Munchkin's Donuts — Restaurant in Covina

This is truly a HIDDEN gem tucked behind a diner/restaurant in a little strip mall with plenty of lot and street parking. I've lived in this city for YEARS and probably passed by this donut shop dozens (see what I did there? 🤭) of times.

Okay, so I finally got my hands on one of these babies and I was thoroughly impressed by how amazing a simple croissant could taste.

I went there maybe an hour before close time, but mamasan informed me that the croissants were just taken fresh from the oven. Mind you, it only takes me a couple minutes to get home but obviously, I was wayyy too tempted by the aroma to take a formal before photo so I did one better and captured a video of the cheesy ooey gooeyness from this ham and jalapeño cheese croissant 🥰🥰🥰

I didn't notice that she threw in some bonus mini croissants in the bag before I left the shop! The croissant itself was super crispy and flaky but buttery at the same time, I didn't even care that I was such a slob and dropped crumbs all over my shirt and car. Then I got to the melted cheese that had the pickled jalapeño flavor infused, please refer to the video for 💣...

Henry and Chen are the owners and operators of this little hole-in-the-wall donut shop. Their home made donuts and croissants are the best I've had in years, other donut shops don't even compare. The star of the show is their ham and cheese croissant which you can get with or without jalapenos. The croissant is about the size of brick and is stuffed with ham and what I believe is mozzarella cheese. If you're not careful, the blazing hot cheese will come flowing out of your first bite like delicious white lava, and if you do plan on trying the ham and cheese, plan for a late lunch as well, because that thing will fill you up for hours. Their coffee is surprisingly good! Is it ground a certain way? French press? Espresso?... Nope! It's just regular drip coffee, but made to perfection!

Beyond that, the owners are amazing! They are so kind and remember every person that comes into their shop. Spending time in the shop, you can hear the owners asking about their customer's jobs, families, hobbies, etc.

Give Munchkin Donuts a try and you'll never want to get your morning fix anywhere else!

*Line going out the building...

So this place lives up to the hype! Came a little late in the day (12:45) and the options looked limited so I asked the owner what she recommended. Walked away with the ham, cheese and jalapeño croissant, a large plain croissant, a wheat croissant (mainly because they didn’t have anymore plain, but happy to try), an apple turnover, cinnamon twist, strawberry “danish” and a bunch of little freebies. Total was about $16.50 which I rounded up to $20.00. Basically got my lunch with the ham and jalapeño which is huge, breakfast and a few desserts with plenty of smaller croissants to share for $20.00!!!!! What a steal!!!!

As others have said, very friendly staff and could tell she was happy to make recommendations. She even pulled what she could fresh out of the over, which was cool and amazing as the smell of fresh baked goods filled the store with an amazing mouth watering aroma!

So happy to have tried Munchkin’s as recommended by Yelp as the best croissant in the country. I don’t eat a lot of croissants, but this one is definitely the best I’ve had and only a short drive for me which is...