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Darn Donuts
Photograph: Dave Giordano

The 16 best donut shops in NYC

Gotham’s most delicious doughnuts are an international hodge podge of flavors best enjoyed with a strong cup of coffee.

Edited by
Will Gleason
Written by
Time Out contributors
&
Victoria Marin
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If you've been hunting through the city’s best bakeries and coffee shops for the best donuts in NYC, look no further. We've compiled a handy list of where to find the most exemplary fried rings, from a spot in a Staten Island strip mall to brioche-based treats from the brick-and-mortar offshoot of a beloved online bakery. Whether for breakfast, lunch (no judgment), or dessert, these are NYC’s best outposts for doughnuts (btw here are some of the best desserts in NYC).

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to best restaurants in NYC

Time Out Market New York
  • Restaurants
  • DUMBO

Originally opened right here in Brooklyn, Dough has been crafting oversized, small-batch confections for a devoted following throughout NYC and beyond since 2010. Its ever-rotating roster of dynamic doughnuts is frequently updated with scrumptious seasonal surprises, in addition to fan-favorite staples like plain glazed, hibiscus and chocolate cocoa nib. Whether you’re coming ‘round for breakfast, dessert, or an anytime sweet treat, do not miss these doughnuts. 

Best donuts in NYC

  • Restaurants
  • Bedford-Stuyvesant

Brooklyn doughnut wunderkin Fany Gerson – the founder of Dough – launched a new vision in the same location when she opened Fan Fan amidst the first year of the pandemic. Despite the risk involved with such an undertaking, the store is perhaps even more popular than its predecessor, with lines consistently queuing up down the block for both mainstays like the mango lassi and holiday specials like king cake doughnut for Mardi Gras.

  • Restaurants
  • South Slope
  • price 1 of 4

Since 1961, the original Leske’s has been baking old-world favorites (Scandinavian kringler, Vienna brøt, Irish soda bread) and New York City classics (Brooklyn blackout cake, black-and-white cookies) in Bay Ridge. Those in the know typically go for a spread of Danish pastries, butter cookies and red-velvet checkerboard cakes, as well as specials like homemade takes on Hostess's defunct Twinkies and squiggled CupCakes.

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Donut World
Photograph: Dave Giordano

3. Donut World

Staten Island doesn't get enough credit for a lot of dishes, but these donuts top the charts. Donut World could be easily missed in its strip mall, but once you find it, you'll be coming back again and again. We love the comic book-style signage and its sentient donut mascot, too.

  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Lower East Side
  • price 1 of 4

This quirky and inventive donut shop is best known for its unique square donuts stuffed with house-made jams and cream fillings (peanut butter banana, coconut cream). But bakers here also sling chubby yeast-raised rings that are fluffy yet substantial and glazed in rotating flavors (pistachio, strawberry, vanilla bean, Valrhona chocolate), plus cake-style donuts like Brooklyn Black Out and carrot cake. Vegan and gluten-free options are available as well.

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  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Sunnyside
  • price 1 of 4

Beneath the elevated 7 train, this 24-hour greasy spoon slings eggs, Irish sausages and its featherlight namesakes. The selection is regularly decimated, so arrive early to order $1.50 homemade delights such as sugar crullers and apple turnovers – aka breakfast’s answer to apple pie.

  • Restaurants
  • Taiwanese
  • East Williamsburg

Josh Ku and Trigg Brown’s restaurant, Win Son, proffers inventive takes on Taiwanese-American bites. But now, the duo has opened a bakery across the street that serves fried-chicken sandos on milk bread (made in-house by pastry chef Danielle Spence), insanely-good mochi doughnuts, Taiwanese beer and natural wine.

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  • Restaurants
  • Diners
  • Brooklyn

Another 24/7 donut spot, this charming old-school haunt is also lovingly referred to as The Donut Shoppe. Shaikh's Place is a lunch counter serving tacos, chicken sandwiches and breakfast options—but fans come hungry for a date with their donuts. 

  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • West Village
  • price 1 of 4

Find small-batch, hand-made yeast donuts in oddball flavors at this West Village bakeshop. The creative, fluffy rounds include a beet-glazed and ricotta-whipped cream–filled Those Beetz are Dope, and a sweet-and-savory yeast ring showered in cream cheese icing and everything bagel seasonings. There's even a donut stuffed with bone-marrow–infused chocolate on the menu.

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  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Soho
  • price 1 of 4

Dominique Ansel honed his skills as executive pastry chef at Daniel for six years before opening this American and French patisserie. Caramelized croissants, miniature pastel meringues and the chef's signature Cronut (croissant-doughnut hybrid) creations make up the sweet selections at the counter. 

  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Greenpoint
  • price 1 of 4

You’ll find doughy fritters, not Tinkerbell, at this Greenpoint standby. Dip your lightly glazed donut into steaming coffee at the curved counter or box up a dozen still-warm chocolate cake rounds or (and?) honey dip French crullerswhich are just some of the 20-odd varieties baked daily.

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  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Lower East Side
  • price 1 of 4

At this Lower East Side bakery, desserts are treated like they're art in a gallery: displayed on a terrazzo bar with shiny to-go, boxes fit for jewels. Though Supermoon has come to be known for its oozing, sumptuous croissants, its donuts are the sleeper hit. Flavors change constantly, so keep an eye out. 

  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • East Williamsburg
  • price 2 of 4

Brooklyn's vegan doughnut lovers are in luck—Dun-Well Doughnuts is about as good as you're going to get in the animal-product-free sweet-treats department. Consider the old-timey atmosphere a bonus.

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  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Bedford-Stuyvesant

This Bushwick shop is truly eponymously named – their doughnuts are both literally and figuratively, fat (are we still saying phat?). Catch flavors ranging from the classic chocolate frosted with sprinkles to house specialties like dulce de leche creme at a discount after 4 P.M. most days. 

  • Restaurants
  • Bakeries
  • Chelsea
  • price 1 of 4

The showstoppers on the menu are the airy bombolonis, a soft yeast round filled with super light custards (vanilla and chocolate are regular staples, plus seasonally rotating flavors like caramel apple), flecked with lemon zest and sprinkled with powdered sugar.

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16. Nostrand Donut Shop

Long live Formica tables in an old-school luncheonette atmosphere. At this Flatbush favorite, donuts cost $1.50 each: all baked on the premises.

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