeded is an understatement. Not only has his bakery expanded north to Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, but he also won a James Beard outstanding baker award and wrote an iconic New York Times article that single-handedly popularized the concept of no-knead bread baking. He later wrote a book on the same topic.

Despite Lahey’s bread focus, don’t rule out his bomboloni at Sullivan Street Bakery. For those not familiar, the bombolone is Italy’s version of the donut. Smaller than a typical American donut and similar to its Berliner cousin, yeasty bomboloni are typically filled with cream or jam. Lahey’s bomboloni are no exception. On the day of our visit, filling options included chocolate cream, vanilla cream, jam and caramel apple.

Keeping things simple, we paired a vanilla bombolone with hot coffee. Dusted with powdered sugar and filled with sweet cream, the donut was small enough to not ruin our appetites for dinner and rich enough to make us smile. It was also a reminder that not all tasty donuts have donut holes.

Pro Tip
Order a slice of Roman-style pizza to go with your Bombolone.

Sullivan Street Bakery has multiple locations. We visited the Hell’s Kitchen bakery located at 533 West 47th Street, New York, NY 10036, United States.

Priced at $6.50 at the time of our most recent visit, Lafayette Bakery’s maple pecan conut is probably the most expensive donut featured in this guide. And, yet, we didn’t even blink when we bought it. After all, it was a few dollars less than the shop’s pistachio suprême that we also bought during that visit. Ironically, it was more expensive than a slice of the famous bakery’s ’24 carrot’ cake – go figure.

Located in NoHo’s Lafayette restaurant and open from 8am to 9pm daily, Lafayette Bakery is far from a hidden gem. Crowds queue daily with a limited number of lucky shoppers given the chance to buy the bakery’s globally famous suprême – Scott Cioie’s circular cream-filled croissant creation that’s overtaken the cronut’s popularity, at least for now.

Since we didn’t have to queue when we arrived at 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon (hint, hint), we didn’t feel rushed when we added a donut to our suprême order. Studded with pecans, that donut was big, square and covered with maple glaze. While solid, the donut paled in comparison to our pistachio suprême. Then again, what doesn’t pale in comparison to a suprême?

Pro Tip
Grab a cup of coffee brewed with Philadelphia‘s La Colombe beans if you’re a fan of the classic donut + coffee combo.

Lafayette Bakery is located at 340 Lafayette Street, New York, NY 10012, United States.

The Doughnuttery has been selling sugar-coated miniature donuts since 2012. We discovered the shop a few years later while roaming the food hall at Chelsea Market. It was love at first bite that day when we dug into two different flavors. Flavored with apple, orange zest and fall spices, Apple Cider was an obvious choice. However, Paris Time was a pleasant surprise with its sugary mix of lavender, pistachio and vanilla.

Donut lovers with a serious sweet tooth can add a donut dipping sauce. Flavors include beer caramel, deep dark chocolate, dulce de leche, maple syrup, Nutella and raspberry balsamic.

Pro Tip
Order a DIY kit from the Doughnuttery’s website and make miniature donuts at home.

Doughnuttery has multiple locations. We visited the original shop inside the Chelsea Market located at 425 W 15th Street, New York, NY 10011, United States.

If 14 donuts aren’t enough to satisfy your cravings, consider eating more donuts at the following NYC spots:

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