River Oaks Donuts

I had custom donuts made for my son’s birthday. They were so easy to talk to on the phone. I gave them minimal information, and they put together the cutest donuts ever. The pick up process was very smooth as well.

Ordered ‘Happy Birthday’ donuts for delivery. The communication was phenomenal!! They delivered the donuts to their destination and the recipient loved them. You all went above and beyond! Thank you!! Will purchase again and again!

Fella at the counter was incredibly polite and helpful. Coffee was nice and hot. It's a very small store. I will say the menu at the front is tiny and i didn't even notice it until after i finished ordering. My daughter loved the unicorn crown donut. Wife loved the devil's food cake donut holes.

My daughter is turning 11 on 5/4 and she was clear I was to get her donuts to share with her class instead of cake. I felt lucky to find River Oaks Donuts because their Instagram is adorable and the level of decorating is just what I needed. She wanted purple Squishmallows. I sent my inspiration photos and a quick summary of my order along with the order form. Their team got back with me promptly and we discussed my order. I picked up the next day, the shop workers were kind and the decorator added a special touch (crown donut with 11th on it!). My daughter's response was, "omg, I want to thank whoever made this!", so mom ftw!!! Thank you all so much for making her day so sweet!

I ordered the custom letter donuts and they came out beautiful! A bit sweet but was still very delicious.

Their doughnuts are good. I got the glazed and the glazed with chocolate and sprinkles. The glazed wasn’t that good(had a crispy taste, not a fluffy one, looked like it was grilled) but the other doughnut was fresh and really good. They also have drive-through which is very convenient. After a few months, I came by at 8 am and they were fresh. Make sure to ask for fresh ones

I've heard great things about this place and always see so many people that frequent so I decided to try it since it's a block from my house but was not happy with the food at all. I went around 6:40am, placed my order in the drive-thru and although I was pleased with the service provided, I received cold donuts and kolaches that were not fresh. It appeared as though the donuts came out of the fridge and the kolaches were warm on the outside but the sausage was cold on the inside, leaving me to believe they were leftover from the previous day and refrigerated. No donut should feel like a cold bottle of water coming out of the fridge but that's what I received. Although that was my first experience, I will definitely give them another try, just not at that time of the morning.

This donut shop is amazing! I had custom donuts done for my sons first birthday and they did not disappoint. I emailed them a picture of the pajamas my son would be wearing a week before and the donuts they created were fabulous! Taste and appearance, 5 stars!

I love this place, filled with happy kids. Happy parents, easy drive through, and nice and friendly staff. Lots of staff ready to accommodate you, and donuts are the best in River oaks in my humble opinion Donut holes are a true crowd pleaser, what can I say! I'm a regular! Rec's: donut holes blueberry, strawberry, and red velvet

Obtained the piglets and glazed donuts. The food here is always grand. The service this morning was super friendly and upbeat. The made us feel super comfortable with them running out of piglets. The ambiance is chill but upbeat. I highly recommend calling first for the volume of piglets prior to venturing out to this facility

Stopped for a donut on our way to Galveston. Had the custard filled long John (well that's what we call it in TN). The donut was fresh, tender, chocolaty, creamy goodness! Yummy!

Some of the best donuts I've had in Houston! They offer a great variety of flavors. They have "unique" flavors but they also have classic flavors. I've been coming here for years and have yet to have a bad donut or try one I didn't like! The staff has always been kind and helpful. They have a drive thru and you can also walk in.

The entrance is SO cute! It's a small shop that only fits a handful of people at a time. They also have a drive through! So many fun flavors. I opted for a traditional vanilla iced raised donut and it was soooo fresh! A nice sized donut too! I will absolutely be back for some more.

I have not been here in ages. For the location, prices are actually very good. And the donuts. My daughter says she does not like donuts but would return for these. Hard to explain: The donuts are lighter and more airy than you may be used to, making a more pleasant bite. They taste great. Loved the variety of donut holes (we got raspberry) and my coffee was in point. Service was friendly and patient (my kids insisted on ordering). Minuses are things that can't be helped. The shop itself is tiny so more than four people inside feels very cramped. Lots of people outside not really minding their space and the tiny parking lot is a bit much if people aren't minding others or worse,waiting in the parking lot for a space (no fewer than two parking sharks while we oriented ourselves in the car before leaving).

When I went in, there were two folks ahead of me. After waiting a few minutes to be served, a white couple came into the shop and the server looked around me and asked if she could help them. It's an affluent neighborhood and there were no minority customers. By the time I left there were quite a few people some even waiting outside. No minorities though. I'm not drawing conclusions. Just stating the facts. The servers are minority though. I didn't see any Asians though. Note that their prices are outdated on their website. Everything cost more from the kolaches ($.70, $.50 more) to the donuts ($.20 more). They need to update their online menu. I don't think it's that hard. I get that printing new laminated menus could be hard. But that's not the situation here. Tastewise everything was just ok and actually probably below average from what I've tasted in Texas and Houston. I was hoping for more, as their website tours some publication that lists them as a top 10 donut place in all of Texas. And that's one reason why I decided to try them out (also since they're close to where I live). It was also odd that one of the sausage and cheese rolls was almost half the size as the other one (we ordered 2). They cost the same though. At first, I thought the short one must have been another kolache (ie, the ham and cheese) that we ordered. But nope, the ham and cheese was actually similar in size to the longer sausage and cheese kolache. I thought it would be mechanized or something. So not sure how one could be so short. Maybe they ran out of sausage for that one. The brisket kolache is shorter but also fatter. It tasted pretty good except it has Lots of bbq sauce for those whole like that (I don't really care for that style so much). The Bavarian filled donut that I got only had a small amount of crème. More than half was empty and I had to take several bites before getting to my the crème part. The outside was wet too which I hate. It's like those old Krispy Kreme glazed donuts you get a Walmart. I live less than half a mile away from their donut shop, and the donut was in a separate bag from the kolaches, so I don't know why it should be wet outside like that. I don't know what's up with their bags too. One had a hole on the bottom. It Looked clean cut and not like a chew mark thankfully. Maybe they sliced it when they opened the package of bags or something? Who knows. The other bag (with the kolaches) had what looked like some sort of brown glaze on it in several places on the inside. Almost as if it had been used for donuts before and then the customer changed their mind, so they took out the donuts (or cinnamon rolls or whatever it was inside), but they kept the bag after taking out the donuts, etc. I don't think it was from the kolaches because they were dry and I didn't see any similar looking stains on any of them that might be the culprit. Anyway, they got a lot of business. So they must be donut something right. I just think it's not for us after this experience.

I used to love this place but it seems to have gone down hill lately. I was really disappointed to get greasy, poorly iced donuts during my last several trips. Their menu offers a lot of options but most of the time they are not available. The only thing worth going for now is the giant cinnamon roll, but there are so many better options in Houston for plain old donuts.

Dropped in to get a quick snack to hold me over until lunch. Ordering was easy-there was a good selection of items but I kept it simple with a cake donut. Donut was good slightly sweeter than I expected but nothing to complain about. Also was surprised that the price was low given that it is River Oaks -guess the donut craze and subsequent price hikes are over.

Food was decent but the service was above average. I guess the hype made me think it would be higher than anticipated! It was decent.

I used to LOVE this place. The service was great and food was fresh, but they have gone downhill in a bad way. Every time I visit they are out of what I want. I'm serious, almost every time. Second time in a week they're out of tacos at 7 am. Put a sign out so I don't waste my time before work! They rarely have ham and cheese kolaches. And I'm pretty sure last time I asked for extra salsa the girl at the window rolled her rates at me. I want the old river oaks donuts back!!

Really good fresh donuts and kolaches! Loved the sugar glazed donut. It was very light and the dough was very fluffy. You could tell it was made of good ingredients and was very fresh!! Definitely recommend and don't forget to get that kolache!!!

I have been here a few times but will not be back. No customer service skills...doughnuts are okay. The brisket kolaches are good but they sell out fast.

Meh. Very mediocre droughts. Had a couple of bites and tossed them out. That says a lot since I love a good donut.

It was my first time here. Sad - cold - rude customer service. I'd rather go anywhere even the whataburger next door than go back. The kolache size is a joke.

Their doughnuts are good. I got the glazed and the glazed with chocolate and sprinkles. The glazed wasn't that good(had a crispy taste, not a fluffy one, looked like it was grilled) but the other doughnut was fresh and really good. They also have drive-through which is very convenient. After a few months, I came by at 8 am and they were fresh. Make sure to ask for fresh ones . The service was great, help you very quickly. The atmosphere is very clean and tidy

Finally a good local donut shop within walking distance. Donuts are ok and if you visit afternoon you'll see the selection is low. Stars are for locality and convenience. Oh and they have a huge donut the shape of Texas and that's pretty slick.

Ordered donuts online for the alphabet letter shaped ones. Ordering process was super easy: 1) order ideally 48-36 hours ahead, fill out the order form online and email it to them 2) they will call you the next day to confirm your order and take the payment over the phone 3) Pick it up at the store and grab additional goodies! The customized letter donuts turn out to be perfect. The ones I ordered were regular size, which left a lot of empty space in the box. I probably would encourage you to order a bigger size for the donut if you are doing just one word or a name. If you have a longer phrase, then regular size would fill up the box better. They also have a variety of flavors for the donut holes: blueberry cake, strawberry cake, red velvet with and without cream cheese, cinnamon (vegan) and powdered sugar (vegan). I love they also have some special themed donuts for different months/holidays, I got a special one for St. Patrick's day, the icing is a little too sweet and too thick for us. The donuts taste good, if you like more of a cake-like donuts with thicker dough.

So good!! I love there's a drive thru, the outdoor seating is also very picture perfect. I got two maple iced And one eclair which was pricey but so worth it!

Can't go wrong with Royal Oaks Donuts and a cup of coffee in the morning! The maple glazed are scrumptious just like all the other ones that were devoured

Visiting family resident near Central Market. All the neighbors rave about ROD. I wonder why??? Maybe the early bird gets the best donuts and service. I went there yesterday before 11 AM to have a decaf and a red velvet donut, what I considered a simple le enough request. At first none of the employees seemed to know what I meant. Then they realized they had RV donut holes, worth a star. Coffee: they said they had decaf but only had a third of a cup. Whatever they served me was hot but had little else going for it. My wife came later and had her own sad story. We were sitting outside and asked to leave before the posted store hours. The ask was polite but store needs to post its hours. Maybe another time but there have to be places with good donuts good coffee and good service in Houston.

I was looking for a local biz to support for Mother's Day, and I stumbled across the letter donuts from River Oaks Donuts. With 48hrs notice, I was able to order a custom "HAPPY MOTHERS DAY" in pastel colors with white sprinkles. For the entire order, it was only $22! I was even able to get it delivered by using Favor. The donuts arrive to my mom in perfect condition. The donuts looked SO cute, and my mom loved it. I'll definitely think of River Oaks again when I want to send a special donut message!

I'm not super into those crazy specialty donuts--I tried and just can't seem to love them. I'm an old fashioned girl. And this place does donuts right. Don't get me wrong, I've had a few interesting ones and gotten my kids the ones glazed to look like a carrot--lol! Delicious! Great location!

Downloaded this app because the young man in the front was so sweet and asked if we could leave a nice review. How could we say no? The food was delicious, but the service was even better. Everyone in the shop seems so happy, and it makes me enjoy the great donuts even more. Thank you for great service! (Could use some indoor seating however LOL)

Try to come every now and again to get a good donut, and best believe every time I come it never disappoints. I always enjoy small conversations with the employees. In fact, this review is for him! Great job making my day a little better kid.

If you want to look for donut holes specifically blueberry or old fashioned this is the place to look because the donut holes are not too sweet and they are a good size fresh nice and just overall delicious! I love that there's a drive through as well. Super cute place to grab a quick snack and the nicest staff ever!!

I love going Saturday mornings and getting my donuts here! Their staff is so lovely and friendly.

My husband and I were traveling to Houston and I wanted to try it since reviews were good. 99.9% positive we contracted food poisoning here based on the onset time of our symptoms. It sucked. Hopefully you have a better experience.

Got my order exactly as I wanted. My daughter was very happy to share her favorite with her friends! Thank u!

I am going to be River Oaks donuts since they opened a few years back. There's still one of my favorite places. They offer a variety of donuts and over the years. The quality of their donuts has remained consistent while they have a small footprint of a store they have ample employees to assist you if you have to wait in line. This is definitely one of the most favorite desserts, and any time spots for you to find. Thank you, River Oaks donuts for being the best.

Under the impression that this shop located in River Oaks would make delicious donuts. We were very surprised at how bad they were. The glazed were cold even though it was early morning. The kolache was small, mostly cheese, very little meat. Over priced. Poor quality.

Why does everything have to lk so good??? Had trouble deciding but that's a great problem to have. The bacon egg & cheese is one of the best! Tried several other decadent options but the red velvet w/cream cheese is my fave so far. Side note: We left with a bag & there's a few more to try!. Thank you Taylor, Elise, & Lydia for the Amazing Customer service & patience answering questions about each & every kolache.

Very disappointing and flavorless experience. I ordered donut holes, blueberry cake donut and egg and potato kolaches for $10. The kolaches were tiny and literally had absolutely NO flavor. The donut holes were just dry as hell. The blueberry donut almost redeemed this place but it was also just dry. Sorry but there's too many other better (& cheaper) mom and pop donut shops in town to be spending your $$ here. Christy's Donuts in Montrose is my favorite! Great prices, selection, and their donuts/kolaches are delicious :)

Not really liking the only way to buy donuts at this place is through the drive through. There is huge line waiting to buy donuts which I don't understand why they are so busy.

Selective bagging fees. Employees that seem miserable. I'm also confused as to how a donut shop doesn't have glazed donuts.

First time here. Good selection of donuts. Very kid friendly with fun shapes & decorations. Good variety of flavors. The donuts tasted good & filled the kids up. So the location & food was good but the service was absolutely terrible & I don't say that often. While there was lots of help. We felt like we were a burden to them. No one was behind us but we were rushed. We asked the different flavors of the donut holes to be placed in different bags & the attendant was annoyed (it seemed). Too bad since there's a lot of donut competition around.

Can't rave enough about this place! I stopped by this morning (Friday around 9), which in my mind everyone wants donuts on Fridays so I was hoping it wouldn't be busy. I was in and out in literally 1 minute! I was CRAVING donuts & kolaches, so I did a quick google search and hoped this place could satisfy my craving (pregnancy cravings are so real). I DEFINITELY was satisfied. They have a great selection of donuts, special flavors, and flavored donut holes (don't see that often). I got a regular glazed and a pink sprinkle. I'm really 5 at heart. The donuts were SO yummy - flaky, soft, tasty. Not flat. Literally perfect! A little on the small side, but I'd rather have a small perfect donut than a big sucky one They also have a great selection of kolaches! I got the sausage jalapeño cheese, and YES SIRRRRR so good. They are TINY though - heads up. They're palm sized, so I'd recommend two if you love your kolaches. But seriously, kinda crispy, REAL sausage, all melted cheese inside. I could eat like 10. Besides the donuts being so tasty, the employees were very sweet and the inside of the shop couldn't be cleaner. Can't wait to come back. They also do custom donut orders and can spell out messages! Perfect place to say "happy bday" with a donut message

The donuts are good when they are made correctly but unfortunately the quality is inconsistent and has been going down. The last 4 times I've gone when the store opened and ordered the cream cheese filled donut holes I've received old donut holes with no cream cheese in them.

This place has vegan cake donuts (powdered sugar and cinnamon sugar). It was more of a bready cake donut but it was still very good. The more I ate it the more I liked it. The powdered sugar wasn't too sweet either. I bought the devils cake donut and a chocolate frosted yeast donut for my friend and she said it was also good. Both were recommended by the staff there. I was surprised at how cheap the donuts were! I would come back again. When I went there wasn't a wide selection, hopefully next time there will be more (vegan donuts too).

First let me say if you are going to try them out get there early so you can select from everything rather than just what is left over. Located just down the street from the River Oaks District this is a must try for donut lovers. They have a few chairs outside as well so it would be a great place to meet up with a friend. I've had a lot of kolaches from a lot of different places and hands down they simply have the best ones I've had in Houston to date. Ironically I wasn't going to get any kolaches since I really have a sweet tooth and wanted to try the donuts and donut holes. Even when I said it would go into my review if it was bad the guy didn't blink and suggested I try it. Try for yourself and leave me a compliment if you agree with me. The quality of the donuts and the donut holes was good as well. I'll definitely be going back. If you are looking for a place to try out in the morning in that area I would recommend giving them a try.

Debatable whether it's 2.5 or 3 stars--we ordered quite a number of doughnuts, from the unicorn to the cream filled. All of the ones with glazes were offputtingly sweet, one of the creamfilled (cappucino) tasted completely artificial, almost like fake coffee creamer, and one of the twists tasted as if the dough was raw (super chewy, not in a good way.) We were bummed given the good reviews. The only one doughnut that was reasonably good (more than a few bites) was the cake doughnut. The reason we rounded up was that the server interacting through the mic at the drive through was extremely patient and pleasant--she was great. We were so bummed we drove down to B&B to try them--not amazing, but much much better than River Oaks. Super confused by the good reviews. Not going back, would recommend trying other places. Houston needs a good doughnut place besides Shipley's and Christy's.

After my original review, Elise reached out to me, and must I say, WHAT GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!! that's how you do it!! All businesses should do what she did. She reached out, talked to her team about the problem, and even was so kind to cover whatever I wanted the day I went in (which honestly was not necessary but such a great gesture). I would say, the taste of the donut holes the day I went on my previous review, were just a bad bunch. I got to try a variety of donut holes, and yessss, this. Is. The. Spot. Support local businesses. And support donuts always. Thank you again Elise for your kind hospitality.

Their normal donuts are ok. Their gf donuts are inedible. We went for my gf friend to try them and even she didn't like them (she usually loves even gross gf stuff because it's nice to be able to eat it). I asked and she admitted "tastes like chalk". The normal donuts were similar to Shipley's just more expensive. And the coffee was awful. Worse than McDonald's. Won't be going back anytime soon.

Your employee wearing a glove on one hand does not disguise the fact that they are also touching your credit card and money with the same hand that they're handling your food. The only one protected in this scenario is your employee. And they were doing this right in front of said front of house manager. I almost didn't pay for my order, disgusting.

My family and I visited the shop in 12/9 at around 10:45 am and had the worst service from a Donut shop we've ever had. Now trust me normally you wouldn't have us visiting this shop if it weren't for the kindness of one of my students gifting me a gift card for Christmas . We arrived and decided to go through the drive thru. We were greeted (if you can call his monotone "can I help you" a greeting) by a young man and we asked for a few more minutes to decide what to order, we received no response. Finally after deciding on a few donuts and coffees we ordered and got a minimal response without confirmation of what we had ordered, all we heard was "move up to the window". When we finally moved up we saw the young man place a few items next to the window and go back for more, never once acknowledging us or telling us our total. When he finally handed us our drinks my husband handed over our gift card and credit card. He proceeded to check us out without saying a word, still no mention of how much it was. My husband had to remind him that we would like to use the gift card, to which he didn't respond. When we finally got our order it was missing a donut and a water and a receipt. We didn't realize at the time we were missing the water so we had to drive back (luckily we hadn't gotten too far). This time my husband decided to go inside. When he informed the same employee about the water and asked "could I just grab one from this little fridge?" The employee's response was an arm shrug...WTF?! I mean You are in River oaks for god sake and even if you weren't I'm a native Houstonian so you know my go to is shipleys and I don't think I've ever had this Popeyes treatment (if you know you know) at any of their locations. Also I think this donut had mold on it...ewwww.

They were so friendly!!! They delivered the donuts in time! I was nervous as I ordered from out of state for a birthday delivery. I will definitely stop by in person when I'm in town!

Donuts are great. Not awesome but the fact that this is owned by the Hilldebrand family we went to try out Bought three dozen donuts and asked for a few (3) small paper bags for our team to take to their offices. After I had given them a 20 percent tip, they said they needed to charge me 20 cents per bag Really?!! I just paid nearly $40 for donuts and now I need to reuse my credit card for a 60 cent bag charge? Never going back here although I live 2 blocks away. The young men (shorter with dreds and baseball cap) takes his time and the thinner but taller one who seem to have been there longer is the one who asked for extra cash. I want to support our neighborhood local eatery but not if the service is this bad.

The quest for cronuts continues, and some yelp research led me to this cute little shop located on Westheimer between Edloe and Timmons. Stopped by on a Sunday morning around 8:30am and the place was already packed. In fact, it was so packed that we had scoot out of the way every time a new customer came in the door (the shop is tiny). There was also a line. Seriously? Shouldn't people be asleep in bed on an early Sunday morning? The wait took about 15 minutes, not too bad. The good thing is that once you order, they grab the stuff for you and you're ready to check out. We got the non-filled sugared cronuts (of course), two kolaches, and several piglets. The piglet basket was empty, but when I asked they went to the back and got more. They also asked if we wanted the kolaches heated, which was a really nice gesture. Cronuts: Thick, fat, and very lightly glazed. Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside, I enjoyed every bite. It wasn't overly sweet and the layers of dough inside was delightful. Yum! Ham and cheese kolache: Bread was soft and fluffy paired with chunks of ham and melted cheese. Loved this one as well, too bad it was so small, gone in a second! Egg, bacon and cheese kolache: I liked that the bacon was evenly distributed throughout the whole kolache so you get bacon with every bite. The eggs however tasted like eggbeaters. Meh. Piglets: Bite sized kolaches with a slice of sausage. Delicious! This place is definitely on the pricey end, as the cronut is $3.79 and the kolaches were $1.99. Nevertheless, everything was good and since the place is so packed, you know the turnover rate is high, which means more fresh kolaches and donuts for me! There's also a drive through, will try that next time to see if the wait is shorter.

I came here on a Sunday morning for breakfast. It's an interesting place. Since it's in River Oaks you'd think there would be hoity-toity but it's pretty small, modest inside and the employees are pleasant. They have a variety of donut holes and I ordered the glazed ones. They were definitely fluffier than typical ones. The kolache was fantastic basically due to the sausage. It didn't taste like a hotdog like other kolaches do. The latte tasted like a latte.

They were able to fulfill our custom happy birthday order on short notice. Very friendly staff who works with you to make it happen