Greenbush Bakery — Restaurant in Madison

My wife and I weren't sure what we were walking into from the outside of this establishment but we are happy we did. We tried Greenbush bakery, and we've already been back multiple times since. That's how good it is.

The inside of the shop is awesome. They have a huge selection of donuts to choose between. It's easy to get lost in the amount of choices. Their prices are incredible reasonable. Their basic donuts start at $1.15 each and the specialties go up from tthere. We decided to try a wide variety to get a good scope of what they can do.

Since most of the donuts have the same base, we'll start with their fried donuts. The donut vase is super fluffy and not overly oily. You can tell these are made fresh on a regular basis. Now to get into the types of fried donuts we tried.

The chocolate longjohn is a staple of any donut shop and theirs was no slouch. The chocolate was delicious and not overly sweet which was great.

The vanilla frosted ring donut was great. We really liked that they did the Packers colored sprinkles. It's fun when there's team pride food items, which we see again later with the cake donut.

The basic glazed was awesome. The best part about glazed donuts is they never disappoint and their was delicious. Sweet glaze, not overly sticky and very yummy.

Now for the cake donut base. Their cake donut was the best we have ever tried. It was extremely soft even though they'd been out for a few hours, they still tasted freshly baked. The outside has a nice crispness with a very soft inside. It basically melts in your mouth.

Their vanilla sprinkled cake donut is my favorite donut in Madison. I'm very particular about cake donuts, the frosting has to be right and so do the sprinkles. Theirs is the best I have tried and that's saying a lot.

My wife's favorite (which she didn't take a picture of because she ate it too fast) was the plain, unfrosted cake donut. It's not too sweet and has such a nice crunch on the outside with a sweet cakey interior.

We also heard they did old fashioned donuts so we had to try a few of those. The old fashioned donut base is very very good. A little crispy on the outside and soft in the middle.

The blueberry old fashioned is one my wife's favorites it had a nice fruit flavor and the frosting was wonderful.

The cherry old fashioned was recommended by the staff, and it did not disappoint. Little bits of cherry running throughout gave a wonderful flavor and a fun color to the donut.

Per thenstafgs recommendation we decided to try one of their specialties, a blueberry maple donut. The employee who helped us said it tasted just like a blueberry pancake and boy were they right. It wasn't overly maple flavored, very subtle and very tasty. It paired perfectly with the blueberry flavor. Would be great alongside a cup of coffee.

The vanilla old-fashioned was also delicious, definitely another donitnshop staple that they hit perfectly.

The showstopper at Greenbush Bakery has to be their Apple Fritter. It's massive, looking more like a cake than a donut, this thing would easily feed 3-4 people. For size comparison we put it next to a cake donut. It's super soft inside is packed with apple pieces and a cinnamon swirl that makes it taste more like a pie than a donut. My dad said this was the best apple fritter he had ever tried. It's also a steal at around $5 for such a massive treat.

Needless to say we will DEFINITELY be visiting Greenbush Bakery again soon. They are nailing it across the board on donuts. Everything tastes incredibly fresh and their selection has something...

OREO Doughnut: Greenbush Bakery opened its doors in 1996 and in 1998 it became a certified kosher dairy kitchen (the only one between Minneapolis, MKE, and Chicago to this day). Although I got my degree from UW, I somehow went the entire four years without trying a single doughnut from Greenbush Bakery. Don't worry, I've since made up for it and now make it a priority to stop whenever I'm back on campus. Their OREO Doughnut is a massive Bismark with chocolate icing covered in OREO crumbles with a center containing an OREO crème flavored filling. The filling nailed the OREO crème flavor but had a better texture that was more liquid/creamy than the somewhat dry crème in OREOs. This was the second time I've had this doughnut and although I enjoyed it, it was much better the last time I was there. When I went in 2022 it was absolutely stuffed with OREO crème flavored filling and this time around, I ate almost half the doughnut before getting any crème (I was actually beginning to worry it wasn't even filled by mistake). I don't know if the recipe changed or if it's just from individual variation, but I was a little disappointed. Still a good doughnut, just not a great doughnut. Doughboy...

I came across this shop while visiting from out of town and looking for breakfast options. Sadly, the only donut I would come again for would be the glazed sour cream old fashioned. The cinnamon sugar old fashioned was dry. The large lemon filled, was fine while the lemon filling lasted but a third of the donut was unfilled and too dry and unpleasant to eat. Maybe they make them without some ingredients that is normally in donuts. I mainly came for the fritters. They look amazing in the photos, but mine, a cherry one, was only really good on the outside edges. There were no cherry chunks of fruit. I think it was just a cherry filling being in. I would suggest the shop go smaller on the fritter size and concentrate on improving the taste and adding real fruit. Most of the fritter came home to the compost which considering the high cost was a waste. Also, I expect labels on donuts trays. I did not like having to ask and remember the names...