After many many visits now (Every Saturday Siri puts "8 minutes to Dutch Donut Factory" right on my lock screen), I must amend: these are the best donuts I have had in my life. I eat a lot of donuts. Gonna give it to you straight. I'm hip with Voodoo and Psycho. I'm down with the Donut Man in Glendora. I know the hipster croissant business from New York. I've been to Hurts. I worked at a stinkin Krispy Kreme in high school. I. Know. Donuts. And Dutch Donut Factory is the best all-around donut place I have ever visited.
Some tells for really good donuts:
The glaze doesn't start to decompose, and it breaks and cracks in a brittle, crystalline fashion. It's not gelatinous. It doesn't taste like shortening.
The fry leaves the outside crisp -- that special brown texture only fried food has -- while the inside remains fluffy and not soggy with oil. This crispy outside layer is deeper for cake donuts, but again, is not accompanied by greasiness nor an undercooked middle. The magic is in getting temperatures and fry times just right
Fritters still have some fluff to them
Pink frosting is berry flavored!
There's a little bit of chew to the yeast donuts. They don't just disintegrate into greasy nothingness like Krispy Kremes. They're not chewy. They are remarkably fluffy. But they've got this...I guess it's a slightly glutinous quality about them. Again, it's about getting your water/yeast/rise times/temps all exactly right. Not a magic ingredient thing so much as a precise process thing.
So anyway, I love this place.