Donuts from Les Croissants

Les Croissants is a very nondescript small cafe in Japantown.  Mostly known for the relatively cheap bahn mi and mediocre bubble tea.  In the morning, they also ofter coffee and pastries, including donuts.  They certainly don't make their own donuts, but I'm not sure where they source them from, they may be from Rolling Pin?  I have several co-workers who live nearby, and have been treating us to the donuts fairly regularly, and thus, I've gotten to try a bunch.  If the name sounds familiar, they also used to have a location in the Fidi, but it closed during the pandemic, and never re-opened.

Les Croissants has all your basic donuts, and nothing more.  No wild fillings or flavors, no decadent toppings.  Just your basic raised (glazed, chocolate, sugar), old fashioned (plain, glazed, chocolate, maple), and cake (plain, chocolate, maple, crumble) donuts, and a few specialty donuts like fritters, cinnamon rolls, twists, and bars (custard or plain).

I've tried a number of donuts at this point.  The old fashioned and fritters are definitely the highlights for me.

Pink Boxes.

The donuts come in pink boxes, like many donut shops, but not the iconic solid pink boxes, rather, these are striped, and have a friendly "Enjoy" message on them.  Still, pink box = donut, and pink boxes make me happy.

September 2023

Raised Glazed, Raised Chocolate Glazed.

The first time I tried donuts from Les Croissants, a co-worker had brought them in, and reserved me 1.5 donuts of his choice, which turned out to be a raised glazed, and raised chocolate glazed.

The first thing that stood out about the donuts is how light and fluffy they were.  Remarkably lofty, fluffy, and not at all greasy.  They tasted quite fresh.  Beyond that, they were fairly standard donuts, nothing particularly remarkable about them.  The chocolate glaze was very mild.  Both were well glazed.  ***+.

Variety of Donuts!

A few weeks later, another co-worker brought in a variety of donuts, ranging from old fashioned, to raised glazed/sugared/chocolate dipped, to little donut holes for those who wanted just a bite, to the king of donuts, the massive fritter, and everything in-between.  I gleefully tried several.

I tried a hunk of the fritter, and immediately went back to claim the rest.  It was excellent, although it was a flatter style that made it not necessarily look as appealing.  Greasy in a good way, fried in a good way, flavorful, not dried out.  Top notch fritter.  I'd gladly have another.  ****.

Maple Old Fashioned.

Then I tried a hunk of the maple old fashioned.  Also excellent.  Crispy in the right ways, light buttermilk tang, lovely maple flavor.  ****.

Update Review:
Another day, another hunk of another maple glazed old fashioned, and loved it just as much as before.  Such a heavy layer of glaze, but a really lovely maple flavor, and the base old fashioned is just so moist, great crispy edges, and like tang.  ****.

Cinnamon Roll.

Next, it was time for the other massive donut in the lineup, the specialty cinnamon roll.  I'm not sure if you can tell, but, this is really a large donut.

Like the regular raised donuts, this was very light and fluffy.  It tasted so fresh.  Not at all greasy.  The dough seemed slightly sweeter than the regular raised donuts, which I liked more.  The cinnamon between the rolls was fairly subtle, but enough to taste.  It was well glazed.  

This donut was a delight to eat by just ripping off hunks alongside my afternoon coffee, and equally great when I brought the rest home, heated it up, and topped it with Smitten ice cream Cinnamon Toast ice cream and whipped cream.  I'd get this again too.  ****.

Side note: I learned recently that these are known as pershings, or persian rolls. Wikipedia described them as "fried sweet roll or doughnut with a spiral shape similar to a cinnamon bun. It may be covered with a sugar glaze, iced or frosted, or sprinkled with sugar or cinnamon sugar."  How did I live this long, and blog regularly about donuts, and never hear that term before!

March 2024

Assorted Donuts.

Another day, another box of donuts from Les Croissants.  

From this box, I snagged a donut hole - it was good, lofty, fresh tasting, nicely glazed.  ***+.

Then, later, I went back and took a hunk of the sugar raised.  It too was very good - again, very fluffy and light base, tasted really fresh and not fried, and well coated in sugar.  It made me wonder if they make jelly donuts, as I don't really ever have just sugared donuts (I'm more of a glaze girl), but I grew up with jelly filled sugar donut.  Anyway, a good donut too.  ***+.

Raised Crumb Coat.

I don't normally go for crumb coat donuts, but something drew me to this.  I'm glad it did!

The base donut was good - very fresh tasting, raised, fluffy.  The crumb coat was fantastic though, really well spiced, a bit of cinnamon, and I swear I even tasted apple.  Probably the best crumb coat donut I've ever had, and it may have changed my opinion on these in general.  ****.

Vanilla Glazed Old Fashioned.

Last time I had the maple glazed old fashioned, and was impressed, so this time I tried the vanilla glaze as well.

I was equally impressed.  The base donut was very moist, fluffy, fresh tasting, not too fried (tasting, it certainly was fried).  Good crispy edges, light buttermilk tang.  Exactly what you want in an old fashioned.  The glaze was generously applied, and very sweet, but somehow not a cloying style.  

Very good.  A bit less complex of a flavor overall than the maple, but still a top notch donut that went so well with my afternoon coffee.  ****.