Strange Donuts — Restaurant in Kirkwood

Maybe I have broadened my donut horizons since I first fell in love with Strange. Truth is, I used to be obessed. I mean, a unique local business that SEEMED to be run by decent fun people? I'm all in (even back when their donuts were better, they still weren't the best by any means but I was strangely accepting of that). I used to go to both STL locations often and always wanted one of their basic donuts (Fat Steve)... But to my repeated disappointment, they were always sold out, no matter the time of day. So, I often left dissatisfied, trying something else and then having buyers remorse because while the novelty of it seemed tasty, the reality was that they were lackluster. These things aren't cheap afterall. Side note: let's not pretend that bacon on top of a donut is strange. It's not. Nearly all donut places have that now. Anyway, moving on to their "Strangers." They seemed to be brilliant in writing and in photos but they were way too premade (days maybe?), dry, small in size given the inflated price tag, and they looked NOTHING like their attractive online pics. I honestly once thought they gave me the wrong order when I looked at it! But back to their regular "breakfast" donuts. Over time they too began to be consistantly painfully dry and the filled donuts had barely any filling. I often would buy assorted dozens for breakfast for guests who would visit from out of town and they always found them to be underwhelming, not special and actually specifically requested that we try somewhere else instead (that says a lot to have a guest say that). Eventually my constant dissatisfaction caused me to try other donut businesses which I found to be cheaper and better all around, in most cases. Ultimately though, I stopped going to Strange Donuts when I saw repeated questionable online posts of theirs. "Were they trying to be funny, and failing?" "Maybe they are just 'strange' people?" This was enough for me to put them in the back of my mind but I was still very open to visiting again in the future. However yesterday the owner represented themself in a way that I, and many others, found to be completely unprofessional on social media (yes, even given that they are a quirky donut business, this was in poor taste). This post has since been deleted. Maybe they realized they made the worst PR mistake ever and it would affect their profits? You aren't a commedy club; you're a donut business. Posting controversial things from your business page has consequences and affects public opinion. Not only did I find this particular post completely offputting but they then started "liking" comment after comment after comment that supported an aggressive mean type of mentality. Standing by and expressing your beliefs is one thing (even if I do happen to disagree with it) but supporting people who name call and make fun of others is not my type of humor and is not who I give my business to. They managed to support blatantly sexist and racially ignorant comments yesterday and to me, ultimately came across bitter about their failed business venture, placing blame elsewhere instead of exiting in a classy way. There are too many other choices nearby for me to stick with this subpar one. They have other reviews on fb that point out other social media flops and racial problems within their business so this is not an isolated mistake. Also fun to note that I read their post to my husband and he literally for hours was insistent that their account must have been hacked because there is no way that a business would behave that way... Yeah. In addition to unapologetically putting their views out there (which is fine, but you have to deal with the fallout if some of your customers disagree) they seemed to have over the years, experienced growing pains and ultimately let quality slip in an effort to focus on expansion instead, and in the process got too cocky... forgetting that customer loyalty is not something to take for granted. One of their locations is now closed. So even though they blamed it on other rediculous causes, that...

I visited the location in Kirkwood, MO. I have been meaning to stop there for years and today was the day. I was in Kirkwood on Sunday. It was Father's Day and Strange Donuts was closed because they sold out of donuts by 10:30 am. No matter what the hours on the door state, if they run out, they close.

I returned on Monday around 9 am. Success! They still had donuts. I chose the maple bacon donut. It was loaded with what looked like a brown sugar, maple icing and topped with real bacon chunks. It was great. I didn't need anything to eat for 4 hours after that donut so it was filling, too. I look forward to trying another flavor next time I'm in the area.

Coffee is strong and fresh. Good quality. On weekends, they have something called a "stranger" donut. It's an out-of-this-world flavor they come up with on weekends.

On Father's Day, it was a chocolate flavored donut stuffed with bits of cookie dough. Selections change often. What you get one day, you might not get the next time you go. Only a few of the donuts like the glaze are staples. The best-seller is the gooey butter donut. I hope to try that one next time. Although the maple bacon was so good, I might get it again if it's an option.

Go early, go often!

They also sell their own coffee and have a coffee club in which the proceeds or at least some of it goes to charity. (Check directly with Strange Donuts if you'd like to know more.) They also sell t-shirts, sweatshirts, and other items. It is carryout only.

In addition, the staff person, Kendra, who waited on me was excellent and...

I'm a fatty at heart - I absolutely love the food that will inevitably kill me. Tried strange donuts today, expecting to fall in love like the rest of you guys.

Service was great. Shirts were cool. Donuts looked amazing.

The blue velvet one was the third one I tried. It was absolutely disgusting. I couldn't finish it. The icing tasted like generic grocery store white frosting. The donut tasted like baking soda. My husband and I couldn't finish it - it was just bad bad baaaaad... :(

The gooey butter cake donut was just okay. Tasted neither gooey nor buttery, but it was... Okay. Looked better than it tasted.

The maple bacon donut was just alright. I've had better.

Not going back. I respect what they're doing though. Stl needs something like this

EDIT: I ate my words and went back and got a vegan donut - I went vegan a couple of weeks ago so I figured I'd try a vegan donut from a place I knows that sells them. It was the best effing donut I've ever had. Very very good. Changed my review from...