Our favorite Bay Area donuts and doughnuts

I don’t care how you spell it, there’s one thing we can all agree on – they are goooood. From El Cerrito to Downtown Oakland to San Francisco, here are our favorite Bay Area donuts (and doughnuts!):

Donut Time at El Cerrito Plaza I found this place on a whim, and it’s just so cute I think it deserves a special mention. Nothing frilly here, just good ol’ fashion goodness. Grab a glazed and sit in their spacious back booth on a rainy day.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in Pinole, Concord, and Fremont Take a field trip to see a miniature donut factory in action – hot donuts right of the presses kids! Can’t beat that freshness anywhere.

Sponsor

Pepples Donut Farm on San Pablo, North Oakland You have probably had one of Pepples’ donuts at one of our favorite coffee shops, but there’s no better place to eat a Pepples donut than the real deal. With flavors like lemon poppyseed, matcha green tea, and orange creamsicle, you can’t just try one. Plus they are vegan, which makes them healthy, right?

Rainbow Donuts on San Pablo and University, Berkeley You can get extra cute donuts like the Cookie Monster or a unicorn for kids and savory bacon maple donut for yourself. They also have breakfast items and sandwiches.

Bob’s Donuts in SF’s Nob Hill Yes, it’s in San Francisco, but if you are ever in need of a donut the size of your face, Bob’s Donuts is where it’s at. Their 10-inch glazed donut is not only big, it’s good too. You have to go, just so you can say you went. We always take our out of town guests to Bob’s; we’ve decided it’s actually cooler than the traditional Golden Gate Bridge crossing for visitors!

Sponsor

Dynamo Donuts in the SF Marina Another San Francisco favorite, but if you go here, you can actually see the Golden Gate Bridge. Enjoy your maple bacon donut with a view, they serve a pretty good cup of coffee too.

Stay tuned: Donut Savant and Sweet Belly are both closed and relocating in 2020. Hopefully we get to taste the salted maple cron’t (Donut Savant’s croissant/donut hybrid) and donut and ice cream combo at Sweet Belly soon.

And sometimes you just want a dozen warm, glazed, sticky, pink box of doughnuts without all the frills. That’s where your friendly neighborhood joint comes in. You know the one that always throws in the extra munchkins, only takes cash, and is open 24 hours? Yes, that one. Here are the ones we’ve taste tested, approved, and keep going back to – Colonial Donuts, Dream Fluff Donuts, Happy Donuts, and King Pin Donuts – but we know there are so. many. more.

Tell us, where do you get your donut fix? Or is it doughnut?

[Photo Credit: Anna Azimi and Whitney Moss as noted]