DISHED

by Rima Rafiq

This Week's Dish Although Valentine’s Day has since passed, the love is still in the air this month. Businesses love to stay in the mood of this month by selling Valentine’s themed goods. One example of this is restaurants and bakeries that sell specialty flavors during this month. I decided to try a sweet treat and test out some of the donuts in the area.

Stan's Donuts Stans Donuts, located at 17W615 East Butterfield Road in Oakbrook Terrace, is a popular donut shop in the Chicagoland area that sells anything from eclairs to iced coffee. I ordered a vegan cinnamon sugar donut from Stans because I heard it was one of their best flavors despite not containing eggs or milk. When I took my first bite, I definitely understood the hype. Honestly, I expected it to be dry and tasteless because it didn’t have the ingredients that most donuts have, but it had the perfect level of crisp and sugar flavor. The first bite was soft and flavorful, and I would definitely order it again given the quality and thoughtful ingredients.

BB's Baby Donuts BB’s Baby Donuts, located at 4472 Lawn Ave. in Western Springs, is a cute local shop that sells donuts, but with a cool twist on them. All of BB’s donuts are about golf-ball size, and they include many unique flavors and toppings. While the flavors ranged from s’mores to lemon cream o birthday cake, the donuts were nice and small so it was convenient to try out all of these unique flavors. I ordered a dozen mini donuts, and chose the flavors Cherry Pie and Vanilla Sprinkles. The cherry flavor was tarte and tasted extremely fresh. While the vanilla sprinkles flavor was simple, it had the perfect level of sweetness, and was one of the best donuts I’ve ever had.

Cost of 1 donut: $2.79 Cost of 1 dozen donuts: $6.20

Dunkin' Donuts Dunkin Donuts, a common fast food restaurant located at 150 East Ogden Ave. in Hinsdale, was selling special Valentine’s Day themed donuts. Naturally, I wanted to try them and see what flavors they had. I decided to try the Cupid’s Choice donut. As soon as I bit into the donut, I could taste the Bavarian creme and sweet strawberry icing. There was a festive mix of pink and white heart shaped sprinkles on top, which was a cute touch. While I liked the donut, it was overly sugary for my taste. The sweetness element was a little excessive in terms of the creme, icing, and sprinkles, but it was definitely on theme with Valentine’s Day vibes.

Cost of 1 donut: $2.20

The Verdict I was really excited to try out donuts this month because I love dessert, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed. Honestly, there wasn’t a restaurant that stood out as specifically bad this month. I enjoyed everything I tried, but there was definitely a winner. BB’s Baby Donuts did the best job because their mini donuts allowed me to try their super interesting flavors. In addition, they didn’t have that artificial taste that chain restaurants have. Their donuts were a lot more fresh and higher quality than Stan’s and Dunkin’s. Overall, I’ll definitely be going back to BB’s Baby Donuts to try some more of their flavors.