ottawa foodies

So I added the Richmond Bakery and Carp bakery to the donut tag. To sum up, homemade donuts in town:
Richmond Bakery
Carp Bakery
Tom and Sons

There are probably a few more, others are free to add to the list. BTW the Carp Bakery is/was also up for sale. Has been the case for at least a year or longer.

I was talking to the people at Hall's Apple Farm in the Byward market the other day, and sadly, they won't be offering their doughnuts at either the Byward market or Landsdown :( Apparently all their trained workers are moving on to uni and no one wants to step in.

I used to get them all the time on my Sunday market trips...

I shed a tear on May 1st for the Stittsville bakery. IMO they were the best in town. It was up for sale for 4 or 5 months. Not sure if it will be resurrected or not. I sure hope so.

Richmond Bakery is a close 2nd. But (believe it or not) their doughnuts are only 1/2 the size of the former. Fortunately they are 1/2 the price too so you can eat two. And yes, they are still home-made in Richmond.

Well, I am pretty crushed to hear that Stittsville Bakery closed. I am just stunned that the ever growing population out there couldn't support them. I shopped there many times when we lived rurally. It is so important to be supporting local businesses folks.

Last weekend we drove through Richmond and for old times sake stopped at the Richmond Bakery. Please tell me their doughnuts are homemade. I quite enjoyed my Apple Fritter.

FF - agreed, completely. I believe franchise owners complained to T-Ho's HO when they implemented the 'thawed doughnuts' they serve now, because the quality is inferior and they are no longer a true doughnut bakery. Did HO bend to the franchise owners demands? No.

If I had the capital to invest into Tom & Sons's, I probably would because I have a business model in mind similar to that of Voodoo doughnuts in Portland. I think if Tom & Sons reinvented themselves and got some retail space, they could carve out a niche market for themselves considering that T-Ho's & Carling Bakery are their only real competition in Ottawa.

I'm deeply worried that Ottawans (and maybe Canadians in general) have forgotten what doughnuts are supposed to taste like. This is especially embarrassing given that Canadians are said to eat more doughnuts per capita than any other people. As a nation, we're allowing our doughnuts to fall into the fast-food stereotype of "quantity not quality."

With Tom and Sons Donuts being offered up for sale on kijiji, and the recent closing of the Stittsville Bakery (as of May 1st), I fear this may indicate the collapse of our local market for fresh and delicious donuts.

I guess if people are already waiting in line for inferior coffee it isn't a stretch to grab an inferior doughnut to round out the experience. Come on, Canada, you deserve better!

I visited around 10:30am on a Saturday and tried a Honey Glazed (rear in pic) and a Toasted Coconut and White Cake (foreground) doughnut. $2+tax for two. ($5.50 for 6, $10 for 12).

The Honey Glazed was fine, but not super fresh—about the same as Tim Hortons. The Toasted Coconut one, though, was excellent! They have a good selection of doughnuts, and even some other confections like eclairs and profiteroles. Can't wait to go back.

The "Healthy" in the business name refers to the process developed by the owner to fry doughnuts in such a way that they absorb less oil. The fat reduction is around 50%, meaning around 80-150 calories *less* per doughnut. Of course, removing half the fat from a doughnut doesn't turn it into a health food by any stretch—especially if you eat more of them—but it's a valiant endeavour nevertheless.

Soft cinnamon sugar doughnuts.

The toffee walnut doughnut is not very sweet and a bit moist and chewy with some egginess. This was a very satisfying doughnut if you like an eggy pastry and I do!

The dessert doughnut with honey glaze and vanilla ice cream is so good! I liked it much more than what is offered at that other recently opened restaurant known for its dessert doughnuts (which, surprisingly, has a name easily confused with this one - is it Side Lane or Back Door?).

We thought we were stopping here for ice cream but changed our plans after we saw the doughnuts.

This was a peanut butter and chocolate yeast doughnut. Fresh and delicious, would totally have it again!

They had 5 or 6 types of doughnut and kronut available at 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. Prices were around $3.50 each (with a discount if you buy 6 or 12).

I really like this little bakery. Speaking of Berliners, I was at the Westboro Farmer's Market today and noticed that Art-Is-An were selling their Berliners for $3.00.

Gouging? Really? Maybe people are standing in line because they love the doughnuts, not because they want to throw their money away…

The Berliner (jelly-filled doughnuts) are excellent! The $1 price tag is very fair, unlike the gouging you may experience after standing in line for a similar product in Ottawa.

Pictured here is the best Boston Cream I have ever eaten! The doughnut itself had a nice consistency, a bit chewy and very slightly crispy on the outside. The custard cream was not too sweet and a bit eggy. The chocolate also melted well when bitten into. It's also just 1.85 each and it's huge!

I had been craving doughnuts and this Classic Potato Buttermilk Doughnut more than fit the bill. This is a hearty doughnut--not the light fluffy kind that leaves you unsatisfied. Perfectly done, I would say it is the best glazed yeast doughnut available in town. And the cinnamon sugared doughnut hole sitting on top is a nice bonus.

re:"...more than enough for two to share"? I don't know about that, I ate the whole damn thing! I did give wifey a bite though. :P

Their pumpkin doughnuts (Berliners) are awesome but I feel like a chump paying three dollars for a doughnut. As good as they are, they are still just a doughnut. Definitely worth trying however.

Kevin Matheson is an evil culinary genius.

Buttermilk mashed potato doughnut.

Looked like a ordinary glazed raised doughnut but it's exterior was deceptive. Tender and fluffy and a slight buttermilk taste. With just enough glaze to compliment but not too sweet.

This was a supersized doughnut that was more than enough for two to share.

We stopped in today after a beautiful family hike, just to balance out good health with bad. These doughnuts are great! We tried:

* Peanut Butter and Jelly (pictured) - this was my choice. Loaded with jelly and topped with a sticky peanut butter glaze, it worked really well with this substantial yeast doughnut.
* Crème Brûlée - my wife's and daughter's choice. Lots of rich vanilla pudding inside and a roof of caramel glaze. Hard to eat without getting caramel all over your upper lip, but I guess that's part of the experience.
* Cherry Cheesecake - my son's choice and he enjoyed it.

We then went for another round and shared two very small cinnamon sugar cake doughnuts, fresh from the fryer. These were nice!

The prices range from $1.35 for the small cake doughnuts to $2.85 for the filled and glazed yeast doughnuts. Across the board, these doughnuts are richer and heavier than those from SuzyQ. Which one you prefer will come down to personal preference.

Oh wow. I had a dinner party last night and 2 guests arrived with a couple of boxes of assorted donuts from Suzy Q. Incredible! We had to cut them into quarters so everyone could have a taste of everything. This is going to be a very weak spot for me. Tim Horton's ruined the donut, and Suzy Q brought them back!

I love the Salted Caramel doughnuts here. The Toasted Coconut are great too. Also pictured here are the Double Chocolate and the Blue Vanilla with Froot Loops. My daughter was loopy about the blue one.

The Maple Bacon is good as well, but I find the chewy chunks of bacon are more gimmick than gourmet. For salty-sweet I prefer the Salted Caramel. Either way, there is a doughnut for every taste here. Just awesome!

I remember back before 2001, when the donuts were actually made in the store, there was more variety and they were soo good.

The donuts are now par baked, meaning theyfry them in a factory in Brantford, flash freeze them, then re-heat them in store where they apply filling and coating.

I find the donuts to be much drier and more stale than before. It's quite sad to see a Canadian icon stoop to such a low, but that's how it goes.

I haven't tried any doughnut to beat the Tim Horton's sour cream glazed. Strange sounding, but so satisfying with a steeped tea (with milk and sugar).

The recent chatter about Suzy Q doughnuts made me think of the delicious jam filled doughnuts I get every time I go to Richmond. Better price, and to my mind better flavour (real jam of course)

Once again, highly recommended! Worth the drive out to Carp, and if you're going to the Carp Farmers' Market already, you would do yourself a disservice by not walking the 3 minutes to Carp Bakery for a few Doughnuts.

Worthy of note since my last visit:

* The Apple Fritters were fresh this time, and tasted great! Good cinnamon flavour and not too greasy or sugary.
* The jelly doughnut was filled with strawberry jelly this time. I preferred the grape but hey, it's neat that they switch things up once in a while.
* The Boston Cream was probably my favourite. Sooo good!

I picked up a couple dozen doughnuts to take to work today. Overall, I was impressed!

They had 5 kinds:

* Chocolate glazed
* Maple glazed
* Boston cream
* Jelly filled
* Apple fritters

The Boston creams have a tasty chocolate glaze and a really nice filling, especially when compared to what is available at the drive-thru chains.

The jelly doughnuts have a very purple looking but mild tasting grape jelly. Probably the best jelly doughnut I've ever had!

The prices vary from $0.85 to $1.50 per doughnut but there seems to be a volume discount and I ended up paying under $16 for the two dozen. In terms of value for what you get, this runs circles around the competition! It is a little out of the way though...

+1. Brought in a couple dozen donuts to the office -- the folks loved it.

I'm going to try the Boston Cream later today :-)

Needless to say, they are still in business.

Here is another picture of Winter doughnuts

I meant WINTER!

"They now sell doughnuts in the summer. "

I'm so confused.

They now sell doughnuts in the summer. The same baker who makes the ginger snaps to go in the ginger snap ice cream, the brownie that goes in the brownie and cream ice cream, the Nanaimo bars, etc., makes doughnuts, Nanaimo bars and brownies in the summer.

I was very restrained and only bought 3 flavours today: cinnamon and sugar, raspberry and custard, and chocolate glaze. They had so many other ones. They all looked good!