Marie's Donuts (Land Park)
food: 4/5
experience: 4/5
overall: 4/5
Ah Marie's, how I love thee. Thy dough-flavored nuts. Thy fluffy bars of sugar and yeast. I like to pretend whenever I get a doughnut here it's from my grandma whose name was Marie. Back in the day I'd have two doughnuts for breakfast regularly. Back when I had an adolescent metabolism that is. That must explain their location near McClatchy.
Marie's Donuts is a Sacramento staple. If I had to compare Randy's Donuts in LA (review to come) to anywhere in Sac, it'd be Marie's. It's a little standalone doughnut shop and they serve doughnuts from 11pm to 4pm, presumably sleeping at very odd hours. They serve up the classics only, no new weird things like the cronut or nutella marshmallow what have you. So I tried all the basics over the course of a few visits.
In here we got the French cruller (also comes with frosting), the coconut cake, the blueberry cake, the chocolate frosted cake (also comes with peanuts or sprinkles), the crumb cake, and the cinnamon sugar old-fashioned (also comes glazed or with frosting).
The cruller is eggy, moist, and fluffy like a cruller should be. Top quality cruller right here. Coconut cake tastes normal, like a cake doughnut with coconut flakes and frosting. It's good, but I like coconut anyway. Nothing special. Blueberry cake has a sugary-sweet blueberry flavor and is also good but I've never had a bad blueberry doughnut. Chocolate frosted cake: not the best chocolate cake doughnut I've had, to be honest. It's still good, it just needs a little more flavor. The crumb cake, I always like these. It's got yummy coffee cake streusel on top. Better than the plain cinnamon sugar. I think it has brown sugar in it. Speaking of cinnamon sugar, the old-fashioned. It's a decent old-fashioned, but not the best I've had either. I wouldn't recommend cinnamon sugar as a topping personally as it detracts from the flavor. Get one of the glazes or frostings instead. I just wanted to try something a little different. Can't win 'em all.
Next time I went I got some much larger doughnuts that definitely filled out my box. Maple bar, cinnamon roll, apple fritter, buttermilk bar, and the chocolate cream-filled.
The apple fritter is nice and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, with a decent spread of chopped apples, though no big chunks in there. It's sweet but not too sweet. They do have a square apple fritter that's less sweet but it's actually filled with apples. Not that it's healthier but hey, if you want more apples and slightly less sugar, go for it. Maple bar tastes like what it is, as does the chocolate cream-filled. Which is to say, good. Marie's yeast-raised doughnuts are nice and fluffy. The buttermilk bar tastes like buttermilk sure but it's a little on the sweet side. I prefer a more savory buttermilk like the one I tried at BJ Cinnamon. And the cinnamon roll is good but I would've preferred more cinnamon filling in there. Definitely heat that one up for the best experience. I like this box better than the first one to be honest.
Finally, I tried their muffins. They have blueberry, chocolate chip, and banana nut.
They sure got the fluffy muffin top part right. The blueberry and chocolate chip both have the same base so it's really down to preference there, though I think the blueberry is slightly sweeter. The muffin base is a bit of a different flavor. I taste buttermilk in the batter. It's a little more complex than you'd expect just by looking at it. They use real blueberries which is nice. I thought the banana nut would be the star of the show but it's about average. They only put the walnuts on top. If you want a great banana nut I suggest going to La Bou less than a mile away.
I had no idea how big a place this was until I was in college. Big meaning popular. You wouldn't think a little 20x20 square hidden near some high school would attract so much of a crowd. Then again, it is Land Park and Marie's seems to be something of a legacy. Marie's is supposed to be one of if not the most highly-rated doughnut shops in Sacramento (next to Bakers Donuts - review to come). I believe it's even won awards. I'm not sure if it's just because it's a tradition, because of the area, their weird hours, or what, but I can't say this is the best doughnut shop in the city hands down. The doughnuts were fine but Randy's are top-caliber for me and these just didn't compare. I mean, I'm not gonna try all of Sac's doughnut shops just to see but... well, I might. One day. Just for scientific purposes.
It should be noted Marie's is cash-only so be prepared. Their prices are totes reasonable though, at just over a dollar a doughnut and a little more for larger ones. Next time you wanna go to Freeport Bakery but don't wanna pay Freeport Bakery prices, or they're plain out of everything you want (this exact scenario has happened to me), try getting your carb fix at Marie's. Just don't go for dinner or anything. Because they'll be closed. And that would be weird. (Though I'm totally down for doughnuts for dinner personally.)
experience: 4/5
overall: 4/5
Ah Marie's, how I love thee. Thy dough-flavored nuts. Thy fluffy bars of sugar and yeast. I like to pretend whenever I get a doughnut here it's from my grandma whose name was Marie. Back in the day I'd have two doughnuts for breakfast regularly. Back when I had an adolescent metabolism that is. That must explain their location near McClatchy.
Marie's Donuts is a Sacramento staple. If I had to compare Randy's Donuts in LA (review to come) to anywhere in Sac, it'd be Marie's. It's a little standalone doughnut shop and they serve doughnuts from 11pm to 4pm, presumably sleeping at very odd hours. They serve up the classics only, no new weird things like the cronut or nutella marshmallow what have you. So I tried all the basics over the course of a few visits.
In here we got the French cruller (also comes with frosting), the coconut cake, the blueberry cake, the chocolate frosted cake (also comes with peanuts or sprinkles), the crumb cake, and the cinnamon sugar old-fashioned (also comes glazed or with frosting).
The cruller is eggy, moist, and fluffy like a cruller should be. Top quality cruller right here. Coconut cake tastes normal, like a cake doughnut with coconut flakes and frosting. It's good, but I like coconut anyway. Nothing special. Blueberry cake has a sugary-sweet blueberry flavor and is also good but I've never had a bad blueberry doughnut. Chocolate frosted cake: not the best chocolate cake doughnut I've had, to be honest. It's still good, it just needs a little more flavor. The crumb cake, I always like these. It's got yummy coffee cake streusel on top. Better than the plain cinnamon sugar. I think it has brown sugar in it. Speaking of cinnamon sugar, the old-fashioned. It's a decent old-fashioned, but not the best I've had either. I wouldn't recommend cinnamon sugar as a topping personally as it detracts from the flavor. Get one of the glazes or frostings instead. I just wanted to try something a little different. Can't win 'em all.
Next time I went I got some much larger doughnuts that definitely filled out my box. Maple bar, cinnamon roll, apple fritter, buttermilk bar, and the chocolate cream-filled.
The apple fritter is nice and crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, with a decent spread of chopped apples, though no big chunks in there. It's sweet but not too sweet. They do have a square apple fritter that's less sweet but it's actually filled with apples. Not that it's healthier but hey, if you want more apples and slightly less sugar, go for it. Maple bar tastes like what it is, as does the chocolate cream-filled. Which is to say, good. Marie's yeast-raised doughnuts are nice and fluffy. The buttermilk bar tastes like buttermilk sure but it's a little on the sweet side. I prefer a more savory buttermilk like the one I tried at BJ Cinnamon. And the cinnamon roll is good but I would've preferred more cinnamon filling in there. Definitely heat that one up for the best experience. I like this box better than the first one to be honest.
Finally, I tried their muffins. They have blueberry, chocolate chip, and banana nut.
They sure got the fluffy muffin top part right. The blueberry and chocolate chip both have the same base so it's really down to preference there, though I think the blueberry is slightly sweeter. The muffin base is a bit of a different flavor. I taste buttermilk in the batter. It's a little more complex than you'd expect just by looking at it. They use real blueberries which is nice. I thought the banana nut would be the star of the show but it's about average. They only put the walnuts on top. If you want a great banana nut I suggest going to La Bou less than a mile away.
I had no idea how big a place this was until I was in college. Big meaning popular. You wouldn't think a little 20x20 square hidden near some high school would attract so much of a crowd. Then again, it is Land Park and Marie's seems to be something of a legacy. Marie's is supposed to be one of if not the most highly-rated doughnut shops in Sacramento (next to Bakers Donuts - review to come). I believe it's even won awards. I'm not sure if it's just because it's a tradition, because of the area, their weird hours, or what, but I can't say this is the best doughnut shop in the city hands down. The doughnuts were fine but Randy's are top-caliber for me and these just didn't compare. I mean, I'm not gonna try all of Sac's doughnut shops just to see but... well, I might. One day. Just for scientific purposes.
It should be noted Marie's is cash-only so be prepared. Their prices are totes reasonable though, at just over a dollar a doughnut and a little more for larger ones. Next time you wanna go to Freeport Bakery but don't wanna pay Freeport Bakery prices, or they're plain out of everything you want (this exact scenario has happened to me), try getting your carb fix at Marie's. Just don't go for dinner or anything. Because they'll be closed. And that would be weird. (Though I'm totally down for doughnuts for dinner personally.)
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