Bacon Donut vs Bacon Doughnut

During my Mac and Cheese crawl a few weeks ago, I couldn’t resist ordering the bacon donut from Nickle Diner. I hadn’t had it before (despite being in DTLA and having seen them on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives) and knew it was a must-eat despite being disgustingly full from cheesy carbs. We ordered it along with the red velvet donut and homemade poptart.

I have to say the bacon donut was too dry. A couple of years ago, I had Voodoo Doughnut‘s bacon doughnut in Portland, OR and didn’t think much of it. Nickle Diner’s is a round doughnut with bacon sprinkles. Voodoo’s is a maple bar with a couple strips of bacon.

The red velvet doughnut was good in execution but also fell short on deliciousness. We all liked the poptart the best (well, besides the spicy mac and cheese).

Nickel Diner

Over the weekend, I was in Portland again and decided I had to test my memory and see how the bacon doughnut now stacks up. I apologize in advance for the photos but a) we just discovered PDX’s new Central Bar b) it was raining c) there wasn’t much room to do a photo shoot.

Woah, the bacon doughnut is much smaller now. I recall the maple bar having three thick strips of bacon. Now the strips are thinner but I think better because they are crispier. Win! I decided Voodoo had the edge over the bacon doughnut market.

Since we were at Voodoo, we decided to get a few other doughnuts. I wanted a regular cake doughnut with chocolate and peanuts. Carina wanted the apple fritter and of course, you can leave without a voodoo doll doughnut (filled with raspberry). All were just a bit better than what I remembered.

On my last trip, my heart was with Moody’s Donuts, nicknamed the Donut Church as they were only opened on Sundays. It was a little shack outside the Rocking Frog coffee shop. It was operated by one guy who made rice flour doughnuts that rolled along a tiny conveyor belt to a deep fryer full of canola oil. You then had a choice of five toppings. Two years ago, he said he was going to sell soon. He was tired of making doughnuts where the oil got into his eyes. According to the website,  it seems he did sell it to the coffee shop and they’re open on both Saturday and Sundays but now your doughnut toppings are limited to chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon.

See more pictures from Voodoo Doughnuts here.

Moody’s Doughnuts

2511 SE Belmont St., Portland, OR 97255 -503-230-8914

Voodoo Doughnut

22 SW 3rd Ave., Portland, OR 97204 – (503) 241-4704

Edit:

According to this Wikipedia page, the Pantry in DTLA also serves a bacon doughnut. I must try it!

Other bacon doughnut joints:

Louisville (Germantown), KY:  Nord’s Bakery

Omaha, NE: The Swirls Bakery — according to research, they appear to be closed

San Francisco, CA : Dynamo Donut