The City of Weird is home to an outsized number of high-quality breweries, restaurants, coffee shops, and doughnut vendors. If doughnuts drive you crazy and not just because of their sugar content, Austin is a great place to live. If you’re fairly new to Austin or the Austin doughnut circuit, here’s a list of to guide you on your quest to find the city’s best doughnut.
Gourdough’s
Gourdough’s fits right in in a city that strives to stay weird. The Fat Elvis dessert doughnut is caked in peanut butter icing, grilled bananas, bacon, and honey. The Porkey’s is topped with Canadian bacon, cream cheese, and jalapeno jelly. And The Freebird has a cheese cake filling, cream cheese icing, graham cracker crumbles, and fresh strawberries and blackberries. If these elaborate doughnuts aren’t weird enough for you, Gourdough’s menu also features doughnut burgers, doughnut sandwiches, and doughnut entrees.
Howdy Donut
Howdy Donut serves up some of Austin’s lightest and airiest sweet rolls with holes. Regulars live for the blueberry and crumb cake doughnuts. Howdy’s cinnamon rolls and kolaches also get good reviews. Howdy Donut has three locations in Austin, one of which is a five-minute drive from AMLI South Shore on South Congress.
KC Donuts
KC Donuts is beloved for its traditional glazed doughnuts, iced doughnuts, and sprinkled doughnuts. But don’t let this South Austin establishment’s name fool you into thinking it’s just a doughnut shop. Loyal customers swear KC makes the best breakfast tacos and savory kolaches in town.
Little Lucy’s hot pink truck is hard to miss. The shop’s mini doughnuts come in a dozen or so varieties, including cinnamon sugar, pumpkin spice, and maple bacon. They’re the perfect size for dipping, and Little Lucy’s dipping sauces are pretty popular. Choose from chocolate, white chocolate, caramel, raspberry, and Nutella. This Austin gem is a five-minute drive from AMLI Eastside.
Master Donuts
Master Donuts is known for serving some of the sweetest doughnuts in Austin. If a simple doughnut isn’t enough to satisfy your sweet tooth, try Snickers doughnut. Master Donuts is a five-minute drive from AMLI South Shore.
Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery
Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery has been an Austin sweet tooth staple since 1948. Traditional filled, glazed, and sprinkled doughnuts are available around the clock at Mrs. Johnson’s, a five-minute drive from AMLI at Mueller. Another convenient thing about Mrs. Johnson’s is the ability to order doughnuts directly from the bakery’s website.
Voodoo Doughnut
Portland’s world famous doughnut vendor Voodoo Doughnut only has two outposts outside The City of Roses. One is in Denver, the other in Austin. Like Gourdough’s, Voodoo is known for baking donuts with ingredients and toppings not traditionally associated with doughnuts. Popular creations include the Voodoo Bubble, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Bacon Maple Bar, and Voodoo Doll. Voodoo Doughnut is a 10-minute walk from AMLI Downtown and AMLI on 2nd.
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View All Posts by Jason Ernst