Tacos & Donuts! @ The Original Donut Shop - 91/100

Yeah, you heard me, Taqueria/Donut Shop was the San Antonio stop on the donut journey.  Look at this awesome double drive thru!  Each lane had its own callbox, one lane for tacos, one for donuts.  Then the two lanes merge into one pickup window.  It is the most unique setup I've ever witnessed.

I appreciated the "No Guns" sign on the front door!  

Inside, the donuts and Mexican food are also separated on two sides with two lines.  And listen to this, I didn't even try a taco!  Couldn't have it tamper with the palette, oh how I miss the days when I could order whatever I want free and easy.  Now I am involved in serious business in which I can't even veer off course!   The donut side has a really cool semi-circle counter for sitting and eating at, there's a huge dining room, and a huge dining patio.  

I got the glazed as the counter server recommended and a couple powdered donut holes.  I topped off the feast with a vanilla iced cake donut.  The glazed was almost as good as Round Rock yesterday.  Definitely sweeter and this felt a little overboard for my taste.  Also, the vanilla iced was very sweet, to the point of hard to handle.  It's rare, I can be taken down by oversweetness.

The Original Donut Shop
3307 Fredericksburg Road
San Antonio, TX

Quick Score - 8 - This is a really cool and fun place.

Donut Quality - 7 - A little too sweet in my opinion.
Donut Selection - 8 - Not a huge selection but very sufficient.
Donut Freshness - 10 - Everything felt super fresh. 
Service - 10 - Good service all around
Extras - 10 - That's a big 10 b/c of the Mexican food.  
Appeal - 10 - Such a big place, cool layout, sweet coffee machine.
Emotion - 9 - Slight disappointment in the donuts but overall very happy.
Other's Rating - 9 - 4.5/5 average rating on Yelp 
Price - 5 - Affordable donuts and tacos!
Donut Dunkability - 5 - Powdered donut holes in addition to regular glazed ones.
Total - 91

Amazing Glazed Donuts @ Round Rock Donuts - 95/100

Just a quick jaunt from Austin is the town of Round Rock and a donut shop I had to be sure to hit on the journey.  Round Rock Donuts are famous for their glazed and 'Texas' donuts, a donut shop start date of 1926, and lots of media attention, including Man vs Food.  I was instantly befuddled by the yellow nature of the glazed donuts and donut holes.  After a little research I see that is just the fact the dough recipe is a little heavier on the egg yolk side.  Definitely a great tasting, fluffy, and enjoyable treat. 

                            

The glazed donut is served hot.  You go ahead and order and instead of giving you one sitting in the case, a hot one is brought out from the back.  This is an important part of the greatness, donuts are instantly better still warm.  Any place could do this instead of making you come in right at 5 AM when they're just made, but no one else has!  Round Rock Donuts does this. It is also a little crispy on the outside with very soft insides.  There are lots of places you don't really get the "fried" effect.  Here you truly feel it in your donut.  Which is what you want when you eating fried sugar for breakfast!  I also had an apricot filled donut that was nothing special.  But the donut holes and glazed were really good.

The "Texas"donuts are suitably huge and the major difference between this and others I've seen is that it doesn't have such a gigantic hole in the middle.  Note how thick the actual donut is, it's not just made in a large, skinny circle.   It truly is a "Texas" donut!

It's a great building but pretty small in the customer area so the only seating is right out front.  It was so windy I could not get a good picture, things were flying all over the place!  The drive thru is pretty cool too, you can tell it's built to handle a lot of traffic they're sure to get all day.  

Round Rock Donuts

106 W Liberty

Round Rock, TX

Quick Score - 10 - Famous donut that lived up to the hype.

Donut Quality - 9 - Very fluffy and tasty.
Donut Selection - 8 - This is really the only item this place is lacking, they do just a few kinds of donuts and they do them very well.  So, no matter how good the glazed is, I couldn't eat them everyday without more variety, so I'd need a little better selection.
Donut Freshness - 10 - All tasted very fresh.
Service - 11 - Wonderful service and extra point for the drive-thru lady opening the window just to call over to me to say what I gorgeous dog I had.
Extras - 9 - Cakes, cupcakes, kolaches, cookies, pies, assorted baked sweets.
Appeal - 10 - This town actually has charm going for it and the place itself shares that.
Emotion - 9 - I felt really super after the whole experience.
Other's Rating - 9 - 4.5/5 average rating on Yelp 
Price - 5 - Standard donut pricing.
Donut Dunkability - 5 - Great standard donut holes.
Total - 95

A Journey To The "Best" @ Best Donuts - 78/100

Oklahoma City, here I am!  After a morning snow shower, a donut was just what the doctor ordered.  I liked the owl on the roof of the building and it appeared to be a converted fast food building with use of the drive thru.  Nadine and I set out to sample the goods and grab Pat a cake donut since he was off to work and we were going to be the experts on this locale.

The only major issue was there was a very small selection compared to what I'm used to.  I can understand if things get going earlier here since they close early.  It still seemed like a shallow selection.  One thing that increases the variation is the ability to get different flavor cream fillings injected into many of the donuts.  I missed taking a picture of it but right behind the counter was a station with multiple nozzles attached to the creams so they could be pumped right in.  This is a great idea to mix things up.  Why do donuts usually have to be finished behind the curtain?  Only Holey Cream has dressed donuts up in front of me.  At least this place has that option. 

The injector really comes in handy with the donut holes because they have different jelly flavors inside them.  There's raspberry and grape and the potential is limitless.  I could really go for a rhubarb-strawberry donut hole.  I had a chocolate bar with great light dough but I didn't really go for the chocolate flavor.  For me, it felt a little on the bland side, maybe a little too light on the chocolate side for me.   

Nadine with the Blueberry Buttermilk

 Nadine made a better choice with the blueberry buttermilk. I spotted that one out right away since I had a great one yesterday at Benjamin's.  This one also had a great blueberry flavor, maybe not as perfect a glaze as I had yesterday but it was still a great, close second.

Me and the chocolate bar with coffee

 Best Donuts
 2320 NW 23rd Street
Oklahoma City, OK

Quick Score - 6 - Light selection with so-so donuts for me, saving points were donut holes and fillings.

Donut Quality - 7 - Decent quality, no "wow" factor on actual overall donuts, just the parts like the jelly.
Donut Selection - 5 - It didn't feel like the donut case could hold many donuts even if it was first thing in the morning, a smaller selection than I've seen usually.
Donut Freshness - 9 - I believe these were of very fresh variety.
Service - 9 - Great help with questions and info, service was very good.
Extras - 7 - Energy drinks!  A few other extras here and there.
Appeal - 6 - Lost some appeal for the old fast food locale.
Emotion - 9 - This was great b/c I had a big spread to sample.
Other's Rating - 9 - 4.5/5 average rating on Yelp and Nadine made a great pick with the blueberry!
Price - 5 - Great traditional affordable donut pricing.
Donut Dunkability - 6 - Extra point b/c of the jelly filled donut holes.
Total - 78