Larie L.
Yelp
I keep seeing Machino's Ube Creme Brulee in social media saying that it's the best donut in the city. So I have to find out if this is true. And since I love anything ube, I was excited to come here and try it.
Let me tell you that the donuts here didn't blew me away, nothing special about them.
Overall the donuts tasted dry and dense like bread. The fillings/icing/toppings were unpleasantly sweet and some have underwhelming flavour. I've tasted other vegan donuts and it doesn't even come anywhere close to Machino.
I have to try these donuts to see what's the hype about them:
Ube Creme Brulee
Utter disappointment is what I felt upon taking my first bite of the Ube Creme Brulee donut. There is no way you can taste the ube in this donut! Artificial ube flavouring/color - a big YES, real purple ube flavour - resounding NO. Trust me I know, since I grew up eating ube and can distinguish the real taste of fresh ube vs artificial ube flavour.
This donut also has a description saying ube custard but doesn't even taste like one since the filling has a thinner consistency.
Classic Apple Fritter
They said this donut is very popular and everyone's favourite. But I beg to differ since this is my least favourite donut. The donut has a sweet and salty flavour combination that makes the pairing less successful. It borders more on excessive saltiness that overwhelms the delicate sweet flavour of the donut.
The apples in the donut were very limited and lacking the flavour you normally find in an apple fritter.
Devil's Chocolate
Before buying this donut, I asked the cashier if this is dark chocolate and she said yes. Shouldn't have listened to her coz this is one of the worst donuts I have tasted and there's no way this is made with dark chocolate.
The combination of the cocoa glaze topping plus the chocolate cake crumbs and chocolate ganache is the worst flavour combination ever! It's nauseatingly sweet and I didn't even enjoy it.
I don't even see any positive thing about this place. The store is small, it's just a takeaway place and designed for customers to grab their donuts/drinks and go. I was even planning to buy coffee but quickly changed my mind when I saw nowhere to seat and enjoy the food.
Service was abysmal. The Asian cashier was so unfriendly and no one is manning the front of the store. I have to wait for a while coz the staff were missing in action. After helping me, she took off again to God knows where. Another customer walks in and has to wait just like me before the cashier came in front to get her order.
Way overpriced for a low quality donut.
They take cash but don't accept $50 bill which is disappointing coz there's no sign anywhere in the store that says they don't accept large bills.
This further cemented the fact that you should never trust influencers and be cautious of their recommendations solely because of their biased opinions.
There's so many donut places to try in Toronto and I'm not giving this place a second chance after having a less than stellar experience.