YoYo Donuts — Restaurant in Minnetonka

YoYo, how I love you. Since September 13th, 2010 you have dominated my dreams filled with Maple Bacon Long Johns and Crème Brûlée raised donuts.

Situated in a small strip mall near a large business park in the burbs, YoYo is not exactly where donut aficionados typically flock. But guess what, this family run shop is completely legit and nails the foundations that make a great donut what we all crave. Sure you can head to the trendy Lyn-Lake area of MSP for a circular breakfast or you could take a nice stroll out to the burbs and score something even better!

I think you should be aware of my "credentials" before we move onto a review of the main squeeze. I'm a fan of everything from apple donuts at the orchard, warm beignets, and basically any yeast-based raised donut. Cake and filled long johns are not my favorites, but if they are outstanding of course I will make an exception. My favorite shops include Stan's Donuts in Chicago and your very own neighborhood YoYo.

So what does YoYo have in store? Let's just say that the Maple Bacon Long John($2.29) is magical. Sure they didn't invent it or anything, but the execution is top notch. The bacon is real bacon and has flavor and crunch, the maple glaze is decadent, and the pastry itself is the right amount of puffy, buttery, oily awesomeness that is a perfect base. They of course have other awesome options with different cereals, oreos, espresso, and s'mores on top; all of which are fantastic in their own right.

Other odds and ends you may be interested in knowing: 1.This is a kid/family haven, bring the family and don't worry about the sticky mess 2.They offer high end Kickapoo Coffee from Wisconsin but aren't going to make you a soy whip double sprinkles chai tea latte. 3.They offer lunch with gourmet hot dogs from 11-3M-Su for $3-5 and homemade ice cream for lunch and dinner. 4.Most donuts are $1-2.29; a dozen is pricey! 5.They will do corporate events, we have had a few hundred delivered to my office before!

Downsides include the lack of proper signage in the display case, which can bring special havoc to those of us who are color bling but not flavor blind. Another thing they could improve on is more new flavors. In 2015 they introduced the Donut Of The Month/"DOTM", which I was thrilled about. I assumed that some of the more popular variants would become mainstays and maybe push out some of the array of less exciting options, instead they sadly come and go and disappear after a month. Bring back the Crème Brûlée!

Donut or Doughnut; who am I to decide? Does it matter when the sweets...

My overall grade here is incomplete. Yoyo has been on my wish list for a while, but it is pretty far from my house so I haven't made the trip. My wife was going to be driving somewhat close to the neighborhood recently so I had her stop to get some. We were pretty excited to try a variety of flavors and add a new Twin Cities donut shop to our belts. Unfortunately, when she got there, an hour before close on a Sunday, they literally had 3 red velvet donut holes and a few blueberry cake donuts left. That's it. She said my daughter looked longingly at some sprinkles left in the case from long gone donuts, but the case was a ghost town. I get not wanting to waste product, but she was told by the person working that this is a very regular occurrence for them and if you want variety you need to get there by around 9:00 (they are open until 1:00 on Sunday). If you know you consistently run out hours before you close, why are you not making more donuts???? Or if you don't want to make more than reduce your advertised hours. When you are open for business and people make the effort to get to your store you should have product available. That was pretty disappointing.

I don't really like red velvet or blueberry but I did try them both. The cake donut was promising, slightly crisp on the outside and moist on the inside, but not the flavor for me. The donut hole again had promise, good texture and density, but again not my flavor, and when you only get to eat 1 donut hole, even if it was good, it just leaves you mad that there isn't more.

If for some very unlikely reason I find myself in the neighborhood at the crack of dawn, I'd stop in to try more flavors, but there's no way I would make the trip from my house on purpose when there's no guarantee I will find actual donuts at the...

Nobody can hate donuts. And I certainly don't dislike the donuts at Yo-Yo. In fact, I love the donuts at Yo-Yo! The problem is that Yo-Yo cannot figure out how to manage their supply and demand. One goes to a donut shop to get the donut they love and are craving, right? If I'm going to eat 300 unheathly, fat-inducing calories, I want it to be 300 calories of pure love and joy. My situation is that, usually, I don't get an opportunity to stop in until the afternoon. While I realize Yo-Yo has to be business smart, they never seem to make enough of the donuts that everybody wants. If you go in the afternoon, you're left with the leftovers that nobody really likes. I was in the other day at 3:30, and they had only about 20 donuts left, all the undesirables. In fact, during that visit, a person came in behind me, saw what was in the case, and turned immediately and left. This is a total let down. Even my kids got disappointed, and how can a kid get disappointed over a donut? 1st world problems, I know - I know, but I would sure love a chocolate frosted donut when I stop in at 3:30. And, while I realize the stupidity of my "complaint", I will also acknowledge the problem that it is, that being: If it's afternoon, I won't stop in at all anymore, because I know they won't have anything good ( this wasn't the first or second time this has happened). They need to focus on this issue a little bit more and, in my case, I would visit more. Good luck, Yo-Yo. We...