Columbus, Ohio has some incredible donut shops located across the city.
Krispy Kreme is a classic donut staple, but there are far fancier and better options.
Since donuts are easily one of, if not the best kind of desserts that you can eat while on the go, it makes sense someone would come along and go “Hmm, I bet that if I take this ring of cake, add some more sugar to the recipe, and throw on way more than necessary toppings, I can sell them for a lot more money.” Well, they were right, whoever they were.
This is a ranking of the top three donut places in Columbus.
For all of these places, I ordered two donuts: a simple vanilla donut with chocolate icing to give a baseline, and one of their signatures.
3rd Place
In third place, we have Amy’s Donuts located at 650 Georgesville Rd, Columbus, OH 43228, and is not even five minutes from the Hollywood Casino. While the donuts were fresh and decent overall, they lacked…zing.
I also ordered “The Elvis”. A vanilla donut with peanut butter-maple icing, bacon, chocolate drizzle, and fried banana. I must say, as much as I was looking forward to this, I was disappointed. You cannot taste the banana at all, same with the chocolate drizzle, the bacon just seemed stale, and the icing just was not strong enough.
I am not nitpicking here; they were both good donuts, but compared to the competition, and when you account for the fact that these two cost about $5, this place does not stand a chance.
2nd Place
In second place, we have Buckeye Donuts, located at 1363 S High St, Columbus, OH 43207.
It’s in the heart of OSU campus and it feels like it. The store is small and cramped and parking is a nightmare, but when you walk in, the smell alone makes up for it. I ordered the same basic donut. It was brilliant.
The donut itself was fresh and soft and the chocolate icing was nothing short of decadent. I also ordered one of the Buckeye donuts, the signature. This is quite similar to the basic donut as before, a vanilla donut, without the hole, covered in chocolate icing with a dollop of peanut butter on top.
This was also great, however, the peanut butter was extremely…peanut buttery. That dollop of PB dominated the entire donut and it would have been nice if it was a bit more relaxed. Overall though, both were great and the total cost was the cheapest at just under $4 for both.
1st Place
In first place was Duck Donuts located at 825 Polaris Pkwy, Westerville, Ohio. This place took first because of one simple trick-they were fresh. I watched them deep-fry the donuts two minutes before I got my greedy knucks on them. They were slightly crispy on the outside and soft and steamy on the inside. I have no idea if the icing was fresh or not, but it was definitely hot.
The basic chocolate-dipped donut, with the exception of the temperature, was on par with what Buckeye Donuts had to offer. The signature though, the ‘cookies and creme’ was outstanding. It is vanilla icing with crushed Oreos and chocolate syrup drizzle.
The only thing wrong was that the Oreos were not crunchy, at all. Other than that, it’s simply delicious. It was pricey though with a total of about $6 for both.
