GrandDonut Cafe & Bakery — Restaurant in Winnipeg

My tastes might not be reflective of yours.

A week prior to this visit, I had stopped in to grab a few donuts, which were very good. I had noticed their menu and was intrigued as they also serve Vietnamese food.

The digital menu was not working (it had been a week earlier when i visited for the first time for donuts) and they did not have any paper print-outs so it started off poorly. The photo of the menus online are also quite dated and don't reflect current pricing.

I arrived at 11:35 and the place was fairly quiet so I expected a fairly quick turnaround for my order.

FD14 Charbroiled Pork Banh Mi sandwich and FD28 Beef Pho, requesting that both be made spicy. I was a little shocked at the price as for the 2 items it came to over $28 (not including tip).

Con: The order ended up taking over 32 minutes. Con: No menu, no pricing

FD14 Charbroiled Pork Banh Mi Sandwich Pro: Good size sandwich, about 9 - 9.5 inches Pro: Ample amount of meat and sauce Pro: The bun was very nice, with some crunch but soft as well Con: Not enough vegetables, limited cilantro, and the vegetables were a little bland. Con: I had asked for spicy and it was not spicy at all

Score: 6.5/10

FD28 Beef Pho Pro: Portion size was good Pro: Served in 2 separate containers with soup in one and the noodles in the other Pro: The beef - There were two types of beef, one being the commonly used dense meatball-like chunks and the other real sliced beef. Both were tender. Con: Could have used more onions and/or some sprouts Con: Soup was bland and not as flavorful as I've come to expect with a good Pho Con: I had asked for spicy and it was not spicy at all

Score: 6.5/10 *I would score the Pho a 5.5 due to the blandness of the broth however, the amount of beef saved this dish from the lower score.

Advice to owners: I'd recommend contacting Google to have the photos linked to your establishment updated, removing old menu photos with outdated pricing, with updated menu photos that reflect current pricing. (Max 5MB jpg each)

Menu price on Google search: FD14 Banh Mi Pork Sandwich: $7.19 FD28 Beef Pho: $9.89

I did not keep my receipt however, as previously mentioned, with tax but not including tip, it came to over $28.

Overall, I can't give my experience at this establishment anything better than a 3/5 stars.

*The donuts were very good on my prior visit 4/5 stars but a little pricey costing almost $10 for 3 donuts

*Important - Again, this was my experience and my opinion based on my tastes and preferences. Your tastes and preferences will likely differ so please do try this establishment for yourselves.

I do plan on going back and trying this place again as their donuts were good and I'd expect that their other baked items would be...

First, a heads up they don't seem to know if they have any vegan food. They seemed unsure about if their vegetarian bahn mi was vegan or could be made vegan. I was asking about if there's dairy or eggs (mayo) in any dressings they use. They didn't know. To be fair I didn't press too hard, and there was a line behind me before I even got to order. But I was disappointed I couldn't order anything and their lack of knowledge about ingredients in their food. Other places like Bahn Mi King on Portage do not have this problem.

My friend says his donut was pretty great. His matcha lemonade was kind of weak and probably should have been stronger. He said his banh mi was good: had higher quality cold cuts than other places, the bread was good but more dense than other banh mi shops use, and the shredded cabbage kind of watered down the overall flavor.

The interior is nice, looks modern and clean. The tables are easy to tip over if you lean on them, so be cautious.

They were quite busy so people must like them! If they read this, I would encourage them to be more...

The donuts are amazing. Old school honest to goodness deep-fried donuts. They can be a little on the oily side sometimes but I think that's how donuts are supposed to be. I think people have become so accustomed to frozen premade donuts that they forget what a real donut is supposed to taste like.

Their pho is okay not the best I've had but it hits the spot. I like their baogers which use a bao bun instead of a hamburger bun. The bahn mi / Vietnamese sandwiches are good too. I always hear a microwave or something that makes a "ding!" go off when I order the baoger or bahn mi which leads me to believe they are somewhat prepared ahead of time which I don't know how I feel about.

I don't think all of the the items on the menu are available and never have been which is kind of annoying. One day when I went in during the pandemic it was a little crowded for my liking.The owners and often the employees don't have great English but they try their best, which doesn't bother me but if you're an impatient bigot you should probably...