Sesame Donuts — Restaurant in San Diego

We heard this was one of the highest rated donut shops on yelp so decided to give it a try. The shop is located in a strip mall directly across the parking lot from a Krispy Kreme. To say the developer who owns this property doesn't care about its tenants is an understatement. The leases should better protect tenants from greedy developers like these. But I digress, back to this mom and pop donut shop.

I love mom and pop shops because you generally get a more authentic and unique product over most chain establishments. This place is your typical old fashioned straight up donut shop offering the classics. The service was great, greeted immediately upon entering and the young gentleman was very friendly and helpful. This would be the only thing I'd award 5 stars for. It dropped off quickly after this.

Now you need to know it's a Saturday afternoon so I understand the selection won't necessarily be what it was at 8 a.m. But literally half the trays were empty and all the premium donuts were completely gone. The shop is apparently open until 10 so I have no idea what they'd have to sell after 6 p.m. Back to my note about being across from Krispy Kreme, this does not bode well for them. One can easily walk across the parking lot and get what they want there.

Now we didn't drive all the way from Mira Mesa to try one of the (apparently) best donut shops in the land so we proceeded to select from their diminished offering.

This brings me to my next disappointment, the donuts themselves. Absolutely nothing special and maybe ever so slightly stale. I've no idea how it's rated as well as it is. With all the amazing donut shops we have here from Peterson's in Escondido to Mary's in Santee and a half dozen award winners in between, I don't know how this one somehow was ranked higher.

I gave this place 4 stars. The aforementioned great service combined with my sympathy for their situation with the competition visible from their front window is what pushed this shop to 4 stars, but if I were being honest I'd say it really should be 3.5 stars. If I were rating the donuts, I'd say they are maybe a 3 at most. There are better choices in Mira Mesa, we won't be making the trek...

Visiting from Utah, it was on our "to-do list" to find a good donut shop while in California since previous experience has shown that there are a lot of them here. Searching our current area for donuts, Sesame Donuts came up and after reading some reviews, looking at pictures and seeing that it is a mom & pop/local shop, I knew this was the place.

It didn't hurt that their donuts come in a pink box, which has significance for me due to previous experience. I know it is rather subjective, but I have never had a bad donut from a pink box and today's experience kept that "guideline" intact.

When I went in with my 12 year old and he immediately made an excited noise upon seeing the giant donuts (10-12" diameter & 2" thick), I knew I was going to be getting one for him. My only issue with a donut that big is that you are stuck with a whole lot of one flavor. That being said, it was good and fluffy and not doughy at all. As mentioned in other reviews, the nice owner lady was really sweet with him and threw in a donut & some holes as freebies. I also got a apple fritter and bear claw but, sadly, bypassed a lot of filled and other types of donuts that looked yummy. (You can only eat so many donuts in their short freshness life, after all). The fritter was fluffy and not doughy at all, with the right amount of cinnamon but a bit light on apples (for my taste anyway). The bear claw was fairly similar, but mine had more apples and cinnamon than the fritter had. Overall, both had that magical dough/glaze ratio which, for our tastes, means light on the glaze.

In my donut shop experience, the one thing that seems to make this place fairly unique is their decent offering of different kinds of donut holes. This way, you can try more of the flavors but don't have to eat a whole donut for each. Kind of like Tapas but for donuts ;)

If you are in the Poway area, bypass the KK chain across the parking lot and go to Sesame Donuts. You won't be...

Price is fairer than Winchell's or KrispyKreme(ironic brand name for neither crispy or creamy products- "nauseatingly sweet torus of corn syrup" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily). Another bakery that ditched both the baker's dozen tradition and true crullers-the light creamy eggish donuts that distinctly differ from the old fashioned buttermilk donuts they identified as crullers when asked.

KrispyKreme opened the adjacent location to this donut shop partially due the this long time private shop being here, which is testament to their long term community support in Carmel mountain. The convenience of not exiting one's vehicle to nab a quick dozen donuts for snacktime is persuasive, particularly for dozen-donut-dinner diet adherents, but doing so with Krispy Kreme is the difference between a bulimia episode and a well rounded dinner for well rounded folks; exiting the vehicle is actually worthwhile in this circumstance to obtain dinner.

Offering other options like nuts or even no toppings will be better than the messy sucrose&corn starch dusting used on all filled donuts, making otherwise decently textured donuts...