George’s Donuts & Merriment — Restaurant in San Francisco

Soooo we went on day 2 at 9 am and the line for take out was about 1/2 a block long. The walk-in to eat line wasn’t as long. The staff and management was super attentive and nice. They brought the kids gummy bears and paper crowns. The second time around they brought water for everyone. It’s a nice touch in terms of customer service. I appreciated it!

We waited about 1.5 hours just to get inside. Could it have been more efficient? Yes! They should have let more people inside to get donuts. They need to have at least 2 people taking care of the take out customers. They only had 1 employee which isn’t efficient. They should have one person picking the donuts as customers order them. Then they walk to the cashier to pay. It’s the same person getting you donuts and cashiering. If they had room they could have had two cashier counters.

I recommend just waiting to eat in rather than take out as it’s not worth the 1.5 hour wait for donuts. The donuts were good but not blow your mind amazing hence the 4 stars.

They learned from their day 1 mistakes and only limited each customer to 6 donuts unlike day 1 where people bought dozens and they sold out really fast leaving unhappy customers.

Glaze: 9/10 Donut holes: pillowy and delicious per my kids 9/10 Sugar: 7/10 Coffee cake: 9/10 but sweeter side Crème brûlée: didn’t get to try but 10/10 on looks Sprinkle: 8/10 Churro: 7/10 Vanilla glazed cruller: 9/10 Old fashioned buttermilk glazed: 8/10 Nutella: 10/10 Lemon: 8/10

The interior is beautiful and very well done hence 5/5. The cooked food starts at 11 am and it looked pretty good so will go back to try that sometime.

Overall the donuts were super pillowy and delicious, 4/5. We enjoyed the glaze, coffee cake, donut holes, cruller the most . Is it worth the 1.5 hour wait?? No because it’s just not. They are donuts, not life changing. I say wait for the hype to die down or go inside to eat since the wait is shorter. Would I go back? Yes!

I do appreciate a new shop...

I just had a frustrating experience here that left a bad taste. I was in line behind another party, but we were helped by two different employees at two separate registers. I knew exactly what I wanted and ordered the last cinnamon roll donut. Simple enough.

But the party in front of me, who was still deciding what to get, then ordered the same item after I did. At that point, my employee let the other employee (glasses, black hair in a bun with bangs wearing a tan/brown sweater at 11:35am on 4/3/25) know it had already been sold -- which should've been the end of it. But instead, the other employee insisted the cinnamon roll should go to the party ahead of me because they "were first in line," even though they clearly ordered it after me.

How does that make sense? If you go to Starbucks and two registers are open, and someone takes five minutes to decide while you already order your pastry. The pastry, that happened to be the last one, doesn't get handed to them just because they stepped in the door earlier even though the ordered after.

If this is truly how they operate, it's a completely flawed system. And if it's not, then you have to wonder if something else influenced their decision -- some kind of bias or privilege at play. Either way, the experience was disappointing, and the process makes no sense at all. Why even have two registers if the order timing doesn't matter? I do not care that much over a donut but it is principle and the poor thought process from that employee that is irritating and quite backwards.

I won't be coming back if this is how they treat customers and if this is truly their "system" cause it simply is not...

Waited 75 minutes for average donuts.

While waiting, I noticed several empty tables inside and outside. Their excuse? They “don’t want to overwhelm the kitchen.”

That makes 0 sense.

The kitchen is making donuts at the same rate regardless of whether customers are waiting at a table inside or outside.

The real reason? They want the line outside to make it look busier than it really is. It’s free marketing—people walk by, see the long line, and think, “Wow, this place must be amazing.” It’s a cheap trick to create the illusion of demand.

I ordered 3 donuts: an old fashioned, a key lime pie, and a crème brûlée. The old fashioned came out first—completely average, especially for $4. 10 minutes later, the waiter told me they were sold out of the key lime pie. Seriously? I saw them sitting there when I ordered. Turns out, they were just so slow they let someone else buy them first. To test him, I even asked if they sold out before or after I ordered. He claimed “before.” Lol.

Then I saw a fresh tray of crème brûlée come out. I waited 20 minutes for them to bring me one. I was so tempted to grab it myself. His excuse? “We were sold out.” This time, I called him out: “What are you talking about? I saw a fresh tray come out 15 minutes ago.” He didn’t know how to respond.

It’s only their second day, so I get that they’re still figuring things out.

But if your operations are this bad, your product better be incredible. But it’s not. And that’s coming from someone who...