It’s no secret New Orleans knows how to make the best deep fried doughnuts in the country. You only have to stop in at Cafe Du Monde to figure that out, but this city also offers some of the best traditional style donuts too.

While beignets are the most popular fried sweet treat in New Orleans, this city also has you covered when it comes to both classic and creative donuts. But that shouldn’t really come as a surprise since New Orleans is a mecca for food in the United States.

Whether you’re looking for a classic glazed to dunk into your morning coffee, a creative concoction to make your day a little more exciting, or an extraordinary looking donut to impress friends and followers on your Instagram feed, this list has you covered!

From donut shops that specialize in buttermilk drops and traditional cake varieties to more adventurous styles that are bursting with flavor, you are bound to find a sugary, doughy, slice of heaven that will brighten up your Monday morning or make your vacation a little extra special.

Here is an in-depth look at some of the best donut shops in New Orleans that are guaranteed to rock your world and where to find them.

Best Donuts In New Orleans

Hurts Donut Company

Hurts Donuts is an award winning donut shop that started in New Orleans back in 2013. Since then, it has grown into a popular franchise with stores across the United States so they must be doing something right.

There is no better place to try out these wild and impressive looking donuts then at their flagship store on Loyola Avenue.

What you’ll find inside are some of the coolest looking donuts in ultra tempting flavors like strawberry cheesecake, cotton candy, peanut buttercup, and brown sugar cinnamon latte. But there are so many other options with lots of fun toppings.

They’ve also got giant cinnamon rolls and apple fritters that are incredibly flavorful. Everything here is fresh, light, and fluffy, the way a donut should be!

If you get a chance, try a donut shake too. Their shakes come in the flavor of your choice of donut plus a donut on top!

District Donuts Sliders and Brew

District Donuts are one of the most popular donut shops in New Orleans, not only with locals but visitors too. So much so that they now have multiple locations in New Orleans as well as a store in Mississippi and Las Vegas.

Here is what’s special about this donut store; they make everything from scratch, including their sprinkles! They don’t use any pre-made mixes or artificial flavors at all. It also helps that the donuts here are totally Instagrammable.

There are three staple varieties of donuts which are always on offer and they include a glazed, cinnamon sugar, and chocolate glazed.

In addition to the staples, there are six rotating donuts every week from a catalogue of well over one hundred creative styles. Some of their fancier options they are best known for include a maple bacon Sriracha donut topped with candied thyme, Coconut Basil, Strawberry Cheesecake, and Horchata.

While you’re here you may as well order a fried chicken sandwich because it is AMAZING and comes topped with buttermilk garlic slaw, candied jalapeño, and spicy pimento cheese. But the pork belly slider and waffle cheese fries will certainly blow you away too. Yes, you can have a great lunch here and order a fabulous donut for dessert. It doesn’t get much better than that.

City Donuts

City Donuts is the only donut store in New Orleans that is open 24 hours!!! But don’t worry, this is not the only reason this donut shop is so impressive. They also actually have killer donuts to too!

Some of the donuts here that consistently get rave reviews include the strawberry frosted and the chocolate coconut. The cream filled options are also good too but the highlight would be the lemon filled which has just the right amount of sweet and tart flavor combination.

You know what else? These donuts are all so cheap! Two donuts here will set you back a more than reasonable price of $2.40 and an order of half a dozen is about six bucks!! If you were in Portland, Los Angeles, or NYC you would probably be looking at over fifteen dollars for sure.

Customers of City Donuts appreciate the fact that this bakery also has a drive thru which is quite convenient indeed.

Blue Dot Donuts

Blue Dot Donuts is a donut shop in New Orleans that focuses on adding a twist to traditional varieties. The owner of this business, Zach Foster, is a third generation donut baker so you could say donut making is in his blood.

This man has been making donuts since the age of ten with his grandfather so you better believe he has mastered the art of creating perfectly light and airy fried dough.

So which donuts are the best to order here? The sweet and salty tasting maple bacon bar is amazing and so is the PBJ donut. Another one to try here is the lemon filled.

A word of warning, this donut store does sell out quite early in the morning and even arriving at 10:30am is quite risky. However, you are more than welcome to phone ahead so they can put your favorite donut aside to pick up later.

Buttermilk Drop Bakery

The Buttermilk Drop Bakery is a small hole in the wall establishment in the Gentilly / Seventh Ward area. While the bakery’s exterior might not excite you, their buttermilk drop donuts certainly will!

In case you’re not familiar with what these delicious doughy balls are, they are no more than a rolled up cake donut dunked into icing. But it works. And the locals love them!

These buttermilk drop balls are super soft and moist on the inside, and perfectly sweetened on the outside with a delicious glaze. While the plain flavor is the favorite, the red velvet is pretty good too.

Something else to look forward to at this donut shop in New Orleans is the flavored beignets! They’ve got strawberry, cream cheese, and chocolate covered versions of this city’ most famous food.

There are a few other regular donut varieties like glazed, jam, lemon curd filled, and vanilla cream filled donuts to choose from too.

Bakers Dozen

Bakers Dozen has been serving up the best donuts in New Orleans since 1993! Since this business has been around for quite some time, they have really mastered the art of donut making. Seriously, you will never see donuts that look this good!!!

This incredible donut shop offers so many different varieties that you’ll need to come back several times to sample everything here.

To begin with, they serve cake donuts that come in flavors that include blueberry cake, cinnamon, chocolate covered, and buttermilk. Then there are all of the filled varieties with flavors such as apple cinnamon, apple crumble, sugar jelly, and glazed blueberry to name a few.

But the creative donuts here take the cake. Some of the crazy and spectacularly colorful options are the color splash, candy bead, and fruity pebble.

Because this donut store is only open until 11am in the morning, you need to get here early or you will miss out!!! They are also closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Daddy’s Donuts

Daddy’s Donuts is a small, simple, and clean donut shop in New Orleans with the freshest and LARGEST donuts in town!

While they may not have the creative combinations that some of the other donut stores on this list offer, they make up for it with fantastic tasting classic varieties.

What you want to order here are traditional glazed or sprinkled donuts but the maple bacon bars are also very good here. There is no doubt you’ll be impressed by how light and fluffy Daddy’s Donuts are and the very reasonable prices are guaranteed to please everyone.

You can find this donut shop over in Gentilly. The donuts here are made fresh daily and the best thing is they are open seven days a week!

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