Parlor Doughnuts — Restaurant in South Carolina

went in earlier this morning with my partner for some doughnuts and coffees. we’re admittedly tourists from Asheville, NC and only in town for a few days on our way from wilmington, NC to Charleston, SC. we were super excited to come back and get some more doughnuts as we visited this location around the same time last year. unfortunately, the experience we had this year was vastly different than 2024’s. upon walking in, about 3 customers were in front of us waiting to order. i was unsure what i wanted, so i was grateful to have some time to look at the coffee menu and doughnut display to decide what i wanted. the 3 customers in front of us ordered relatively quickly (i assumed they were regulars as they knew what they wanted immediately rather than reading the descriptions on the display cases), and i was still deciding what doughnuts i wanted. the lady behind the counter (who did not introduce herself but was a shorter lady with gray/silver short, spiky hair) asked what we wanted and i responded “i’m not sure which doughnuts i want, but i know i want yalls cinnamon honey cold brew for my coffee”. she then sighs exasperatedly and rolls her eyes, then says “we don’t do coffee orders at this counter”, which, btw, is the CLOSEST COUNTER to the coffee menu. whatever, my bad i guess. i hurriedly ordered 2 doughnuts and my partner did the same. she clarifies which ones we asked for (not upset about that at all, i loved that she made sure we got the ones we wanted) but when we clarified that we wanted a different one than what she said, we received more annoyed sighs & even a “it’s already been a long day, yall” as if we were the reason it had been a rough shift. it was barely 11:00 in the morning. she was extremely hostile towards us even when we were ordering our coffees. she asked if my partner wanted any flavoring in their latte, which my partner replied “no, but i would like non-dairy milk if that’s possible”. this received a snicker, her head shaking ‘no’, then a “well what size do you want” as if we’re just supposed to know what order in which she’s putting things in on her POS system. both my partner and i were SHOCKED at this treatment. we looked at each other in horror in the shop, wondering if we had done something to offend this person somehow and discussed it in the car after all was done. both of us have worked in food service to some degree; both of us have done counter service and i am currently a server in downtown asheville where i am constantly working with tourists and people even on “long days”. i have never and will never treat guests this way and if i feel like i am, that will be my sign to get a different job. i’ve never even thought of leaving a bad tip or review of a place but the treatment we received today completely changed my perspective. we have never tipped less than 20% (usually it’s closer to 25-30, even if the wait was longer or if the employee wasn’t overly friendly), but today we tipped 15%. i do not hope that this employee loses her job, but i do hope she treats customers better than the way she treated us and is reprimanded in some way by management; it was abhorrent to be treated that way. when we come back to this area, we won’t be returning. p.s. we thought we were supporting a local company, but after doing more research this is a franchise. not...

Overall, I am quite happy with Parlor Donuts, but it gets dinged at least 1 star, as I have a major problem with one of their offerings. Read on to find out what my issue was.

The donuts are different from the norm in that they are of a layered design similar to a danish, but light and fluffy instead of more dense. They are delicious and worthy of 5 stars, unless you really only like cake style donuts - which these are not. They are rather pricy, ringing up between $2.75 & $2.00 each, depending on qty purchased. However, to justify the price, you get what pay for. These donuts are small batch, freshly made, and baked on premises, and there some 20ish different flavors in the case at any given time. On top of that, they offer Vegan, Gluten free, and Keto varieties, as well as some other specialty types like Dog Donuts.

So what didn't I like? Well, in my opinion, their House Roasted Coffee is horrible. To each his own, but I tried it for the first time today and found it to be super sour at first taste and thereafter. In fact, it was at least twice as sour as the generally awful Dunkin's 'Donut Shop' variety coffee usually is. On top of that, it was not hot enough - certainly not hot enough where you have to be careful while sipping. And, after adding a little cream, it was just short of what many would consider cold.

Maybe it was a fluke, someone having a bad day, equipment malfunction, etc, ... I'm not sure. Short of the beans being bad, assuming they are freshly ground, a sour tasting coffee typically indicates under-extraction. It can also be because the water was not hot enough during brewing, or it can be due to a few other things.

Needless to say, I was expecting a good cup of coffee from a place like this and was 'sourly' disappointed. 😏

Perhaps it was a one off and I should have said something. Perhaps I am the only one around that doesn't appreciate sour coffee. Or, perhaps there was just something wrong with my taste buds today.

With that said, maybe I'll give it another go sometime, but till then my advice is that if you love sour coffee, this is your place. If not, get the donuts and try one of their other styles of coffees. However, I can't vouch for those as I haven't tried any, but hopefully they would be better than the House Roasted was today.

Regardless, if you haven't stopped by, I would encourage that, as overall it is worth the trip if for nothing more than to try a donut. Or...

Mind blown. I went several times, and on my way out of PI, I stopped one last time for coffee and breakfast tacos. They were very backed up, and it took about twenty minutes for them to make the food. There wasn't much of a place to pull up, and they should maybe designate a waiting area for the drive through, since coffee and donuts take much less time than kitchen prepped food. I would have appreciated if they had come out just to give me a status update, but honestly, this place is so good, it would take a lot to upset me. I wanted to dislike the food so I could feel justified in grumbling about how they should just stick to donuts if they can't prepare food, but gosh darn it, I tell you the truth, it was worth the wait. The breakfast tacos were so good. It was mostly the cheese. Hopefully they use legit cheese and not kraft or something, otherwise I'm a fool. But for a three ingredient taco, it was delicious. Donuts are unreal, the people are friendly, and the atmosphere is extremely well crafted. After the long wait, the attendant brought it outside, apologized profusely, comped my whole order, and offered us a $10 gift card. I'm sure they are polishing their drive through experience, but if that's the only thing missing from a place with great food, atmosphere, and service, then I think they're going to be just fine. I liked...