Vegan Donut Tour Of Los Angeles

Two vegans battled to see who could eat the most vegan donuts in one day all in an effort to find you the best vegan donuts in Los Angeles.

1. Donut Farm

We started our vegan donut tour at Los Angeles' newest all-vegan donut establishment. They have a large selection of different flavored cake donuts that are practically custom-made for coffee dunking with a variety of flavors not seen elsewhere in town, such as Meyer lemon and salted caramel donuts. They also have a raised glazed (which I would have ordered if I hadn't already eaten one earlier in the week) and fritters.

We ordered the chocolate coconut, crumb, and blueberry donuts—two for me, one for my friend Ryan. The cake donuts are dense, flavorful, sugary, and 100% organic.

Donut Count
Me: 2
Ryan: 1

Donut Farm is located in Silver Lake at 2609 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

2. Muddy Paw Coffee Company

Muddy Paw is a coffee shop we knew sold vegan donuts, but only learned later that they're from Breakaway Bakery (our fourth stop). They had two flavors when we visited, maple and chocolate. Ryan and I shared each as we sat in the lovely, dog-friendly patio space of Muddy Paw. The donuts were cool and sugary. The chocolate donut had chocolate chips and tasted like a heavy, deliciously moist cookie.

Donut Count
Me: 4
Ryan: 2

Muddy Paw is location in Silver Lake at 3320 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.

3. Donut Friend

Donut Friend is overwhelming in the most amazing way. The menu has not only their "signature compilations," but you can also customize your own donuts. You can choose between their raised and cake donuts and dozens of fillings and toppings (all but a few of the toppings are vegan). The vast selection means you could come back every day and never order the same thing twice!

I ordered the Sufganiyot Stevens (a bismark donut filled with jelly and covered with powdered sugar) and the Bacon 182 (described as "Real maple glaze and coconut bacon on top of our traditional donut"), while Ryan ordered a Custard Front Drive (pictured). If you haven't figured it out, the donuts are all named in honor of musical artists, sticking with the place's punk aesthetic.

Donut Friend’s donut sandwiches are gluttonous in the best way possible. They are the kind of splurge food that out-of-towners drool over, and people in town use to demonstrate LA’s vegan food dominance.

Donut Count
Me: 5
Ryan: 3

Donut Friend is located in Highland Park at 5107 York Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

4. Breakaway Bakery

Breakaway bakery is angling hard for the gluten-free crowd. And it's not only gluten-free, but free of dairy, soy, and peanuts, and is kosher. It's not all vegan, but in addition to five flavors of vegan donuts they have vegan muffins, cupcakes, bread, cookies, sticky buns, and more.

Having already had a couple of their donuts at Muddy Paw, we mixed up the flavors and got snicker-doodle and cocoa cinnamon. The donuts were grainier than other cake donuts we ate and didn't have the fluffy bounce we found in others.

Donut Count
Me: 7
Ryan: 4

Breakaway Bakery is located at 5264 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90019.

5. Erin McKenna's Bakery

Like Breakaway Bakery, Erin McKenna’s also plays the gluten-free card hard, but their donuts are more likely to not tip you off to the lack of gluten, in part because of flavorful toppings. Their aesthetic is that of a retro hipster shop, reclaiming baking as an artisanal art form.

Erin McKenna’s bakery, which used to be call "Babycakes" is all-vegan in addition to being all gluten-free and kosher. The have a rotating selection of donuts and a large selection of other baked goods and soft serve ice cream.

Ryan ordered the Samoan donut (the one covered with toasted coconut shavings), while I ate the coffee crunch. The donuts were lighters, more fluffy cake donuts than Breakaway.

Donut Count
Me: 8
Ryan: 5

Erin McKenna's Bakery LA is located at 236 N Larchmont Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90004.

6. Kettle Glazed Doughnuts

Kettle Glazed Doughnuts makes vegan donuts without charging vegan prices. Here you can get $2.50 for two instead of $3.99 for one (as seen at our previous stop). I understand why vegan places cost more, both in terms of surviving as small businesses and because high-quality, organic ingredients are more expensive than say, unsustainable palm oil. But it's nice to be able to tell non-vegans they can eat vegan donut without paying three times as much.

Kettle Glazed had three vegan flavors: lemon, vanilla glazed, and sugar. They weren't labeled vegan, just set aside under a glass case. I ordered the vanilla glazed donut and it was very cakey, and very sweet and sugary. This is a donut that would go perfectly well with coffee.

This was my ninth donut and it hit me hard. Like the restaurant scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life I just couldn't have that last bite of donut. I had drank a lot of water to help deal with the sugar overload and now my body was so full one bite would have caused me to explode. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to keep going!

Donut Count
Me: 9
Ryan: 6

Kettle Glazed Doughnuts is located at 6211 Franklin Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90028.

7. RING Baked Tofu Donuts

I think RING's baked tofu donuts saved my life. After eating nine donuts I was slipping into a pit of despair. I wasn't sure I could continue with our donut tour, that there was any more room in my body for donuts. But RING is a magical place.

RING is the US's first Japanese-style baked tofu donut store. Their donuts are made from equal parts silken tofu and rice flour, so they're also naturally gluten-free. As we walked in we were greeted not only by extremely friendly employees, but by a really cute donut shop decorated by Totoros and Catbuses (I'm a big Miyazaki fan, so I loved it).

Despite being tofu donuts, they aren't all vegan, but they had banana and chocolate vegan donuts. Ryan and I both order banana because we were chocolated-out. The small donuts were not too sweet, but very moist. They tasted more like banana bread than a traditional American donut. I wouldn't have been able to eat another super sweet donut at that point, so the change was wonderful and re-energized us and I was then able to take that last bite of the Kettle Glazed donut when we got back to our car.

Donut Count
Me: 10
Ryan: 7

RING is located at 6800 Owensmonth Ave #130, Canoga Park, CA 91303.

8. The Donuttery

It was a long drive to Huntington Beach, but giving time for the 10 donuts I had already eaten to digest was a blessing. And regardless of that, if you want vegan donuts, The Donuttery is worth travelling to.

Like Kettle Glazed, the donuts here were sold at regular ol' donut prices, which was really nice. They had a whole case of well-marked vegan options including both raised and cake options. I opted for a jelly filled (because fuck yeah, jelly filled!) and a classic raised glazed, while Ryan got a chocolate covered bar (I was too disappointed that it wasn't filled with vegan custard to order it). Ryan took a box home for his wife too, because he's a good husband.

Donut Count
Me: 12
Ryan: 8

The Donuttery is located in Huntington Beach at 17420 Beach Blvd, Huntington Beach, CA 92647.

9. (fōnuts)

Fonuts has a rotating selection of vegan donuts, including flavors like coconut passion fruit and banana cinnamon. Some of the vegan donuts are also gluten-free, if that's your thing.

I was so stuffed and relieved that I didn't have to eat any more donuts I completely forgot to write down my notes. Our "fonuts" were dense, like they took a full-sized funfetti cake and crammed it into the confines of a donut shape.

My Instagram followers thought this was the most beautiful donut on our tour!

Final Donut Count
Me: 13 (a baker's dozen! #DonutGoals)
Ryan: 9 (a sad attempt to eat a lot of donuts!)

(fōnuts) is located at 8104 W 3rd St, Los Angeles, CA 90048.

Our Previous Vegan Food Tours of Los Angeles