Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do?

It’s becoming a tradition: regardless of where we travel that we find a local place that sells donuts. Luckily, all of the donuts have been pretty good overall. Aside from our guilty pleasure of going to Dunkin Donuts, we’ve tasted Voodoo Donuts, Psycho Donuts (a San Jose ripoff of Voodoo), Stardust Donuts near the border at Imperial Beach and the now-defunct Fritelli’s in Beverly Hills. I’m still mourning the missed opportunity during our trip to New York City.

My recent trip to San Francisco for a foodie event was no exception. Despite the days packed with eating, we still made time for donuts the last day before heading out. I wouldn’t have visited this place if my good friend JustJenn hadn’t mentioned it to me at breakfast. This was after I had eaten a few plates of food loaded with carbs. That’s what enablers do. They encourage your bad habits. And she’s the best at what she does. (Read JustJenn’s account of what we did during our first day in San Francisco here.)

The donut place was Dynamo Donuts.

With over 700 reviews on Yelp, Dynamo Donuts is definitely something to talk about. Their donuts are handmade every day with limited quantity (get there early on the weekends) and all the flavors are unique, rotating their flavors every few weeks.

Dynamo Donut’s flavors include passionfruit milk chocolate, chocolate rose, caramel de sel, chocolate hazelnut rose geranium and meyer lemon huckleberry. Paul didn’t participate in any of the food eating frenzy, so he was usually hungry. Starving sometimes. It was quite the exact opposite of how I felt during our trip. Initially, these donuts were all going to be his but after one taste, I had to get my own.

Our favorite of the donuts were the vanilla bean. It was the least expensive of the donuts at $2; other donuts were $3. It was ethereal, light and you could see little specks of vanilla in the glaze. The donut wasn’t a one-note flavor either — there was tiny bit of orange essence. Luckily, we got two of these bad boys.

I haven’t been overwhelmed with any bacon donuts I’ve had in the past but Dynamo’s version blew the other contenders away. While previous bacon donut incarnations are heavy-handed with maple glaze, Dynamo’s is light and wispy.

The molasses Guinness donut was our least favorite. The molasses flavor overwhelmed the Guinness flavor. Apple pieces were a nice touch to the donut, adding some fruity lightness to what would have been an otherwise very heavy donut.

Visiting San Francisco is always packed with lots of eating — it’s a great food town filled with lots of places to visit regardless if there’s a food event to attend or not. Dynamo Donuts is now one of those places which is a must-visit on our next trip up.

Dynamo Donuts
2760 24th Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.920.1978