The Donut Man

Not Everyone’s a Fan of The Donut Man

Donut Man's coveted peach doughnuts
Donut Man’s coveted peach doughnuts Photo: Donut Man via Facebook

It’s prime time at Jim Nakano’s The Donut Man, that fresh-fruit pastry-filler who’s so popular, he draws droves way out to Glendora for his freshly baked, seasonal peach and strawberry donuts. The shop currently has both varieties in stock for a limited time, the peach donuts already drawing the usual major raves and frothing at the mouth. If you’re a fan, get ‘em while you can. But a few holes are being punched in this Man’s staples, as two prominent bloggers reverse the steady stream of accolades for his glazed yeast beauties.

Food writer and Sotto manager Nastassia Johnson, she of the Let Me Eat Cake blog, takes her first trip out to see The Man and quickly reveals that she’s just not “that impressed.” The shop is all out of the strawberry variety and unfortunately, the fruit in the peach doughnuts comes “crunchy and bland,” while the cake is also flavor-free, the only discernible taste coming from the sugary glaze. She thinks the tiger tails are grrrreat and calls the buttermilk doughnuts “perfection,” but finds most everything else a little too ho-hum and dry. “We came to get donut wasted,” Johnson writes, “but left donut disenchanted.”

Elsewhere, Krista Simmons, seen laying down her hammer of judgement each week on Top Chef Masters and in our own L.A. Diet feature, admits on LAist that she, too, doesn’t really believe the hype over Donut Man, admitting she’s in the minority and offering, “Perhaps we are just tortured by our high school years working at Marie Callender’s, where we had to spoon gobs of high fructose-laden syrup over “fresh” peach and strawberry pies.” Of Nakano’s offerings, she finds, “The stone fruit was never quite ripe, and it was just a big old goopy mess.” Oh well, that just means more peach doughnuts for the rest of youse.

What do you think of Glendora’s The Donut Man? Worth the drive? Or possibly over-praised by critics? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

The Donut Man, Glendora CA [LMEC]
Donut Alert: Glendora’s Donut Man Now Serving Fresh Peach [LAist]

Not Everyone’s a Fan of The Donut Man