Blue Star Donuts — Restaurant in Portland

Best donuts I've ever eaten by far! My favorite were the old-fashioned buttermilk ones (plain glazed, raspberry rosemary and lemon poppy), they were like like flavorful pound cake with amazingly flavorful glazes. The only one I didn't care for was the maple bacon as with one bite all the glaze shattered and fell off the donut.

Update on second trip: Still the best doughnuts I've ever had. Having said that, they have hilariously terrible customer service. Today I walked into the downtown Portland location when they opened. I was the only customer and I stepped up to the counter, the young man at the counter did not acknowledge my existence. I stood there awkwardly for a minute waiting for some sign that he was ready to take my order... nothing. I slid a written list of the donuts I wanted across the counter to him and asked if I could have these doughnuts. He was literally standing there doing nothing this entire time. A few moments later he bothered to pick up the list, ring it up, took my money and turned around setting parchment paper sheets out on the counter. He has still not said a single word to me. No friendly smile or even a nod of acknowledgement... nothing. He slowly boxes up my doughnuts and slides the box across the counter. I smile and say "thank you" thinking surely this is the time I will atleast get a grunt of dismissal, something, anything!? Nope, he just turns back around to silently ignore the next customer. When I say hilariously terrible customer service, I mean it, I actually walked out of the store chuckling because it was so absurdly bad. that kid clearly HATES his job and the customers he is forced to "serve". But that's ok because the doughnuts are so dang delicious that they put a smile on my...

These doughnuts are terrible. Why are there so many great reviews? No idea. What I do know is food on the West Coast doesn't compare to the East Coast, and that's a fact.

The doughnuts were $5 dollars each! What a ripoff! I shouldn't of bought them but I was hoping for better. They have funky flavors in the doughnuts that don't meld together. The flavors contradict each other. Instead they make you want to spit it out.

Their "jelly type" doughnut had this strange tube of liquid sticking out of it. I was like, what is this? It's purpose was to be some type of glaze that plastered all over the doughnut and solidified - it became so sticky hard that it was extremely difficult to get off of your teeth.

The plain glazed doughnut is supposed to be plain. It had some lemon/lavender nonsense going on. Gross.

I also love the lousy customer service where the workers can't even look you in the eye, smile, and thank you for your patronage. Also they don't even tell you the total when you're ready to pay; they distract themselves with something else like their phone, etc. They also expect you to look at their computer screen instead of telling you the total and asking for your money.

You need to have social skills when in the food industry/customer service. I will never go back nor would I advise...

I think I've only had one flavor I didn't like, and it was a seasonal one at that. Blue Star makes their donuts with a brioche dough and epicurean flavors, so this is a great donut to impress your foodie friend or donut skeptic.

They close when they sell out, so you'll want to go earlier in the day. The South Waterfront location opens the earliest and has better parking than downtown. The newer Multnomah Village location often doesn't close untill 3-4pm, so I think it gets the least custom.

Flavor recommendations for kids: the OG (horchata), cinnamon-sugar, buttermilk, are all loved by my kids. They like the Raspberry one as well.

Flavors for adults: the passion fruit one is my latest favorite. It has a bit of heat at the end and the sharpness of the passion fruit is 👌. Raspberry is also great for that sharp flavor. If you like sweet, then the key lime curd, Maple bacon, and lemon poppyseed are all strong contenders.

(We did a taste test with VooDoo last year and Blue Star was strongest on all the comparisons except the Maple bacon—just too sweet. Oh yeah, and they averaged 50% more in price 😑)

I'm salivating just thinking of that passion fruit donut. See you soon,...