DeLuxe

This spot is a lot like Yum Yum donuts in its layout and menu choices. The apple fritters are huge! Donut selections are spread out on both the left and right side of the glass display case so be sure to check both sides before you decide what you’re going to take home. I like the buttermilk ones the best.

The Donut Center
4182 Woodruff Ave, Lakewood CA 90713
562.421.2631
2.5 miles from home

This little spot is one of the closest to my house. They serve their wares out of walk up window only. As you can tell if you look carefully at their sign they used to be called “Martha’s Donuts” but didn’t repaint/revise the sign when new ownership took over. I do like the old time font used in this sign.

Sambath’s Donuts
6765 E Carson St, Long Beach, CA 90713
562.427.2612
1.7 miles from home

I drove by here a couple times and their sign announcing this was the home of the “Donut Boss” caught my eye. They offer drive through service as well and have some of the friendliest staff too. They were out of crullers the day I visited so I got a creme filled one instead. My box had a hand written message on it too: “Have a Sweet Day!”
With so many shops to choose from this little touch will keep me coming back

Donut Boss
3381 Katella Ave, Los Alamitos CA 90720
562.431.1100
2.2 miles from home

Did you know that Long Beach apparently has the 2nd highest number of doughnut/donut shops in the US next to Boston? I have been noticing there are quite a few shops here in our area. I’ll be reviewing some of them now that I’ve returned to the blog after a multi-year hiatus. Since we now live in northeast Long Beach we’re close to towns like Lakewood and Los Alamitos so they’ll be included in the donut roundup too!

Long Beach, CA

When you’re driving into or out of Sonoma during breakfast and lunch hours, it would be easy to miss this little place — it looks like something out of another decade and if it weren’t for the lot packed with cars you just might not notice it. The Fremont Diner is a wonderful find and a throwback to the country roadside restaurant. They’ve got tables outside to eat at as well as a screened in porch inside for a little relief from the hot weather…

The food here is something special with all sorts of country favorites: fried chicken (and waffles!), beans, slaw, cornbread, and catfish. Too much good stuff to order at one sitting. So I know I’ll be going out of my way to plan my next visit to Sonoma so I can stop in here and enjoy a great breakfast or lunch. (their eggs and some other ingredients come from their own on site farm too)… abc

Fremont Diner
2698 Fremont Drive, Sonoma, CA 95476
707.938.7370

It seems like there’s something new in Oakland’s Uptown almost weekly now. First there was local clothing and house ware store Oakollectiv. Then Oaklandish opened their first retail store. And, of course, there are other nearby faves such as the revamped Fox Theater, the 2nd Can’t Fail Cafe, Xolo, Plum (Bar), Bakesale Betty’s #2, Flora, and too many other places to list at once. Now there’s another new place that has me pretty excited given my obsession with dontus the past few months: Donut Savant!

They’ve been open for about 3 weeks now on a block of Broadway that hasn’t looked better in more than 20 years. They have tons of different varieties of cake style donuts — formed in ball shapes without holes. Every variety I tried tasted great (not too much frosting) and I noticed that the cake dough is nicely flavored as well. I got to try about six flavors but they make more than 20 and you never know what you’re gonna get b/c the chef is making new ones in the back all the time. If you’re lucky you will order any flavor that just came out of the fryer — there’s nothing like a warm donut made with quality ingredients.

Donut Savant
1934 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94612
510.972.8268

Tanya Holland made Brown Sugar Kitchen a huge success in out of the way, industrial, West Oakland. Her newest venture, a BBQ spot called BSide BBQ, is taking on an even more desolate stretch of San Pablo north of Downtown.

Open for lunch through early evening Tue-Sat each week, this place is worth the effort to get to its out of the way location. Inside, the theme is industrial and modern as you might expect and with a block rodeo theme (videos of the old B+W movies, western style etchings on the tables.

Recently wen there and had the pulled pork sandwich. You can get it with different sauces and I picked the carolina mustard sauce. It was awesome and served on a nice roll that had been browned on a grill. We also tried their special of the day which was chili made with brisket ends and pork shoulder debris. Very savory and not too spicy — with a title dollop of sour cream and chives on top. We also had sue sides: beans, a nice vinegar based cole slaw, and some cornbread which was served with a brown sugar butter.

Top top it all off, we had some of their house made peach lemonade and if I didn’t have things to do I think I could have relaxed there a lll afternoon long just soaking in the sunlight

BSide BBQ
3303 San Pablo Avenue, Oakland, CA 94608
510.595.0227

It’s been a few hers since I last went to A16 Founding chef Nate Appleman was still there
and a reservation was essential. We dropped in there just before 11 on a Saturday night and it was packed full of people. We got a table without any problem. We’d originally planned to go to Mamacita which advertised itself as being open til midnight but its kitchen actually closed at 10:30.

As much as I was looking forward to a Mexican meal, I am glad I ended up at A16 after all. We started with some artichokes and mozzarella paired with some pine nuts that was cooked in some savory broth almost like a thick kitchen soup. It was delicious. Then we had the pizza bianca. Green olives, fresh herbs, and fontina went well with the slightly burned thin crust. We then topped the meal off with a real special treat: porchetta. The porchetta didn’t have much in the way of herbs inside but it did have crispy salty skin to complement the moist pork meat and fat on the inside. It was served with some arugula, pickled strawberries, and hazelnuts. Though it wasn’t exactly what I expected, I am glad we had it. Very delicious.

A16
2355 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
415.771.2216

Quince is one of SF’s best dress up restaurants. Cotogna (Quince in Italian) is Quince’s little sibling, more casual and affordable than it’s grown up sibling next door. Even at 10:45 on a Saturday night (with a reservation) we still had to wait a few minutes for our table. Even that late at night the place was hopping.

We started with the sformato, which is like a savory custard — it was quite good. The tagliatelle with duck bolognese was also good. We even had the squid flatbread and while it was good it was not as good as Starbelly or Zero Zero. For dessert, I got the bombolini which are little Italian donuts. Can’t resist an opportunity to have some donuts, right?

Parking, even late at night, was a challenge since the place is so close to crazy North Beach. Upon leaving I dropped my phone on the floor and broke the screen. How sad — it took my almost a week to get my replacement phone. All in all, this is one of the hottest reservations in the city and it was good but didn’t blow me away. Even late at night, I’d highly recommend a reservations.

Cotogna
490 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133
415.775.8508

Owned by the same folks who brought you the Mission’s Beretta, Starbelly is also a casual, mostly Italian, place on the edge of the Castro. We started our meal with some terrine which was served with mustard and some tangy jam. We followed that up with a nice salad featuring some goat cheese and pears. Our entree was a mushroom pizza with gruyere and we added sausage to that. It was pretty busy on a Sunday night around 10 but we got seated right away and ended up having a very relaxing and delicious meal. I love restaurants like this and I would certainly go back to Starbelly anytime.

Starbelly
3583 16th Street, San Francisco, CA 94114
415.252.7500