This weekend some of our kids (a new phrase for us after becoming parents of three) went to visit grandparents for the weekend so my wife and I had a weekend to ourselves with a newborn in tow. Being that it was Valentine’s weekend, we new going on a normal dinner date (with said newborn in tow) wasn’t wise, so we decided to finally try out the Donut Crawl we had read about in this guest post by 20DollarDates on a Breakfast with Nick post awhile back.
We’ve lived in Columbus going on eight years and through those years Schneider’s Bakery (Caution: Terrible Website) has been our exclusive donut purveyor as 1) they have delicious donuts and 2) they’ve always been within a 15 minute drive of where we live so there has been no reason to try elsewhere. Being that we’ve had Schneider’s numerous times, we decided to leave them for the end of the trip, so if we decided we’d had enough donuts (spoiler alert: we did) we wouldn’t miss out on something new.
After reading over the original post we decided to change up the order to make more sense for us. The last stop 20DollarDates mades was at Hills Market for Destination Donuts. I checked their website before leaving and saw that Destination Donuts would be at the Worthington Farmer’s Market which is much more convenient for us. So we started our trip there.
Stop #1 – Destination Donuts
We ventured to the Worthington Farmer’s Market last summer. In the summer it’s outdoors down the streets of Worthington which was too claustrophobic for my liking. During the winter they set up in the Worthington Mall which was much more open and I am interested in frequenting. I wish they would set up there all year.
After walking through the Market for awhile we considered ditching the original plan and just doing a sampling tour there, but we refocused on the main priority: donuts.
Enter Destination Donuts.
This is The Buckeye from Destination Donuts.
At this point I’d like to apologize for the photography in this post as we didn’t take a camera, I just snapped a shot of each with my iPhone. I didn’t bother to stage anything. I also didn’t think to put anything in the picture for size comparison. (Trust me when I tell you, this is a large donut.) So other than their true natural donuty beauty, the pictures aren’t anything special.
At $3, it was by far the most expensive donut on our journey, but if I was going to pay $3 for any of them, this was worth it.
The donut itself is perfectly fried, with a nice crunch around the outside. The most amazing part about this donut is that it’s not overly sweet. My wife and I have been counting calories over the last year and through that have developed an aversion to things that are too sweet (both a blessing and a curse), but this was pretty much perfect. It’s rich, but didn’t make our teeth hurt.
And it’s a perfect size to split, helping justify the $3 price tag.
Stop #2 – DK Diner
After packing up our stroller we headed south to Grandview to the DK Diner. I hadn’t heard of the DK Diner other than in the Donut Crawl post 
which is surprising considering after I posted this picture on Facebook I immediately got comments in the spirit of, “Oh, I love the DK Diner!” which makes me wonder what other culinary treasures my friends are keeping secret behind my back. But I digress.
Being that the aforementioned infant was quiet in his car seat and the diner is pretty small, we decided to get this one to go. My wife went in and asked the counter person for their recommendation and was suggested the apple fritter. After agreeing to order the apple fritter the counter person then tried to talk her out of ordering it as it’s “as big as my head.” My wife assured her it would be ok, she’s splitting it, and after one more attempted protest, the counter person finally relented and sold it to my persistent bride. We’re glad she persevered.
This was by far my favorite find on the trip (not that you should stop reading). The best way I can describe this pastry masterpiece is apple pie wrapped in a donut. The inside was apple chunks in a cinnamon/other apple pie spice paste and the outside was perfectly fried pastry with a nice glaze. The key to it’s success is that the inside doesn’t have much (if any) sugar, so the only sweetness is the glaze on the outside. So like The Buckeye, it’s not too sweet.
And, again I lack perspective in my picture, and I didn’t see the counter person. But it very well could be the same size as her head.
Stop #3 – Lil Donut Factory
Not wanting to taking up a precious parking spot in the DK Diner lot, we hit the road to Hilliard as we enjoyed our apple fritter. The first of two Hilliard stops 
was the Lil Donut Factory.
We had read on the 20DollarDate post that this place frequently sells out on the weekends, so we didn’t have huge hopes which benefitted us as the traditional stick donut you see to the right was pretty much the only thing they had left by the time we got there. (Which was, I think, between 10:30-11:00.)
This wasn’t an awful thing as this donut is only about three inches in length and after the two head-sized pastries we’d already split, we were filling up fast.
It was quite tasty for a basic donut, enough that I’d be interested in trying more of their selection. Plus the guy running the place seemed like the cool, shop-keep type that enjoys what he does. My gut feeling is that they’d be a solid, regular go-to if we lived anywhere close to the Hilliard area.
Stop #4 – Auddino’s Bakery & Cafe
After arriving at Auddino’s (which was via the long way since Google Maps had us go down a side road that passed one entrance to go around to another entrance
and we didn’t catch what it was doing until it was too late. And I only mention this to point out that Google Maps isn’t perfect either, Apple Maps haters) we decided to go in since it was a bigger place and it wasn’t very busy.
My wife had see that their specialty was the “doughssant,” so we ordered a small one with chocolate on top.
This was by far my least favorite of the stops, however I’m not a fan of croissants either. There was just an off taste or texture or something. I couldn’t put my finger (or tongue) on what exactly I didn’t like. My wife enjoyed it.
There were many other fine looking pastry options on the menu. And they had breads as well. The setup of the store was weird, it didn’t really flow or direct you where to go. If I could find the right area to order it, I likely would have gotten coffee as well.
It also wasn’t clear whether it was a “take care of your own trash” places or a table-bussing place, so to the workers there, if we were supposed to put our basket somewhere ourselves, we apologize. But only some since we did make an effort to try and figure out what you wanted from us.
Stop #5 – Honey Dip Donuts
Our next stop was in Upper Arlington, at Honey Dip Donuts.
This was neat little diner with a big sign on Kenny Road. It’s one of those blast-from-the-past type stops. The booth seating, the waitresses in diner-style uniforms, the counter seating. It’s a neat little place. Very Diner’s, Drive-Ins and Dives.
I went in for this one and despite a pretty impressive selection for such a little place (although quite a bit was sold out by what was now lunch time) I decided to get my wife’s favorite, a chocolate glazed donut. (Officially at Honey Dip, Devil’s Food.)
It was good, but not any better than the same donut at other donut shops. It was cooked well and the glaze was good. The chocolate flavor wasn’t quite as strong as what we’re used to at Schneider’s which can be good or bad depending on your preference.
Like the Lil Donut Factory, if this was the donut place / diner that was close to us, it would be a great “usual” but unlike DK Diner, we’re not going to make a drive back specifically to eat here.
Stop #6 – Buckeye Donuts
We had saved this place for last both because it was the most on the way home and because it was the one only one we’ve talked about wanting to try before. We had the highest hopes going in for this one. 
What happened in reality is by this time we were both at our limits of carbs and in desperate need of protein. And on top of that, we had been out of coffee for a few stops. And on top of the top of all of that, the tag-a-long newborn was getting very close to lunch time.
With all of those facts we decided to get some to go and enjoy them later (and possibly share with the other kids when they got home). My wife went in and found this counter person wasn’t helpful or passionate about the choices, but was more apathetic to her donut-buying customers. So much she didn’t bother to tell my wife who picked out four donuts, that a fifth would have been free. (We found this out the next day from friends.) Not that we really needed another donut at that point, but it’s the thought (or lack thereof) that counts.
She picked out a Buckeye (because when in Columbus at Buckeye Donuts you should probably get a Buckeye Donut even if you’ve already had one that day), a maple bacon creamstick (or if you prefer to be wrong, “Long John”), a buttermilk cruller for me and a coconut donut for her.
Overall, we were… shall we say… whelmed. Not overwhelmed, not underwhelmed. Just whelmed. They were good donuts. But, to risk sounding like a broken record (should I say broken vinyl to sound cooler?) they aren’t let’s-drive-out-of-the-way-twenty-minutes good.
The Buckeye was different from Destination Donuts as it had a glop of real peanut butter in the middle instead of the peanut butter frosting as the first one we had. The Maple Bacon was an interesting concept but I thought the quality of the bacon was poor enough to detract from it (it may have just been overcooked). The cruller was good, but honestly I think Tim Horton’s is a little better. Which I never thought I’d say. So yeah, whelmed.
Overall Thoughts
If you’re going to attempt a donut crawl, eat some protein beforehand. As I said we were in desperate need of it by the time we were done. We ended up breaking the “$20 Date” idea as we finished the crawl on campus and headed north which took us by Ray Ray’s Hog Pit. We couldn’t resist the call of their brisket after eating nothing but carbs all morning.
It was a fun and, theoretically, cheap date. Because we took our own coffee, we would have spent about $11 had we not gotten extra donuts at our last stop.
If you’re going to pick just one new place to try, DK Diner was our winner with Destination Donuts as a close second.
Thanks to 20DollarDates and Breakfast with Nick for the idea!
Reviewing the Universe 