Blue Star Donuts @ Venice

Best Thing: The donuts

Might Not Like: If you don’t like donuts, then it’s probably not your place.

I’m automatically inclined to think that all things coming out of Portland are going to be amazing or include the amazing Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, so I may have been a little biased when I discovered the new Blue Star Donuts in Venice Beach. The online reviews, however, tempered my enthusiasm, and it actually took me a while to get there and try it.

I love to read what restaurants have to say about their food. If they don’t care enough about the food to tell me about it, what it is, where it came from, then I kind of assume that they don’t care all that much about it or at least they are not head over heels in love with the food more than the idea of their food. So I was pleasantly surprised to walk into Blue Star and see a large board on the wall telling me that their donuts were made with cage free eggs and European butter. The dough is a brioche style of dough, and they are all made fresh each day.

My skepticism was assuaged enough for me to dive and purchase three donuts, and I left with my little white box of goodness. As I walked down Abbot Kinney, a man smiled and said, Those are the best $4 donuts. I smiled back.

I found a bench and indulged. The maple bacon was delightful. The pillowy nature of the dough surrendered to my teeth but was strong enough to stand up and represent. The flavors were perfectly paired. The caramel on the dulce de leche was thick and engaging and more than just a simple flavoring. It’s presence gave a sense that it meant to be there in all it’s leche glory. The crème filled chocolate crunch donut, while maybe a little short on crème was wonderful and the robust crunch of the topping could not be ignored in all the right ways.

I want to find something bad to say because otherwise I feel like a disingenuous fan girl and completely out of sink with a large part of the yelp community, but honestly I just don’t have anything bad. Yes they cost $4. So do most delicious things in LA. Yes they are a brioche dough. If you want a cake donut click here for good versions of those. But everything from presentation to taste to the ingredients made me want to keep taking a bite out of Blue Star. Honestly the only thing better would be if these donuts came with a side of Fred and Carrie, and even then, you might pay more attention to the donuts. Just sayin.

HIP, TRENDY, all of the above.

SPENDY…it’s known for this, but hey…it’s an amazing donut. And it’s in LA.

http://www.bluestardonuts.com