The Absolute Best Donuts In Portland Are Fried To Order

Portland, Oregon is a donut town. While I was growing up, the rest of the country thought of us as the city with the weird, bright-pink shop known as Voodoo Doughnuts. The city has better, lesser-known spots in every neighborhood, like Sesame, Doe, Blue Star, and Coco. However, the city only has one shop that's worth waiting in a long line for: Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai.

Pip's fries up each order of mini donuts fresh. Toppings include raw honey and sea salt, Nutella and sea salt, cinnamon and sugar, bacon maple jam, and house-made jams, creams, and custards that use local, in-season ingredients. My go-to order is eight donuts — two honey, two Nutella, and four seasonals (two cream, two fruit) — and a chai. I usually rotate through the five chai options: Heart of Gold (toasted coconut, turmeric, and spices with green and black tea), King and I (Thai pandan tea with chai spices), Emmylou (herbal with lavender, chrysanthemum, and fennel), Ginger Rogers (spicy ginger, Thai chili, and molasses), or Smokey Mountain (smoked black tea with cocoa and vanilla). I like the spicier Ginger Rogers chai as a nice palate cleanser between donut flavors. You can even get a chai flight if you have trouble deciding.

The two-bite donuts are based on one of the owner's grandma's Belgian waffle recipe, so they're crisp on the outside and both hot and fluffy on the inside. The honey and sea salt are a sweet and salty combination that doesn't overwhelm the donut base, and the seasonal toppings all beautifully highlight whatever's in season (most often fruit). Nothing is overly sweet, which allows for the limited-time ingredient to shine.

Pip's Original Doughnuts & Chai opened in 2012, but it feels older than that. The staff behind the counter are all friendly, and owners Nate and Jamie Snell (or their children) are often working. Hand-painted clouds harkening back to Jamie's childhood in the high desert adorn the walls, accompanied by an Oregon flag. The donut-chai combination feels like a duo formed from the owners' passions rather than what's currently trending (but don't worry, there's also matcha!). This isn't just a donut shop — it's imbued with the owners' personalities. Check out the shop's Instagram to make sure it's open and to confirm the seasonal hours, as the business' small size means these can vary.

Pip's is on Northeast Fremont St., a quiet portion of the city's east side (not too far from one of my favorite pizzerias in the U.S., No Saint). The shop briefly ran a second location in nearby Beaverton, but rent increases coupled with economic slowdown led them to shutter the space. Rent is just one of many costs restaurants may factor into menu prices before they can turn a profit. Fortunately, the employees at that space received a severance package and kept their employer-paid healthcare for 30 days. Considering how well Pip's treats its staff, the friendliness behind the counter makes perfect sense.