The Holy Donut in Portland, Maine

When asking around for recommendations and reading reviews of must-eat-at restaurants in Portland, Maine I kept coming across The Holy Donut. Now, we are totally not donut people. I don’t even know how to spell donut, or is it doughnut? And no, it’s not because we are health conscious. Donuts are just not our thing. I will say that living in upstate New York, I do appreciate a warm and fresh apple cider donut in the fall. But honestly that one donut may be the only I eat every year.

So based on the repeated recommendations of The Holy Donut, we added it to our list of things to try in Portland. Our family lucked out since one of The Holy Donut locations was within a few blocks of our hotel. We visited the donut shop on a rainy Saturday morning. Outside there were already a few cars waiting for them to open. At 7:30 AM sharp the doors were opened and a line formed within minutes. We each ordered a donut to try and grabbed a seat inside to eat at. Most people seemed to take their donuts to go as there were not many seats inside anyway.

We tried the following flavors…

• Dark Chocolate w/ Vanilla Glaze
• Dark Chocolate w/ Sea Salt
• Maple Bacon
• Plain (not sure if even worth mentioning – LOL)

The donuts were super rich and most definitely “sharing worthy”. None of us finished our donuts, so we saved them for later. They have so many other interesting and “not so traditional” flavors to try. We can’t wait to visit Portland again and try some other flavors out. These donuts from The Holy Donut were awesome.

A few tips:

• Get there early to avoid a long line and the chance of them selling out. We passed by the same shop later in the afternoon and saw a line out the door!
• The donuts are big and very rich. I suggest sharing! This is also hard because you want to try a few flavors, right? So do just that and then take the rest to-go!
• Their coffee is also amazing 😉

Did you know…?

These donuts are made with potatoes! Whhhaaattt! How strange! However, I can tell that those potatoes add to the density and richness of these donuts. Read more about how these donuts came to be here!

Locations

There are 3 locations in Maine. We visited the first one below which is in what we found to be the touristy part of Portland, Maine.

1. 7 Exchange Street, Portland, Maine
2. 194 Park Avenue, Portland, Maine
3. 398 Route 1, Scarborough, Maine