Mary's Donuts & Coffee — Restaurant in Santee

I don’t understand the appeal of this place. Maybe it’s the 24-hour service and “hard to find” maple bacon bars that draw people in?

We buy donuts every Sat AM and my adult son always asks for maple bacon bars, which I have so far found only at Mary’s. However, because I find Mary’s other offerings to be quite dry, and their selection fairly limited, we alternate to this shop only every few weeks. If left completely up to me, I would never go back.

Mary’s choc frosted crullers (my personal favorite, by which I judge a donut shop) are not any of the things one expects from a cruller: soft, airy with a moist, egg-batter center and slightly crisp exterior. When fresh, the frosting “clings” to the donut, not cracks and falls off with each bite.

A Mary’s cruller is an extremely dry, fluted “puck” topped with an overcooked and under-sweetened, way too dark choc frosting that does nothing to improve on, or compensate for the donut’s dry, brown, also overcooked exterior. If there was any egg in the batter, it has been cooked beyond recognition!

(If you want an example of an acceptable cruller, try Heavenly Donuts on Waring Rd. They do sell out, so go before 8:30-9am on Sats. My son loves their “cronut” and says their ham and cheese croissant is acceptable.)

I have tried Mary’s crullers at least 5 times now, hoping for a miracle. Or a different baker…but no luck. So, having given up on my fav, how about the other donuts from Mary’s that I have tried? There is the raised choc frosted, which seems to be topped with the same subpar chocolate frosting as the crullers; it is not much better. And one bite of their “apple burrito” was enough to send it straight to the trash.

In addition, Mary’s offers no jelly or fruit filled donuts, except for that very dry, heavy, fried glazed apple filled burrito. No jelly donuts? How can they call themselves a donut shop without them?

I have given stars for their service, which was quick, and they do offer a senior discount. But those are really the only positive things I can...

Usually have good reviews for this store. Occasionally the same lady that helped us today has had help us before an her attitude has been always terrible, arrogant, pushy, rude just to say a few. Today was the most awful experience yet with this lady. I am posting this looking to get the attention of the OWNER of this store. Seriously, the lady that is working right now in the front, serving people's requests has a very bad and ugly attitude. As mentioned above todas is not the first time that I have to deal with her attitude. I placed a telephone call to order a dozen of puffs filled with the white cream or as they call it butter cream. They told me that they will have them ready in an hour so, I tool my time then I went to the store to get the puffs. I was accompanied by other 3 members of my family because we wanted to get a dozen of donuts as well. But this "N" lady was horrible......she started arguing with me after I ask for the dozen of puffs. All she was asking me was...you want custard or raspberry?? I told her that I want the ones that are filled with the white cream and she repeated the same question over and over. When finally I was able to get the point accros to her and she understood that I wanted butter cream inside of the puffs, she told the person that was filling the puffs "don't make them - he has to wait because we have a big line" The line just grew one person besides my family. Honestly we love your products but if this is the attituded that this person is going to continue having while "working" we will not be returning anymore. I will take the time to let all my friends, family and people on social media about it, until this change or something is done about this employee. Probably she is the owner which still doesn't give her any authority nor a right to treat a customer with such sttitud. I hope to get a feed back about this so we can move on and find another doughnut place where customers are...

Man, I used to love Mary's donuts. This marks three times some middle aged blond lady has been more than rude for no reason. Took a call on my cell because I was buying a bunch for family, standing well out of the line and out of anyone's way and she rolled her eyes. Asked her about a few donuts we wanted, didn't have it. Okay, time to regroup so I stepped back and motioned for the one lady behind me (who was also on the phone) to go ahead if she knew what she wanted first. I only asked questions when she wasn't serving anyone. She rolled her eyes. Later my mom called to complain and she lied, saying I was holding up the line, interrupting others and in the way of the "line" (reminder: there was no line). Check your security tapes if you want. I asked if they had powdered donuts and she said they only had cream puffs (even though I could see a tray of powdered DONUTS behind her) and argued with me that's the only powdered thing they had. I was more than polite and flexible with what they didn't have but she met me with an attitude the whole way through. I left and bought nothing. I buy a lot of donuts here for functions, work, parties. I'm also an excellent tipper because I know what it's like to be in the food business. No more. I will not be back as long as she works there. I will also tell all my loyal Mary's friends to go elsewhere. This is so sad. After years I want nothing to do with this Santee staple. It will only go down from here if they keep entertaining employees with poor attitudes, who treat customers badly and then lie about it, I've got nothing to lose in this, why would I? The other lady who works nights is super sweet though! Where the nice lady made my day, this one ruined a...