KNOWN FOR
- Ube Donut (6/10)
I ALSO TRIED
- Original Glazed (4/10)
- Old Fashioned (4/10)
- Red Velvet (3/10)
- Boston Creme (4/10)
Man...it's been a LONG time since my last review! Life is busy!
Anyways, a bunch of us were out in Gurnee and had some free time, so we were looking for something to do (read: eat). Someone mentioned there's a good donut shop nearby, so we decided to head there.
I've tried out some donut shops lately, and while I do like (and in some cases, love) donuts, there's not a whole lot of impressive places I've seen, outside of Voodoo Donuts in Portland. I'm not one to scope out donut places, but I am definitely the last one to complain about going to one...at least to most.
The conversation about going to this place was like, "Hey there's a donut shop near by. Wanna go?" "Sure!" And...Scene. Clearly, there wasn't much happening in Gurnee. Now, I'm glad this wasn't brought up, or else my expectations would have been raised even higher, but this place has been featured on the Hungry Hound. Crazier still, it's been around for over 20 years!
UBE DONUT
Ube (pronounced OO-bay) is basically a purple yam that's commonly found in Filipino and other Asian desserts. This would be like the Filipino version of Korean's "Gogooma." If you're familiar with the purple Filipino dessert Halo Halo, bingo!
They had 2 kinds of Ube donuts when we were there, one topped with coconut and one with Fruity Pebbles. It's basically just a purple frosted donut. It's been a long time since I had ube, and I never had it by itself, so I can't even really tell you what it tasted like. It was like a less sweet vanilla frosting, but minus the vanilla. I'd expect it to taste something like sweet taro, but it was too light of a flavor - just sweet.
The coconut is the standard one, and it was..ok. Nothing to go crazy about, even though I hear that there's a place in Miami that sells this for $1,000 a dozen (though it's covered in gold flakes too). Because of the weak flavor of the ube, it just tasted like a sugar frosted donut with coconut.
The Fruity Pebbles one was better (the reason it's a 6 and not a 5), mainly because the extra sugar from the cereal made it pop a bit more, but if ube was too light for coconut, then it didn't even stand a chance against the Fruity Pebbles. The cereal took it away, using the sweetness of the frosting and donut as microphone for its fake fruity flavors.
All in all, not impressive.
ORIGINAL GLAZED
I think the only place I like a regular glazed donut is Krispy Kreme. I don't not-like glazed donuts, but I don't like them from here, that's for sure. The glaze is so thin and weak, so you just get a sticky donut. The sodium in the donut actually matches or outweighs the sweetness, which really sucks. Instead of complimenting, it clashes. Unfortunately, this is the basis of most of their donuts.
OLD FASHIONED
Unremarkable. Yes, it's an old fashioned. Yes, it tastes like an old fashioned, but just dull.
RED VELVET
Look, no one eats the just the bread of a red velvet cupcake and says, "Oh man, that red food coloring tastes AWESOME!" Nope, zero! The only reason anyone eats it is for the creme. So how the heck can you make a red velvet donut without ANY of the creme?! The donut is basically a blood red old fashioned donut that has a bit of a dull taste. That "sodium is saltier than the sweetness" problem is even evident here. If the old fashioned is "unremarkable," this one is inedible!
BOSTON CREME
I'm not even sure why I got this, but I'm not a huge fan of it. The chocolate frosting was generic, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the creme also had a tiny bit more sourness to it than I'm normally used to...which kind of made it unenjoyable.
GUR-NOPE!
I don't understand this place. Their donuts suck. Continuing the note from up top, do you know the most amazing bit of news about this place? They freaking won DonutFest once! There is NOTHING remarkable about these donuts, and in some cases, they are actually just plain bad. I'd rather go to Dunkin! read more