Friendly Donuts

When we post about any restaurant, choosing a single photo as the first image can be either easy or extremely difficult, and with Friendly Donuts, it’s practically impossible: So many of their donuts are individually beautiful that putting them all together in one image only detracts from their impact. We consider the above image of their orchid-topped passion fruit/orange/guava (POG) glazed tropical donut to sum up what’s so special about this Cambodian-owned shop in Orange: In a world where donuts are sold by the dozen and eaten to excess, it is possible (though perhaps not preferable) to choose and enjoy a single perfect donut here.

While we hadn’t visited Friendly in its earliest, late-1980s incarnation, it suffices to say that while they’re still serving donuts, their current menu can’t possibly resemble the original. Having jumped onto multiple trendy bandwagons – mochi, cronuts / dossants, and croissant wheels (try the cappuccino version!) just in recent years – Friendly has somehow managed to actually do justice to each type of donut, representing the category properly without producing cloyingly sweet or otherwise imbalanced desserts. And that’s on top of nailing classics including old-fashioneds, crumbles, and jelly donuts.

We suspect Friendly’s magic comes from lessons learned through constant rotations of their offerings. The shop went viral in 2014 after becoming the first shop to serve an ube donut, and appears to have since paid constant attention to what’s happening in the Orange County and global baking communities.