Best doughnuts Melbourne: Our top five spots for doughy delights

From a baking wunderkid to a Queen Victoria Market institution, check out our top five picks for the best doughnuts in Melbourne.

There’s no shortage of amazing doughnut shops in Melbourne.

You say doughnut, I say donut … let’s split the difference and get a mixed dozen. Here are five of Melbourne’s best.

Bistro Morgan, Windsor & Fitzroy

The name might suggest steak frites and duck rillettes, but Bistro Morgan is all about the healing power of the doughnut, courtesy of baking wunderkind Morgan Hipworth, who discovered his passion watching MasterChef as a kid. He’s still only barely out of short pants, which might explain why the core range conveys a child’s sense of sugar-fuelled wonder, including the Cookie Monster (brioche with cake batter innards and topped with couverture white chocolate, Oreos and sprinkles) to the Naughty Tella (no explanation needed). Half the fun of visiting is watching the indecision on customer’s faces as they struggle with temptation.

bistromorgan.com.au

Doughnuts at Bistro Morgan.

American Doughnut Kitchen, Melbourne CBD & Prahran

Tell me you’re in Melbourne without telling me you’re in Melbourne? A pic in front of the American Doughnut Kitchen van will do nicely, thanks. Plying its trade from the flagship ADK van at the Queen Vic Market since 1950, the family-run business has perfected the doughnut formula: fried, yeasty and hot, with a rigorous sugar dusting and lava-like jam innards ready to burn unsuspecting fingers. They’re a rite of passage for any local kid and a nostalgic fever dream for the rest of us. You can also now catch them in a bricks and mortar operation at Prahran market.

adk1950.com.au

Doughnuts at American Doughnut Kitchen.

Hector’s Bakery, Richmond

The good folks at Hector’s Deli aren’t exactly new to the doughnut game – their doorstopper-sized maple-glazed numbers have long been cemented in Melbourne’s affections – but it warms the cockles of our hearts to see them embrace the potential of a dedicated bakery. Opened in March, the ritzy Richmond premises gleaming with marble and mood lighting are a place to eat your doughnut in style. The maple-glazed and cinnamon-dusted are the bomb, but you might also have your head turned by the pain au chocolat or the cinnamon buns – the operation’s early breakout star that sells out in hours each day.

33 Stewart St, Richmond

hectorsdeli.com.au

Doughnuts at Hector's Deli.

Baker D. Chirico, Carlton

Take your mouth on a Roman holiday with these dreamy custard-filled bomboloni, served as nature intended, right in the heart of Melbourne’s Little Italy. At his super-slick Faraday Street digs, artisan baker Daniel Chirico has cemented his reputation as one of Melbourne’s best with a fail-safe combination of smooshy innards flecked with real vanilla bean, girt by the lightest, fluffiest doughnut shell and a final sprinkle of citrussy sugar. Gosh they’re good. For that matter, so are the cannoli. And the bread? It’s among the best you’ll find anywhere. Here is the perfect excuse for the ultimate polyamorous carbohydrate relationship.

178 Faraday St, Carlton

bakerdchirico.com.au

Doughnuts at Baker D. Chirico.

Candied Bakery, Spotswood

The craze for splicing the DNA of popular baked goods reaches its apotheosis with Candied Bakery’s vanilla slice doughnuts. The bastard love-child of the ‘snot block’ and the doughnut has been a menu fixture for a decade; we can attest that the combo of airy vanilla cream

inside a doughnut casing, dipped in vanilla glaze and topped with a jaunty puff pastry hat is a Frankenstein in name only. In more good news, the bakery hero of the west has upped sticks from its OG location for bigger digs close by, where you can eat in-house for the first time.

136 Hall St, Spotswood

candiedbakery.com.au

Doughnuts at Candied Bakery.

Originally published as Best doughnuts Melbourne: Our top five spots for doughy delights