Parlor Doughnuts — Restaurant in Oceanside

I love their doughnuts. The street on which it is located is very busy and always parked up. It is , right next to a big public parking lot, but the pay machine doesn’t read credit cards and and doesn’t give change, so you pay $5.00 for $3.00 parking unless you have exact change. The service gets one star because there is an issue whenever I go to pick up. Two examples: I made an online order for pick up for six people, all of whom had specific requests (16 doughnuts in all). I got the email saying it was ready for pick up, but no one could find it. One of the clerks became annoyed and confused when I declined her suggestion that they just pack up a variety of 16 passed on the store’s best sellers. Another clerk heard me trying to explain why that wouldn’t work and understood, printed up my order and gave me what I. Asked for. The second example is from just 20 minutes ago at 6:30 pm when I just overpaid at the aforementioned public lot and saw two other disappointed customers looking at the “Closed” sign. The published hours for every day of the week states that they close at 7:00. It can’t be that hard for a store to publish correct hours to avoid the annoyance and aggravation that I now associate with Parlor doughnuts. It just further demonstrates their indifference to the great inconvenience they cause to putative paying customers who have to leave disappointed, empty-handed, and a sense that there are a lot of other places to get good doughnuts in the city, and this place blew its goodwill by consistently and in a very concrete way failing to perform basic functions (if you lose a customer’s order, at the very least recreate it, and just be open when you widely published you’d be open). For what it’s worth, Parlour lost this customer because I no longer trust that anyone there knows how to...

Beyond Disappointing. Please note this review is specifically for the Vegan & Gluten Free Donuts. I’ll gladly update this review if there are updated/changes to these options.

For a place that takes pride (clearly visible in their regular donuts), why the hell would you put vegan & gluten free in the same donut without providing regular vegan options too? To top it off, all the donuts are $4.25 EACH for the tiniest bite size donut. It doesn’t matter what kind of toppings, frosting, glaze etcetera that you put on it, a gluten free item is tasteless (or I should say tastes the exact same with a worse after taste than any regular dairy made donut). Also for those that are unaware, most gluten free items are dry too.

It doesn’t say on the menu nor did the very sweet & kind hostess that helped us tell me about them until after I asked her what those little tiny things the Pastry Chef was making in the back. She said those are your donuts & proceeded to tell me they were baked not fried & that they were both vegan & gluten free. I was ordering these donuts thinking that they had the option of EITHER vegan OR gluten free options.

Very disappointing considering I researched this space & was told by local friends that it’s a must. The regular donuts look absolutely gorgeous & taste (I had to stay neutral about the overall venue & took a bite of my Girlfriends donut) pretty damn good.

Do better on the Vegan & Gluten Free donuts. Keep up the high integrity & high quality product that you showcase in the glass cases up front. I’ll look forward to coming back in the future. Hopefully there will be some better options (I’m back in town in November).

Thank you Team Parlor Doughnuts for the overall...

CHILL LITTLE SHOP w/ mid-tier donut options. I stopped by per my Mom's recommendation as we heard good things about Parlor. It's a pretty big donut organization now across the US, so we decided to try it.

I wasn't a major fan of the bread ratio inside my "Sandy Beach" donut. My mom and some other reviews said they're going for a cronut style of pastry. However, this wasn't flaky nor tasted like a cronut. It just felt like an excessive amount of bread without flavor, aside from the top and outer bread layer. The flavor wasn't bad on the outside (it was actually pretty good), however the inside was very underwhelming. Its a shame as the outside of the "donut" tasted like a mix of apple pie and cinnamon roll. I'll give the shop credit for their tasty coffee, I loved my layered cold brew!

Service was also hit or miss, a young couple in front of me was treated poorly. I didn't like that. I was treated pretty well, but I hate to see other people my age get mistreated. Only one younger guy (an employee) who was working double time had a nice attitude.

My Dad and I were disappointed as the autumn specialty items were not available. This was not a inventory issue, they just didn't have anything ready. I wasn't a fan of the decor, it just was too over the top in some places. I did enjoy the lighting and retro feel, but it felt like this location was trying too hard with the excessive decorations in the background. The bathroom was gross and unkempt.

Overall, there's lots of improvements needed at this location, however I believe in second chances so I want to try their other items, maybe I'll...