Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee — Restaurant in Torrance

Usually, Sidecar would have gotten 5 stars a few years ago but lately I've been consistently disappointed in the downhill quality of these donuts. I used to buy 5 or 6 at a time and share with family. Sidecar donuts used to always taste fresh and soft with distinct tastes and flavor.

Now, every. time. the donuts are bland and dry. I don't know if they are not making them fresh daily, putting them in the refrigerator overnight, or if they are freezing donuts in advance then warming them up... this seems likely as I used to work at a place that did this with pizza crust and you can taste the difference between a fresh crust and a refrigerator one that was made in advance.

I'll keep trying but we are starting to lose our reason for buying these donuts and we've been buying them for years. Even the butter salt used to melt in your mouth (if it was made fresh) but now it feels like the salt is a separate flavor from the bland dough (because the dough is too dry). The Saigon cinnamon can also be quite dry. Sometimes the best tasting donut is the sample put out because it's hot and fresh tasting.

And a lot of the donuts taste very much the same with just a different flavor glaze on top. The puff donuts are just too dry to ever want one of those. They are a cop out of a donut because we all know the flavor is concentrated in the center and not in the actual dough of the donut so you can just make a bunch of those and fill it with a little flavor.

There is donut competition in Torrance with another gourmet donut company and I really dislike their donuts - they are trash donuts. Sidecar used to stand out as quality donuts. Now I see sidecar starting to make donuts that seem in the same quality range as the other place that's horrible. Like they built up a fan base and decided to start putting out subpar donuts.

Another thing, the flavors can be a bit misguided. I once tried a pizza donut or the strawberry buttermilk and both were horrible. The pizza donut hardly has any sauce in the middle - all you were eating is bread. What happened to something simple like blueberry lemon or pumpkin cheesecake. They did a matcha donut that had no flavor whatsoever.

Anyways, for now I recommend the vegan chocolate coconut (which is seasonal and will be ending soon even though it's a better chocolate base donut than the chocolate one they always have available), Saigon cinnamon and butter salt if it happens to be fresh. Those are some of the OG donuts. Maybe heating them up in a toaster oven or air fryer at...

BRING YOUR GLASSES! This time to celebrate! I originally thought this place was closed because the hours on the door didn't say AM or PM. That was so confusing! I tried opening the door and it didn't open. The door said it was open on Sunday from "6:30-9" like how are you supposed to know it's (1) 630am-9am; (2) 630pm-9am; (3) 630am-9pm; or (4) 630pm-9pm?? Using my deductive reasoning skills (i have a degree in art, see my Yelp reviews) i figured it must be (1) 630am-9am because it's a breakfast place that serves coffee and donuts! So we were about to leave except that we saw people inside! The windows are pretty tinted so it's hard to see inside. They might look like ghosts but trust me the windows are just tinted. Don't be afraid! Anyways so we went to the other door and tried it and we got in!! I didn't get anything but the donuts were really good ! I suggest the strawberry cheese cream over the old fashioned. I think their espresso machine must've costed thousands but ai biết. It was facing the other way and we couldn't gleeb any techniques. Sam said my steamer is probably not that strong which is why I can't make latte art. Let's just believe that. He makes good art. Shout out to Sam! So i guess the hours were 630am-9pm since it was open when we got there at 11am. Also that would make sense because it said Monday to Thursday is open 630-6 which makes no sense if it's 630am-6pm unless we account for the time difference and jet lag. In conclusion, the door was just heavy and it was actually...

The donuts were tasty, so I don't want to knock the rating too much, but these don't taste like donuts. I tried 6 donuts and think that if you're in a donut mood, just go to a family-run donut shop. But if you're in a mood for muffins, then this is a good place to go. The donuts I tried here were definitely more like donut-shaped muffins or cakes.

I had a feeling going into the store that the donuts might be different from what I expected, but they were denser than a regular cake donut. My favorite one was probably the chocolate one, but again, it was nothing like normal donuts. It was like a springy, chewy cake, but wasn't overly sweet.

The glazed donut was a bit of a disappointment. Although the vanilla was an interesting touch, I'm not sure if I liked it in the end. The glaze was also disappointing, as I prefer a nice crisp glaze, but the one I got was wimpy on the glazed side (it was more like someone dipped a brush into the glaze and put the thinnest layer of glaze on the outside, which didn't give it a crunch, and it was almost like they forgot to put the glaze on).

Summary: If you want real donuts, I don't recommend this place. But if you want donuts that look good for photos and you're in the mood for something that tastes more like muffins, then you should go here.

Additionally, I think this place is also safe for celiacs. I have a good friend who has celiac disease and gets the gluten free option often, and she has not gotten sick thus far. So Sidecar gets a thumbs-up for...