Shameless Review: Portland's Voodoo Doughnuts - Irreverently Delicious

Voodoo Doughnut - The Magic Truly is in the Hole



The original Voodoo Doughnuts is a hole in the wall in Portland that any lover of doughnuts must visit.  This place is irreverently hilarious with doughnuts like:

• The Voodoo Doll - a yeast doughnut with a raspberry filling in the shape of a person.  Topped with chocolate, it also comes with a pretzel stick "pin".  Unfortunately it doesn't come with directions on how to use this to torture random people...but I guess they had to draw the line somewhere.
• The Bacon Maple Bar - another yeast doughnut, but in bar form.  Coated with a maple glaze and topped with 2 strips of bacon.  Given my beliefs about butter and bacon making everything better, you can imagine how I feel about this one.
• The Diablos Rex - chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate frosting, red sprinkles, a vanilla pentagram and chocolate chips.
• The Texas Challenge - This is a raised yeast doughnut that is Texas sized.  It is equal to over 6 normally sized doughnuts and if you can eat it in less than 80 seconds, you get it for free...I was not man enough to try, but let me know if you do and succeed and I will post your picture on Shameless Foodie!
• The Old Dirty Bastard - A raised yeast doughnut with chocolate frosting, crumbled oreos, and peanut butter.

I have left off some of their more risque doughnut types, but if you are interested in seeing what else these mad scientists of doughnut making have concocted, check out their site here:  Voodoo Doughnuts Menu.

We heard about this place when we arrived in Portland and everyone was telling us, that this is the best place to go in the city.  I checked it out on urbanspoon.com and it is the number 1 rated restaurant in the city, so I had to give it a try.  We decided to take a stroll down there a little after lunch on a Sunday morning, thinking (naively as it turned out) that there wouldn't be much of a wait at this time of the day / week.  The line that greeted us was almost a full block long and wrapped around the corner. While this was a good sign, we were on a schedule so we decided to come back later.

FOOD:
When we finally got back around to Voodoo, I was almost sorry that I didn't wait in the line the first time.  I asked the young lady working behind the counter what the most popular doughnut they had was, and she reached into her confectionery case of magic deliciousness and produced a bacon maple bar.  Who am I to argue with the masses.  So, resigning myself to the inevitability of fate, I decided to give it a try.

Despite the late hour (it was 2AM...and before you ask, yes we had been drinking), upon my first bite the skies parted, and a heavenly light poured down as a host of winged angels sang music almost as amazing as the doughnut itself.  Maple and bacon is a traditional combination, but when added on top of a raised yeast doughnut, the human palette is not quite capable of keeping up with the doughnuty genius of this delightful bar.

One of my compatriots decide to try the Old Dirty Bastard.  This doughnut proved to be almost as delicious as the Bacon Maple Bar.  I was a little skeptical of the crushed oreo and peanut butter combination, the the richness of the peanut butter and the crunchy, slightly bitter aspect of the oreos off set each other beautifully and came together in a symphonic crescendo of doughnutness.

ATMOSPHERE:
It is a funky little doughnut shop...what more is there to say?

SERVICE:

Plan on waiting if you go during normal hours.  However, if you are out on the town and craving a little portable taste of heaven, then at 2AM there is hardly anyone there.  Note: this is a cash only establishment - come prepared.

The original Voodoo Doughnut is located at:
22 Southwest 3rd Avenue
Portland, OR 97204
(503) 241-4704