The Holy Donut — Restaurant in Portland

My review is about their gluten free options. Cannot comment on their gluten filled options.

To sum it up, I am a late in life celiac sufferer. Went over 35 years enjoying gluten and all the wonders of eating it. Then suddenly, my body decides to flip the switch, and I cannot process gluten. I am asymptomatic, in that my body kind of shuts down if I ingest even the tiniest microscopic amount of gluten. That being said, I usually don’t even bother with fancy doughnut places like this because they usually don’t offer gluten free options. But I was on a day trip to Portland with the family, and my wife is always on the lookout for gluten free things for me, and this place is highly regarded. Plus, when we got to Portland, there was a huge long line around the corner. Kind of peaked my interest, especially considering I am also allergic to seafood, so I cannot even enjoy the other thing people enjoy in Portland, lobster.

So family enjoys their lobster lunch, and before we leave the area to move on to our next point of interest, I get in line to grab a few doughnuts. I mask up, given that it is a doughnut shop, and given I can be have a reaction from just even a speck of flour in the air, better to be safe than sorry. Line has shortened by this point, so the wait is not too bad, only a few minutes. I get up, order my doughnuts. A chocolate sea salt, a cinnamon sugar, a lemon, and a cherry. All gluten free. We get into our car and drive away.

Big caveat here I need to mention, given my allergy, we never have anything wheat based in the car to eat, due to my allergy. All snacking in the car is gluten free, to make sure I do not have any reactions while I am driving. When my family eats anything with gluten, they wash and sanitize their hands thoroughly afterwards, and if they get any on their clothing, they change. Yes, my reactions are that severe.

So I eat the first doughnut, no problem. We get to our next destination. Take photos so the tourist thing, blah blah. Get in the car, drive to next destination. I eat the second doughnut. Drive to next destination. Take photos, do the tourist thing, blah blah. You get the idea.

Around 4pm I eat the 3rd doughnut, the lemon gluten free. I am driving, on the highway, suddenly, I start to get that contaminated feeling. My stomach starts churning, I start getting horrible heartburn, can’t stop having gas being expelled from both ends, and my body starts to ache all over. I have to pull over to the side of the road, since there is no exit close or amenity area close by, and I have to expel everything from my stomach as fast as possible, in the hopes that I can avoid a full on gluten contamination sickness.

Thankfully I did avoid most of it, I am just suffering from body aches and mild brain fog right now.

Needless to say, contaminated gluten free food is why I am giving 1 star for the food. I would give negative stars if possible, because making customers sick is, well, never a good thing. However, service was great, employees were friendly, and everything...

I loved the Holy Donut for years, and I still do! But I’m also slowly overcoming the hype. Their donuts are great and I recommend everyone try them…repeatedly, but don’t neglect other locally owned Donut shops in Portland. There are others and they’re also very good.

Holy Donut has a great reputation for good Potato-based donuts and coffee. They have a variety of different coffee styles and flavors to fit everyone’s favorite just like their great donut selection.

They also have hot donuts. Ask what they have when you’re there. Some front desk folks think you mean the “cold” donuts that are still hot and that’s fine but I mean the kind filled with things like Bacon & Cheddar. It’s a small premium but everything is a bit pricey so just enjoy yourselves periodically. They’re good.

They have a coffee rewards program. Coffee will likely cost you double compared to the nearby Dunkin’ but again, if you’re there, just do it. If you’re on a budget, grab a donut and bring a coffee. If you buy coffee, use their rewards program! They have Toast for all forms of payment. I’ll be back for the almighty Chocolate Sea Salt but I’m sorry we’ve drifted a bit after all this time. I have many Donut shops to try and...

The. Best. Donuts. I've. Ever. Eaten. They run about $30 a dozen, which took me a little aback, until I ate one. At that point, I realized that that was cheap at twice the price. I tried a variety of their donuts, approximately 10 different ones, and not one disappointed in any way. My favorites were the sweet potato with cinnamon sugar, and the blueberry. But they were all amazing. Fun fact: most Donuts go stale and are inedible the next day. Not these. Two days later they were still edible. Not as good as when fresh, certainly. There are three locations. Went to the location in downtown Portland, first, I found it too crowded for my sensibilities. The line extended to the end of the block and around the corner. At 11. On a Monday. But, because of the crowds, I decided to try their shop on Park Avenue. That was the right choice. It's just a neighborhood donut shop, and there were only about 7 people there. But their supply had obviously been hit pretty hard already, so it was clear that the shop is not unpopular. If you don't eat donuts from here, you will be sad, and not even realize...