PVDonuts Gourmet Doughnuts Review – Providence, RI

This review is made possible by my wife who, on a weekday off from work, went to try and obtain some of the elusive doughnuts everyone in Providence is raving about. This was her second attempt because the first time she went around 11:30 AM, PVDonuts were completely sold out. With this knowledge, she instead went early in the morning, stood in line for about 30 minutes, and left the store with four handmade, giant, gourmet doughnuts.

PVDonuts
200 Allens Ave.
Providence, RI 02903

Service and Atmosphere
PVDonuts is a newer company serving gourmet handmade doughnuts. While the hype for PVDonuts continues, so do the long lines and wait times. You need to get there early and wait in line if you want to make sure you get a doughnut before they sell out, which they do regularly. As of the time of this review, customers are limited to four doughnuts per person so that PVDonuts can share the wealth with more people. The bakers and staff love doughnuts and that shows in their politely friendly attitudes.
The interior of the bakery reveals that PVDonuts’ products are displayed next to Sin Bakery’s products since the two bakeries share space. The menu changes frequently, so the same doughnuts aren’t always available every day. I had people recommending the maple bacon doughnut, for example, but they weren’t available when I finally did get a chance to visit! I guess I’ll just have to go back.

Food
PVDonuts makes two kinds of doughnuts – a brioche style yeast-leavened doughnut and an old fashioned cake style doughnut leavened with baking soda/powder. We chose to try four doughnuts based on their flavors alone, which all turned out to be brioche-style. The flavors we enjoyed consisted of Dave’s Coffee Milk, Vanilla with Sprinkles, Matcha Green Tea and Raspberry, and Strawberry Glaze.
I’ll start and just say that all of the donuts were delicious, huge, fluffy, and extremely well made. Each doughnut has its own personality in the sense that none of them were exactly the same shape or size, which speaks to the handmade quality of the product. The most notable aspect of the brioche style doughnut is the buttery, sweet, bready interior. The doughnuts are simultaneously light and very filling. My wife and I had to dissect each of the four doughnuts into quarters to try them all because ultimately, we couldn’t really eat more than the whole of one doughnut without getting full!

In terms of the individual flavors, my one issue is that of the four different flavors we tried, all of them had the exact same base even though they all looked very different. Mind you, that base brioche doughnut is delicious, but the actual body of the donut had no unique flavoring to it other than the glaze on top. The glazes were very nice in texture and quantity, but were also extremely very light in flavor. Essentially, if you enjoy subtle flavors to your desserts, then these doughnuts are perfect for you. On the other hand, if you are used to a stronger flavor of doughnut topping or you prefer the flavoring in the actual dough, then you’d be just as well off getting a vanilla glaze doughnut compared to another flavor. The one exception to the batch of four that we tried was the Dave’s Coffee Milk Doughnut. The glaze itself had a very mild coffee flavor, but the majority of the flavor came from the additional crunchy coffee and chocolate topping.
Personally, I loved the Vanilla Sprinkles dougnut because the simplicity really shows off the magic behind this well-crafted pastry. When I return to PVDonuts, I’ll be sure to try an old fashioned cake style doughnut so that I can get the full experience as well as whatever new brioche style flavors they have that week.

Overall Impression
PVDonuts makes fantastic handmade gourmet doughnuts. Their base brioche style dough is light, fluffy, subtly sweet, and filling. No one flavor overpowers another. Those that enjoy a more refined, yet hearty take on doughnuts that aren’t cloyingly sweet will surely love PVDonuts. I’ll definitely go back to try the constantly rotating variety and if you have the time to wait in line, these classic American pastries are worth the wait!

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