Jason F.
Yelp
Donuts in San Francisco don't get any better than that of Bob's Donuts, as their location on Polk Street in the city's Nob Hill neighborhood has been a local institution since opening the 1960's as they have recently been best known for their Big Donut Challenge in which you can win your money back and a T-shirt for eating a massive donut in two minutes or less! If course, I was here not gorge myself on one large donut, but many donuts in fact, as I was headed to dinner on nearby Divisadero Street and needed a little tokens of appreciation for those who were hosting me, and of course a little deep fried treat for myself. This second location of Bob's Donuts, which opened a mere three years ago, on the appropriately named Baker Street in the former home of the bakery that was known Chili Pies Baking Co. serves as the perfect place for revelers in both the nearby Alamo Square neighborhood and North of Panhandle neighborhood that Bob's Donuts resides in. Just getting to this second location can be a challenge as parking in this heavily residential neighborhood turned out to difficult but not impossible, as by the time I arrived by 6 p.m. on the weekday evening that I intended to have dinner with my party, they are some local spots available after 6 p.m. Thankfully this location is open until 9 p.m., which makes it nice for this late evening snack, but not like it's sister shop, which is open 24 hours, seven days a week.
Upon entry, it's a real no frills operation at this location of Bob's Donuts, as there are three cases of the donuts they still have available, along with their register, a coffee station, a dairy station for said coffee, a microwave, lots of shirts and mugs with the Bob's logo on them of course, and lots and lots of pink cardboard boxes ready to be filled with crispy yet still moist donuts. The only challenging thing was in deciding which donuts I wanted to feast on and which donuts I thought my dinner dates would enjoy as well. After looking at all of my options, as so many of them looked so wonderful and so-high end considering the average price for donuts at Bob's Donut's is a mere 3 dollars. The first thing I did was to ask their counter personnel if I could get nine total donuts packaged in three different boxes and when they said I could I knew which donuts I wanted for myself. They included Strawberry Shortcake Donut, Creme Brûlée Donut, and one of their signature donuts, their powdered donuts filled with raspberry jelly. For my friends, I went for the most visually appealing, which included their Maple Bacon Donut, S'mores Donut, Matcha Chocolate Donut, and their other signature powdered donut that was filled with lemon jelly. My total bill for my nine donuts was a little under 30 dollars before tip, which considering the variety of donuts with the amount of ingredients layered on top of each of them, wasn't too bad, all things considered.
When I brought the two extra boxes to dinner, my friends began fighting over which box of donuts they each got to bring home as the S'mores Donut was so festive as it had a caramelized marshmallow right in the middle of the donut, which no doubt made it extra fun. After returning home, I made sure to dive into my Strawberry Shortcake Donut, and in a word, it was amazing as it wasn't too sweet thanks to the amount of creme and strawberries. It truly resembled a beautiful Strawberry Creme Puff, but with a donut replacing the puff pastry. I loved all of the donuts I purchased for myself, with the one caveat being as with any donut you really do need to eat your donuts as soon as your purchase them as they tend to age pretty fast. My Creme Brûlée with it beautifully caramelized topping held out as long as they could, but by day three, it was no longer the same, which is okay, because with donuts you can still can enjoy them no matter what. Although their namesake Bob may no longer be around to see the fruits of his labor, I am so glad that owner Aya Ahn and her family have the foresight to continue their expansion further into the city of San Francisco. Here's to Bob's Donuts on Baker Street continued success and additional locations of Bob's Donuts and Pastries opening in San Francisco and beyond, because we all know a delicious thoughtfully created donut is hard to find, but not at Bob's Donut's they're not!