The Salty Donut — Restaurant in Tampa

These are unique brioche style donuts that are generously filled with tasty fillings. It kind of reminded me of a Polish paczki. The difference is that Salty's donuts are overfilled, glazed, and topped with a little bling. These were large brioche donuts that needed sharing. It's not a place I'd go to buy a dozen donuts for the office. They're more like gourmet pastries.

The guava & cheese donut was bursting with flavor, but there was no way I could eat a whole one by myself. It's a good thing that the brioche wasn't overly sweet like a yeast, or a cake donut. The filling and glaze packed enough of a sweet punch to bring it over the top for me. It was very rich and messy to eat, but it didn't stop my husband and I from eating our full share of it. The little square pastelito decorations on top where crispy and flaky. It was a nice decorative touch. I think the cinnamon pear crumble was our favorite of the two. That spicy pear filling was amazing! It had a cinnamon glaze with a dollop of mascarpone cream and a little cobbler crumble on top. My father loved pears, so it was an easy decision for me to select that flavor. I could have eaten the whole donut, but I didn't.

Believe it or not, it's the pop tarts that are my absolute favorite. These are not your grocery store ones. They are crispy and filled with natural flavors. There's no toasting needed for these delicious bites. I could taste the high quality in the strawberry jam. The glaze was perfect. I loved it so much that I went back the following week to try the sweet potato pie pop tart. OMG, it was so good! The torched cinnamon meringue made it even more special. It's going to be difficult to pass up any of the seasonal flavor pop tarts from here on out.

They also have coffee, tea, lemonade, hot chocolate, and homemade chocolate milk. I had the cinnamon cereal milk latte which definitely had that sweet & savory taste that you get at the bottom of your cereal bowl. I'd get it again. They have non-dairy alternatives (almond and oat) for an additional charge. The everything bagel and cream cheese puff is also delicious. It even had an everything cream cheese filling. It was so tasty!

It's a cute shop located on Swann (primo real-estate) in Hyde Park Village. The seating is kind of awkward and limited. The seating is more for groups of people, however there was one table with 2 chairs by the pick up area. Not a deal breaker because you can pick up your order and take it to the village park. There's plenty of benches there. They have a rewards program. Downloading the app will get you $5 off your first order. I can already see many more revisits for me in the near future. The vegan carrot cake donut is on my list to try...

We went around 2pm opening day, small line then few people in after us as it started to rain. Cute space, very Art Deco. GM was at the door greeting everyone sharing the menu etc, very nice. Line moved quickly however some customers despite seeing the menu before ordering still took their time and called friends to place orders but for the most part the place is very well staffed and efficient.

We ordered the brown butter & salt, chocolate sheet cake, original glazed and the strawberry tres leches donuts. I am a big fan of “cake” donuts. These were dense and great warmed just a smidge and washed down with a cup of coffee. Speaking of coffee, love they have Intelligentsia (if you know..you know)

Honest review of the donuts. Chocolate sheet cake is chocolate on chocolate and again while we got there at 2pm I imagine first thing in the morning & fresh its suburb but I warmed up when we got home 10 seconds and it was delicious. Strawberry tres leches was great minus the marshmallow it was too much imo but a very good cake consistency with the jam. The original glazed was great- this was a yeast donut and again if fresh I’m sure it’s devine but 2pm it wasn’t quite there for me but I intend to try and get there early another day to try them first thing in am! I will say the show stopper for me is the Brown Butter+ Salt donut do yourself a favor and try that, by far the best out of the 4 donuts we got.

Service was great, everyone was very helpful and super friendly as well. Since opening day I will say the promptness and efficiently went along way here. Total for the 4 donuts $20 bucks- BUT Id like to imagine ingredients are top notch and you’re in Hyde Park (treat yourself)

Intend to come back and try the others but nice to have Salty Donut around - nice addition...

Coming back to Miami from Tampa and the welcome and overall service I always receive in the South Miami location is truly unmatched. Having some background in baking I tend to notice when changes are made to recipes so you could only imagine how mortified I was when I went to the Tampa location on 10/25/24 and the traditional glazed donuts (silent golden rule: MUST nail these as they tend to be the base of every other donut) were truly like hockey pucks AT 7AM. Unlike all the donuts from the south Miami location, these donuts from Tampa Hyde location were dense with extremely thick glaze on all donuts I purchased: traditional, pistachio, and chocolate glazed. The manager/employee who attended me wasn’t even aware of the $5 off 1/2 dozen bundle special that was occurring that week until I told him and even then he had to check a clipboard to confirm the validity of my statement. In an attempt to find a resolution to having to throw away an entire box of donuts and essentially my money, I reached out to Salty donut on IG and received absolutely no response from their team (see photo below- sent on Friday 10/25/24). Anyways, all this to say… if stores are not performing up to the consistent standards (product and service -wise) some changes should be made… starting with proofing your dough adequately @ TAMPA. (I should’ve gotten a hint that the donuts were poorly made from the disaster that was on display.)

Shout out to the manager and employees of South Miami for always making my...