Donut Friend is Dessert Heaven in DTLA
By: Lanie Brice ‘24
Over the weekend, I took a field trip over to Downtown LA to explore a new part of the city and stumbled upon the cutest donut shop. On my way back from visiting The Last Bookstore, I looked up and saw a sign for a bakery called Donut Friend. My mom decided we at least had to take a look around since she’d heard that LA has some of the best specialty donuts. From the second we stepped inside, I was immediately wrapped up in just how cute the decor of the store is. It turns out that not only did they have what I can only describe as designer donuts but they also have a whole ice cream station with fancy waffle cones dipped in chocolate and covered in rainbow sprinkles. I knew I’d never want to leave.
Some of the donuts available at Donut Friend!
My mom and I wandered around the shop wide-eyed for a minute. Donuts were not only displayed in the traditional trays on the back wall but also in a glass case on the counter that made it easy to soak in every angle of these spectacular donuts. As someone who has a gluten intolerance and couldn’t actually try the donuts myself (they sadly stopped making gluten-free donuts in March of 2020 but all of their donuts are vegan), I can attest that even just looking at all of these creations was a treat.
A bit overwhelmed by options, one of the Donut Friend employees came over to offer his suggestions, pointing out the most popular and his personal favorites. He loved the Angry Samoa, which is a donut play on the famous Girl Scout cookie, that has a completely solid chocolate base, just like the cookie, with caramel, coconut, and chocolate as toppings. My mom and I both love strawberries, so we were first drawn to The Strawberry So Far, a raised donut with a strawberries and cream glaze, and StrawberryLab, a decadent donut sandwich that added whipped cream and fresh strawberries in the center of a regular glazed donut. We were taken by the twists and the donut holes out on cooling racks as well, and everything looked incredibly fresh, fluffy, and tasty.
Delicious-looking donut holes!
We settled on a StrawberryLab, though we knew we’d have to come back soon to try even more of the flavor combinations on the raised and cake donuts. At the cafe, you can also get coffee, drinks, affogato, and scoops of ice cream to add to the euphoria of dessert heaven. It’s important to note that if you do go that there isn’t any available seating around the shop either inside or outside. We wandered for a couple blocks before we found a place to sit and test the donut. In my second-hand review of the taste through my mom’s taste buds, the donut was obviously quite sweet with the glaze and the cream, but the strawberries were deliciously fresh and pulled everything together.
The Strawberry Lab from Donut Friend!
For the rest of the weekend, even though we never made it back, we kept bringing up how fun it was to visit the shop and how we needed to make our way back there the next time my mom came to LA. The entire vibe of the bakery just felt happy and joyous and was the perfect pick-me-up when we were feeling rundown. I also love that Donut Friend makes charity a huge part of its brand with #DONUTFUNDS where half of their proceeds from a particular donut to go benefit a rotating number of causes around the LA area.
If you can’t make it to Highland Park or Downtown LA to visit Donut Friend in person, they also deliver through apps like Uber Eats and Postmates!
Want more from Trojans 360?
Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content! You can also Ask A Trojan an anonymous question, and we’ll try to answer it in a future post. And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!
Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.
