Mary's Donuts & Coffee — Restaurant in California

This review is for Mary's Doughnuts in Lakeside only. There is a location in Santee but, I have not been there yet. This place is my favorite local doughnut shop and is a huge hit with my wife and kids as well. There is a decent variety of doughnuts to choose from and the sizes are just as varied. They have regular sized up to XL. My daughter and I will fight over their maple bacon bars; they use real pig bacon on their doughnuts not turkey bacon. You can walk in and usually find some off the wall creation like, cereal topped doughnuts, or candy topped doughnuts, it's really up to the in house baker. You won't get a bad donut here though. Their blueberry doughnut is extra tasty and I would recommend their pink frosted doughnut as it has a strawberry flavor to it. My wife's favorite is the red velvet doughnut which I admit, is really delicious. If you can, make sure you get some fresh from the oven "old fashioned" style doughnuts. These beautiful little rings of fried dough melt in your mouth. They come in glazed, chocolate and maple frosted all of them are worth every penny and calorie. They offer a birthday cake doughnut which is an extra large doughnut that you can customize for anyones birthday for a very decent price I believe it's $9.99 for one. If you need a morning pick me up they do have coffee and other drinks available and if you are military or police they do offer a discount. The parking is limited in the front, but there is additional parking in the rear of the building. There is a small seating area inside if you want to rest for a while. They are open 24 hours so you can't beat that, doughnuts whenever you want, what a time to be alive. If it's not clear by now, I HIGHLY recommend this place I have continued to come here and I will keep coming back. If I left California and I wanted a doughnut I'd find a way to get me some...

Beware!!! This is a business operating under the reputable name of the original founder, Mary Hennessy. Although this business has the same name, "Mary's Donuts", it is not anywhere near the same in regards to quality. A new guy, Joel Scalzitti, started this Lakeside donut business a few years ago and adopted the same "Mary's Donuts" business name. You would expect the same quality but what is served is anything but. Try tasting donuts that have an acrid-rancid aftertaste because the product was made with rancid oil. Instead of discarding the inedible product, the owner has his employees push the adverse donut product to the customer in an effort to maximize profit. That in addition to charging an extra 3% for credit card usage and the request for a tip on top of that. I can see it if the product was truly superior like it was when the business was owned by the founder, Mary Hennessy. But it is not, and this Lakeside Mary's Donut shop's interest is only maximizing profits with no regard for quality. So, I understand those who are drawn to "Mary's Donuts" because of the reputable name. I was too. The original Mary's donuts in Santee were the very best. But that is not what this Mary's Donut business in Lakeside is. The only thing that is great with the Lakeside business is the name. A "Brand Name" in any business is very valuable but it can be sunk to the bottom of the ocean by succeeding owners who are cavalier in their business dealings. And that is truly a shame. As a customer, you have the option of...

I am just so disappointed with Mary's Donuts. They lost my special order that was really the centerpiece idea for my son's birthday party. I made sure to order in person a week in advance and saw that everything's was written down correctly. I imagined the look on my son's face when he saw his giant pink birthday donut with rainbow sprinkles, to go with his Simpson's donut party. I also ordered coordinating regular sized donuts and other assorted donuts. When I came in after 9AM to pick up my order, I assumed I could just grab it quickly, since it was already paid for and they said it would be ready by 7AM. The employees said they had no order for a birthday donut. I found them my receipt and they refunded just the price of the birthday donut and tried to stuff random donuts in boxes. None of the donuts were even close to what I had ordered, and I was so flustered because I was now running late to set up for my son's party. They wrote happy birthday on an apple fritter... let me tell you, not the same look. It may taste good, but my husband said it looked like we were going for the poop emoji theme and one of the kids said "that doesn't look like a donut". I left my phone number and said I wanted to be called, but I haven't heard from them yet. I don't know what they could do to fix the experience at this point, but I hope that they improve their ordering procedures so this doesn't happen to anyone else. I would HIGHLY suggest to others to call and confirm any special orders, maybe multiple times before your pick...