Doughnut Dolly

If you have been to the original Tesmecal location, then you will be more than familiar when you walked into this quaint little place. Fresh puffy donuts, hand filled when you ordered with a rotating menu of 4 creams, including the standard "naughty cream". Same classy designed as the mothership. Same friendly service. Accepts credit cards through Square. It's going to be dangerous for me to have this closer location as I will be a regular to try all the different flavors.

Doughnut Dolly is tucked away between Philz Coffee and Farm Burger in this, which I call, a mini-mini-food court. It's an independent doughnut/donut shop which specializes in creme-filled donuts. Everything is made on premises and when you order your donut it is "made", what they do is you pick out a doughnut shell (powered, sugared, glazed, or chocolate) and then you pick your filling, which right before your eyes they fill that baby up. They have four fillings to choose from and they rotate it each day expect for their Naughty Creme, which is the bavarian-creme-esque filling. For this particular day I ordered a banana, dark chocolate, and naughty. I have tried this place before and really nothing goes wrong with a donut-coffee combination. The guy at the front was really helpful and was kind to give me permission to take pictures of the place with him in it. The shop itself is small and there are no seating; thanks goodness for seating outside provided by its neighbors. Each doughnut was $3, which for gourmet donuts I thought it was a reasonable price. The first time I tried it I thought it was the chicest thing that would totally come out from Berkeley. The second time was different. Spent $12 for four donuts and I was excited with glee to share these with a friend. These doughnuts were not the same as I remembered the very first time I had them. When I had it the first time it was warm, silky, and refreshing. The second time I learned there is a small window of opportunity to really enjoy these doughnuts; then I learned there shouldn't be a small window of opportunity to enjoy a donut, there should be a huge window. Between the Naughty, Banana, and Dark Chocolate the Dark Chocolate had the most pronounced flavor, however it was still subtle. Naughty Cream and Banana was flat out . . . flat. There was a hint of sweetness in the Naughty as well as the Banana. When I ate those the doughnut was lifeless, cold, the fluff went away, and the filling well I already spoke of that. Doughnut Dolly (in Berkeley) is convenient where it's located, especially next to a coffee shop. This is a try-once place, try twice if you dare. As an avid sweet tooth, person on a budget and appreciator of donuts there are other donut shops to get your kicks for a much cheaper price. Doughnut Dolly is a treat, like candy on Halloween, best if someone else gives it to you. . . for free.