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Thursday, August 27, 2009

Donut Cafe--Grand Opening

Posted by KandN
~KandN & Liseanne

Look what I stumbled upon at Cherry City Plaza on 4683 Commercial St SE--where J.J.'s Deli used to be and one door down from where the new Sushi Kyo will soon open.
This morning I only had time to run in and ask permission to take photos, but when Lise came over after work she twisted my arm for a chance to give their donuts and coffee a try.
They have two regular coffee blends, Kona and Northwest. Both of the coffees have a smooth, nutty flavor, but are weaker than I like. Funny thing is though, they were excellent with the donuts.
My first impression of their donuts? They're light and not overly sweet--both positives in my book.

Here's Lise's input:
When I look at a donut place I want to know if they meet my requirements for a good donut place. Here is my list of qualifications and how Donut Cafe matches up.
1. Do they serve good coffee?
Yes, the coffee is fresh and good quality, though weak for my taste.
2. Are they open early and late?
This is still an unknown. Donut Cafe had no visible posting of their hours yet.
3. Are the donuts fresh?
One of the colorful signs in the cafe said the donuts were fresh, and it being their grand opening I sure hope they were fresh. We will see how they progress as they stick out the initial phase of opening a small donut place.
4. Do they have tasty plain donuts?
I only like plain donuts, call me weird. I prefer the fried soft dough, lightly sugared. Donut Cafe didn't have these exact donuts, but they did have what they called "raised sugar" donuts. They were light, but a little dry...but they have large shoes to fill as I compare all soft-dough donuts to Krispy Kream. The rest of their selections were frosted or glazed, not really plain or powdered.
5. Are there innovations or new takes on old favorites?
Donut Cafe does put some interesting touches into their donuts. Their frosting on the cake donuts is not too sweet, and you can tell it's flavored. The chocolate tastes like real cocoa and the sugar glaze on the Old Fashioned tastes creamy and buttery with a hint of lemon. The highlight of their donuts has to be the fresh Devil's Food Cake donuts. Our choice had chopped nuts and chocolate frosting. It was soft moist, not too sweet and just delicious.

I'd give them 3 1/2 stars (out of 5) overall, and that could go up by a star if their hours of operation are in the range of 5am/6am to 8pm/later. We won't know though until they post them. I'm going back for the Devil's Food, no matter what their hours are.
at 6:54 AM
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16 comments:

  1. I'll have to check that out sometime. Just to try it ya know. I'll be there sometime next week. Looks good.

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  2. There are basically two types of donuts - yeast, or raised, and cake. The soft ones are the yeast donuts (which are also the ones that can be filled). Cruellers are a machine formed version of a yeast donut and "Old Fashioned" is a wet version of a cake donut that is machine plopped in the oil (causing one side to explode).

    My favorite donut? Yeast donut, just cooled a bit from out of the fryer, no sugar, no glaze. Just donut.

    My parents owned a Dunkin Donuts around 1980... I worked the counter.

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  3. Thanks Jeff for reminding readers about yeast and cake. While I appreciate the way the reviewer laid out the review, the reviewer should have done some research.

    The place that formerly was a Dunkin Donuts on Commercial and Rural usually makes some pretty good donuts. Nonetheless, we need to venture out and try this new donut place. It would be helpful to give the address in the reviews. I wasn't sure where this place was until I clicked the review of the "deli".

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  4. Sorry! I was hoping mentioning Cherry City Plaza and South Commercial would help, since I could only find the address for the surrounding businesses.

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  5. Anonymous 8/29/09 12:20am...Wow, well I'm not a donut connoisseur, but I do know what I like. I don't believe I gave erroneous information about donuts. If you would like to speak to me personally about my style of reviews I don't mind. Thank you for your input. I will keep it in mind. You can email me at Liseanne27 at gmail dot com.

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  6. http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=2271b77e53164e69b049bf37555193d9&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a2271b77e53164e69b049bf37555193d9Post%3ac6ce94cb-ed1f-4740-b2a5-97808fba25a9&sid=sitelife.statesmanjournal.com

    The Donut Café opened Aug. 26 at 4683 Commercial Street SE.
    Owner That Suk has been making doughnuts for more than 20 years and recently sold a shop in Corvallis.
    The Donut Café offers a variety of doughnuts and is offering a grand opening special for one dozen for $4.99 during the month of September.
    The regular price is $7.59 per dozen.
    “We have everything,” said employee Kendra Suk.
    Donut Café is open Monday to Saturday 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday hours are still being determined.
    Call in your order in advance to (503) 361-2233.
    — Tarah Campi

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  7. I saw the add in the paper for Donut Cafe last night, and I stopped by on the way to work this morning. I was so happy to see that the owner was a person that used to own a great donut shop in corvalis. They are really great donuts!

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  8. I've been by twice now and found very friendly people, a nice selection of fresh donuts. I think they have wonderful cake donuts. I've tried both the raised and cake at Donut Cafe and think they do their best work on the cake style. The devil's food and crumb style are my favorites. Nice to have them in Salem.

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  9. very plain untasty donut

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  10. Donut Cafe is awesome. It has great donuts and coffee. The coffee went great with the donuts not to strong and not to weak to over power the taste of the donuts. The store was really clean.

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  11. When we first opened the door the amazing smell hit us. It made us inhale deeply, look at each other and say "Dude". The donuts were beautiful. Hubby had a perfect maple bar. I had 2 heavenly, pillowy, sweet donut holes. Yum. We recommend Donut Cafe highly.

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  12. It is a fabulous, yummy donut place, but I think the grand opening price for a dozen donuts was much more reasonable. It's a little high for a dozen donuts, otherwise.

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  13. I went there Sunday morning at 9:30 for the 1st time. I always go to King donuts on State Street and was hoping this place could fill their shoes as king donuts are the best I've had in Salem. They did indeed.

    Looks like in addition to the hours posted on this post they are open on Sat & Sun 6 a.m to 2 p.m. I tried to go on Friday at 5:30 p.m. They close at 6 p.m. on Friday's. They were already closed on Friday at 5:30 w/ a sign posted inside stating they were sold out. In the future I hope they will make enough donuts to stay open until the hours posted as I made a special trip all the way out south for the donuts.

    Their dozen donuts price is pretty comparable. Daynight is cheaper, but the quality at Daynight is inferior. You get what you pay for.

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  14. I'm conducting a Salem donut taste test. Today I tried the Donut Café. To create a fair comparison, I chose a cake with white frosting and rainbow sprinkles just as I did yesterday at King Donuts. Possibly because I arrived earlier in the day today, this one seemed just a bit fresher. Daynight Donuts is still my top pick. One more Salem donut shop to try!

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  15. Yummy donuts, but waaaay too expensive!

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  16. Aren't they $7.49 a dozen? That seems reasonable. Remember if anything is expensive today it's the rising gas prices and global weather driving up costs.

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What do you think? Please keep your comments civil. Personal attacks are not welcome and do not lead to constructive or even interesting discussion. If you believe a restaurant is in violation of county ordinances please bring that matter to the county health department at (503) 588-5346

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