Amelia’s Donuts Bakery Cafe — Restaurant in Idyllwild-Pine Cove

I'm a local Idyllwild resident, a regular at Amelia's. I come here 2 to 3 times each week. Today I stopped by for what may have been the best pumpkin pie of my life. Why best? The crust was thin and light, just the right amount of 'crisp'. I suspect Amelia made it using shortening. It was a textbook perfect crust. The pie itself was creamy, clean pumpkin flavor with lots of pumpkin spice. I hate when pumpkin pie is bland and lacking flavor. Amelia's pie is about as good as pumpkin pie gets.

Yesterday I came here for split pea soup with ham. It was amazing. It was packed with flavor yet light. Seasoning was flawless. I was a chef in my 20s, understand seasoning better than most.

I typically come here for the burritos. Jim, Amelia's husband, makes what may very well be the best burritos in Southern California. On Sunday I had a massive bean burrito. It was enough for 2. Price? $7. 2 of us had more than enough to eat for $7. They use bacon or some form of lard in the beans. It adds amazing flavor.

Amelia's has the look at feel of a smalltown diner circa 1960s. It's not fancy nor do they try to be. It is a local neighborhood donut shop that also makes burritos, soup, biscuits and sausage gravy, lunch - and the list goes on. It's where the locals like me tend to go. EVERYTHING is homemade right in their shop.

If you're visiting Idyllwild and want some local flavor, make the effort to come here. Amelia and Jim are nice people, treat everyone who walks through their door like an old friend. I've sent numerous folks here, all...

I wish I could give this place 5 stars - I’m giving 3 so not to totally drag down the rating. But I had a one star experience. I was so excited to finally check out Amelia’s donuts after seeing the owner post about her goodies over and over again for months. I also heard they had gluten free donuts and that was especially exciting! I brought my sister into the shop while she was visiting me and greeted the owner with friendly enthusiasm and congratulations on her success, asking her some questions about the menu. It turned out there were no GF offerings except on the weekend, this was a Friday. For some reason, she seemed totally uninterested in us being there. When I told her, excitedly, that we would be back the next day to check out the gluten free donuts, her response was so rude and like she couldn’t care less about my business. My sister ended up getting a donut, which was crunchy and greasy, a real disappointment to her - especially at $3 before tax and tip. The shop itself is uninspiring. If the service had been warm, I would have given it another chance - but there was zero reason for me to return, so I didn’t. I doubt the owner...

I bought a cream cheese carrot cake muffin from here and it was AMAZING!!!! Simply amazing, one of the best carrot cake textures I've had and the cream cheese frosting was sweet but not overwhelmingly sweet (you could actually still taste the cream cheese). It was so good, I saved a couple bites to share with my friends, even though I wanted to gobble it all up myself 😂 On the other hand, I got a cinnamon sugar buttermilk donut and it was not good at all 😂 I took one bite and didn't like it, took another bite just to be sure, then threw it away. 😅 It might just be my own preference but it just tasted like fake sugar and slightly stale as donuts tend to taste after about 12ish+ hours. I went around lunchtime, so maybe it was a few hours old, but I wouldn't consider it worth the money off the taste. THE CARROT CAKE MUFFIN HOWEVER, THAT. I would go back to this place for that any day. So, so good. Five stars overall just for that muffin. The lady behind the counter...