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Brought to you by 49th Parallel coffee roasters (@49thParallel), Lucky’s Doughnuts (@luckysdoughnuts) has been serving gourmet doughnuts since last summer.

Forty Ninth Parallel

The doughnuts are served inside the 49th Parallel Café which doubles as a café and doughnut shop. There are two locations, one on 4th Ave in Kitsilano and one on Main street (at 13th ave).

Lucky’s Doughnuts

I dropped by the Main street location which has plenty of seating indoors and out.

The interior

I’ve been a big fan of their coffee for a while and was delighted to hear that they started selling doughnuts. Gourmet doughnuts, that is. So be prepared to pay $3+ per doughnut.

The doughnut selection

Lucky’s Doughnuts makes all their glazes, jams and fillings from scratch. They’re also all about using seasonal ingredients and local sourcing which adds to the price.

You can’t have doughnuts without coffee! You order coffee from their daily “Fresh Sheet” which lists all of the day’s offerings. They also have a coffee & doughnut special for $4 which includes a coffee of the day and the featured doughnut of the day.

Coffee

We started off with the Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnut ($3.50). This square yeast doughnut was filled with a raspberry jam, coated in a thin peanut butter glaze and topped with crushed peanuts.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnut

I liked the fluffy yeast base and enjoyed the jam which had a slight tartness to it. It was a pretty solid doughnut but the edge in PB&J doughnuts goes to Doughnut Plant in NYC.

Peanut Butter & Jelly Doughnut

Next up was the Apple Maple Bacon Fritter ($3.50). I love bacon and I love apple fritters so this was a natural choice. This apple fritter consisted of chunks of apple and pieces of bacon throughout the doughnut. The doughnut was topped with a thin maple glaze and more pieces of bacon.

Apple Maple Bacon Fritter

I thought I’d really love this doughnut but I just wasn’t a fan of the fritter base as I found it quite dry. Perhaps it was a bad batch?

Something else that caught my eye was the Salted Caramel Old Fashioned ($3.25). Instead of a caramel glaze, they used real caramel and topped it all off with some Maldon salt. I didn’t actually love the caramel since it was hard and really stuck to my teeth. Not my favourite doughnut.

Salted Caramel Old Fashioned

On a second visit, we tried the Blueberry Doughnut ($3.50) which had a nice light and fluffy base.

Blueberry Doughnut

While I enjoyed the blueberry filling, the doughnut on the whole just wasn’t very memorable.

Blueberry Doughnut

The last doughnut we tried from Lucky’s was the Classic Old Fashioned ($3.25) which consisted of a sour cream doughnut base with a vanilla glaze. It was a delicious doughnut and was particularly enjoyable with a cup of coffee.

Classic Old Fashioned

With a selection of doughnuts made with trendy ingredients like salted caramel and maple bacon, they sounded so promising.  Unfortunately, some of them fell a little short. Nothing was bad but they just weren’t particularly memorable. I might not be back for the doughnuts but you can bet I’ll be back for their coffee!

At a glance:
• Gourmet doughnuts brought to you by 49th Parallel coffee roasters (and sold inside the 49th Parallel Cafe)
• Doughnuts are $3+ each
• 2 locations – 4th Ave in Kitsilano and Main Street (by 13th ave)
• The Main street location has a significant amount of seating (patio seating also available)
• A big fan of their coffee
• The doughnuts were solid but not particularly memorable

Ratings (out of 5):
• Food: 3 stars
• Service: 3 stars
• Atmosphere: 4 stars

Lucky's Doughnuts on Urbanspoon

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  1. MissVancouverPiggy (Reply) on Sunday 8, 2013

    These look so much better than the ones I had today on West 4th!! The ones at the other location were not that great.

    • Jess (Reply) on Sunday 8, 2013

      That’s disappointing! Did the other location have the same selection of doughnuts?

  2. Melissa@EyesBigger (Reply) on Sunday 8, 2013

    I am so glad to see somebody else say exactly what I thought of Lucky’s. I was so excited to try them after the rave reviews they get everywhere and it was such a let down. I don’t have a problem paying $3+ for a treat if it’s amazing but, these just didn’t cut it. I’m also impressed you got a photo of the place so empty! I’ve never been able to get a seat in the main street location!

    • Jess (Reply) on Sunday 8, 2013

      Also glad to know that someone’s on the same page. I’m a big fan of 49th Parallel so I really wanted to like their doughnuts.
      You’re right, it was pretty empty on my visit…it may have had something to do with it being in the late morning in the middle of the week 😉