Posted by Michael Stern on September 01, 2008
Being a serious coffee city, it makes sense that Portland is also home to many excellent breakfast pastries. You'll find some of the best, and most unusual at Voodoo Donuts. We were tipped off to this place by Roadfood.com user Mr. Chips, who described it as a "great place to view Portland's strong Goth culture as well as sample tasty donuts." There is a strong counter-culture ambience to this bakery that looks a little like an after-hours club; whether or not it's Goth, we cannot say. But we can tell you with certainty that the donuts are dandy.
There are beautiful old-fashioned cake donuts with crunchy crust and creamy insides, puffy raised donuts, one glazed behemoth as big as a pizza labeled a Tex-Ass donut (and costing $3.95), and donuts topped with powdered sugar, multicolored jimmies, and all sorts of flavored glazes. The menu listed many mysteries that we'd love to return to find out about, including a no-name donut, a dirt donut, a cock & balls donut, a dirty snowball, and a diablos rex. The most curious item on the menu above the counter was "non existing fritter," its cost null.
The pastry I recommend the most is one to which Mr. Chips alerted us: a bacon-maple bar. It is a substantial buttermilk long john frosted with maple glaze and festooned with strips of bacon that somehow, magically, retains a welcome crunch. What a great all-in-one breakfast!
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
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Reviewers "Must Eats" List
"Weird, but it works ... at least for one of us Sterns, who loved the crunch of the bacon combined with the intense maple frosting atop this fine pastry. The other Stern thought it somewhat Frankensteinian."
Michael Stern
"The day's selection is displayed on the revolvng shelves of a glass case. Note the large selection of vegan donuts. Vegan fare is a not uncommon option in Portland's multitude of counter culture eateries."
Michael Stern
"There is an immensely satisfying crunch to the crust of these old fashioned donuts, glazed to the left, chocolate-frosted to the right."
Michael Stern
"We're not sure what the space occupied by Voodoo Donuts used to be, but its raw industrial nature has not been monkeyed with and it adds a brawny charm to this destination donut shop."
Michael Stern
"Voodoo Donuts cast a powerful come-back-to-me spell on those who eat them."
Michael Stern
