Donuts are among America’s favorite foods, partly because there are so many varieties – but mostly because they're just so delicious. Across the US, bakeries are dreaming up ever more inventive ways to serve them, from masterpieces that rival wedding cakes to offerings with imaginative flavors and toppings. If that has you tempted, read on as we reveal the best donut in every state and Washington DC. 

Click or scroll through our gallery to discover where to try the finest donuts in America, counting down to reveal the tastiest of all.

Raised donuts may reign supreme in most states, but it's Flyboy Donuts' cake donuts that will really knock your socks off. They’re indulgently dense and super rich. People adore all the flavors, from blueberry to vanilla, but a favorite is the chocolate cake version, which comes with a chocolate glaze and colorful sprinkles. The handmade treats tend to fly out of the door at each of the company’s five locations in Sioux Falls.

This place is known for its bismarcks – plump, cream-filled donuts – in rotating flavors such as Boston cream, lemon, cherry pie, and cannoli. There are three Blackbird Doughnuts stores in Boston, and several across Massachusetts, and people love trying the seasonally changing fillings. It isn’t cheap, but fans agree that donuts this good are definitely worth the money.

The accolade for best donuts in Washington goes to General Porpoise, which has four bakeries in Seattle. Soft and fresh, they come piped with a variety of fillings that often poke out of the top, tantalizing customers who crave varieties like classic vanilla custard – a firm favorite with regulars. People love that it’s deliciously creamy and not too sweet. It’s on the core menu, but there are rotating seasonal specials, too.

This popping purple donut is almost too good looking to eat. Santa Fe's Whoo's Donuts makes its offerings from scratch every day and takes pride in its creative flavors – from seasonal Mexican chocolate to a green chile apple fritter. But the enduring favorite is the Blue Corn Blueberry Lavender, a ring donut with a sweet, floral, fruity glaze that looks as pretty as can be sitting on the shelf (and tastes even better).

Ring donuts don’t have to be plain and simple, as this elegant, vibrantly glazed treat proves. Guru Donuts has a rotating range of freshly baked goods, including ring, vegan, cake-style, and even potato donuts (it is Idaho, after all). The Hipsterberry, with its blueberry, blackberry, and lavender glaze is a menu mainstay and a customer favorite, both for its Instagram-friendly looks and its phenomenal flavor.

Highly rated PVDonuts was Rhode Island's first specialty donut shop and is still considered the best. Its flavors are constantly rotated across donut styles from cake to crullers, and there's a range of vegan varieties, too. The brioche-style version is a real winner. Raised with yeast, it’s a light, airy, beautifully buttery ring donut that’s just as delicious whether it’s topped with apple, brownie, or peanut butter cream. They’re always huge, too.

Mega-chain Krispy Kreme was born in North Carolina, so it’s unsurprising that the state is overflowing with delicious places to get a donut fix. Suárez Bakery, which has two locations in Charlotte, is a huge hit thanks to its oh-so-pretty and oh-so-delicious donuts. Its Texas donut cake, a huge tower of the bakery’s signature donuts layered with cream (and available to pre-order with different fillings and sprinkles), is a real treat. It serves up to eight people and is ideal for a special occasion.

The brilliantly named Vincent Van Doughnut is the place to go for creative, made-from-scratch donuts, and the St. Louis store is open only until its goodies sell out. With donuts this good, that’s usually pretty quickly. Experimental flavors come and go, pleasing palates along the way, but a firm favorite is the deliciously decadent Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate: a sour cream donut with a chocolate glaze, chocolate chips, and chocolate ganache.

Louisiana, and particularly New Orleans, has plenty of donut shops and bakeries. But, really, there’s a clear frontrunner when it comes to the ultimate fried treat: the beignet. These small, pillowy, puffed-up donuts originated in France and have become synonymous with the Big Easy. The ultimate place to eat them, many fans agree, is at Café Du Monde's original French Market stand (there are now many others in the city). They’re served under a mound of powdered sugar and usually presented with a chicory-laced café au lait for dipping.

There’s nothing about the phrase ‘donut ice cream sandwich’ that we don’t like. Firecakes, with three Chicago shops and one truck that rocks up at locations around the city, is famous for them. Customers can mix and match donuts and ice cream, with vanilla and hot fudge among the favorite fillings. Incredibly popular, Firecakes is considered a real Chicago must-visit.

With four locations across Alabama (plus two in Georgia and one in Tennessee), Hero Doughnuts & Buns is an independently owned shop that specializes in French-style brioche donuts, made from scratch daily. This place is loved for inventive specials like bread pudding, cinnamon rolls, and s’mores, but it’s the classics, and particularly the heavenly Boston cream donut – generously filled with thick yet light cream and topped with chocolate – that fans would scramble over a tower of other treats to get their hands on.

Vermont is known for its apples, and the enterprising folk at Cold Hollow Cider Mill have combined their love of cider-making with donuts to create the perfect treat. The cider-infused cake donuts are freshly made each day in old-fashioned donut machines, and people travel here just to try them. They’re beautifully simple, with no glaze, and are best enjoyed warm from the fryer.

Fans of Bearscat Bakehouse reckon it serves the best donuts in the state (and even beyond). There are three locations in North Dakota – in Bismarck, Mandan, and Minot – and a core range of classic and colorful donuts is offered along with seasonal specials. One of the mainstays is the heavenly Oreo-covered option, which is loved by regulars.

JR’s Donut Castle might not serve the fanciest donuts – but as many customers agree, they're the best around. The chocolate varieties win the most praise; people are particularly partial to the triple chocolate, a chocolate cake donut topped with chocolate glaze and chocolate sprinkles. 

East Park Donuts and Coffee specializes in brioche and cake donuts and caters to those following paleo, gluten-free, vegan, and keto diets. Most of the menu is a rotation of specials and colorful creations. The incredible brown butter donut is part of the core range, and people love how it offers a beautiful balance of sweet and salty flavors.

Cool Cleveland hangout Brewnuts serves small-batch donuts made using carefully selected ingredients. Craft beer is whipped into the batter, giving the handcrafted donuts unique flavor profiles and helping to counterbalance the sweetness. Customers rave about the huge, filling, and unfailingly delicious donuts, with a main range embellished by rotating specials. The maple bacon version is an enduring favorite.

Things are done a little differently at The Holy Donut, which has five locations across Maine. Here, freshly mashed Maine potatoes (yes, really) are added to the donut batter to give it a moist texture – and people love the results. The triple berry donut, which has blueberry, raspberry, and strawberry in its glaze, is a perennial favorite.

Five Daughters Bakery serves a range of tempting paleo donuts which are free of grains, gluten, dairy, and sugar. That said, it’s best known as the home of the hundred-layer donut, made fresh each day with croissant-style layers, like a cronut. There’s usually a handful of seasonal specials on offer, alongside menu staples like the triple raspberry donut. The bakery has two locations in Atlanta and one in Alpharetta, as well as several in Tennessee.

The donuts served from Gourdough’s two vintage Airstream trailers, which have the words ‘Big. Fat. Donuts.’ emblazoned on the side, are nothing short of epic. The menu offers a few donut holes for dessert, but it’s the savory options – including a range of donut sandwiches and even donut burgers – that customers really love. In particular, the Mother Clucker (perfectly crisp fried chicken drenched in honey butter and served with a hot garlic donut) really gets people talking. Or clucking…

Doughnut Plant claims to have introduced several industry-first innovations, including the first crème brûlée donut: a fluffy, round donut that's filled with house-made vanilla bean custard, dipped in a sugary glaze, and hand torched for added crunch. It's a must-order at this cool spot, where everything on the menu is made with the freshest ingredients – and without eggs, preservatives, or trans fats.

Family-run Beiler’s Doughnuts has two outposts in Pennsylvania – one in Philadelphia and one in Lancaster – plus another in Germantown, Maryland. There's a variety of classics and specials on the menu, but it’s the crème-filled powdered one that wins the most praise. A firm favorite, it's a pillowy soft donut drenched in powdered sugar and filled with thick, velvety cream.

A family business established in the 1960s, Bob's Donuts, which specializes in a variety of donuts and pastries, now has three locations. It's the famous apple fritter (pictured) that people visit for. Filled with chunks of real apple, and with a crispy, caramelized coating, the fritter is perfectly soft, moist, and bursting with flavor.

Having originally earned its badges for making donuts based on classic Girl Scout cookies, Broad Street Dough Co. – with shops in Encinitas, Freehold, Wall, and Oakhurst – has become the go-to place for anyone craving donuts in New Jersey. It’s all about fresh, made-to-order donuts, with more than 40 rotating varieties on the menu each day (plus the chance for customers to create their own). Most of the donuts are vegan and gluten-free, too.

Cardigan Donuts regularly adds new and innovative flavors, glazes, and fillings to its menu, decorating its treats with berries, sprinkles, and even edible flowers, so they look as wonderful as they taste. The classic rings, such as the Old Fashioned and the light and flaky French cruller (pictured) – made by twisting rectangles of dough into a braid – are the best, though.

This family-run Ferndale favorite might be named for its apple fritter donuts (which some customers reckon are the best around), but it’s famed for its blueberry version, which comes laced with maple syrup and tastes simply amazing. People love the fact that the flavors are baked right into the donuts, rather than just featuring in the glaze and toppings.

Everything on the menu at Diablo Doughnuts is tempting, and most of the donuts are dressed up pretty decadently (think colorful specials piled high with glaze and sprinkles). However, you can’t beat the Sin Crunch, a yeast-raised donut with a vanilla glaze, a colorful drizzle, and a whole lot of cinnamon sugar.

Hawaiian poi-glazed donuts are made with taro root which has been boiled and pounded into a paste. A little is added to the donut batter to give it its purple hue, while the rest is reserved for the glaze. Kamehameha Bakery has been whipping up poi donuts and other malasadas (yeast-raised donut balls originating from Portugal) since 1978. Today, they’re as amazing as ever – wonderfully moist, with beautifully balanced flavors.

Sidecar Doughnuts & Coffee has won several awards and was named the best donut shop in California by Food & Wine magazine. There’s nothing on the menu (which includes sweet and savory options) that isn’t completely delicious – but it’s the seasonal huckleberry donut, with its deep pink glaze, cake-like texture, and fresh Oregon berries, that tops the lot for many customers. The bakery has several locations across the Los Angeles area, with branches in Costa Mesa, Santa Monica, Torrance, and Del Mar.

Vegas is known for the flashy and the fancy, the lavish and the luxurious. So why should Sin City’s donuts be any different? Glaze Doughnuts makes a pretty mean glazed ring and some lovely classic cake donuts – but it’s the showstoppers that have really won this place fans. The bakery serves some of the most creative and handsome handmade donuts in the state. The El Jefé, a horchata and churro donut, is described as heavenly.

Ever since The TatoNut Donut Shop opened in the 1960s, it's had an almost perpetual line snaking around the corner. As hinted by the name, the store’s secret recipe uses potato flour for a light and fluffy batter. The Persian, a cinnamon-filled glazed donut that’s served hot, is the biggest crowd-pleaser here. It’s so delicious, customers return for a taste time and again.

It’s hard to know where to start with the white chocolate tres leches (three milks) donut, a specialty of The Salty, which has four locations in Florida. Perhaps with a dozen of them? The base of this unique runaway favorite is a 24-hour raised brioche dough; once fried, it's dipped in melted white chocolate and finished with a swirl of meringue. In short, this is the donut of dreams.

Biting into the fresh, hot, made-to-order donuts from Sandy Pony is a rite of passage if you're spending the day at Bethany or Dewey Beach. There's a long list of exciting flavors on offer – but for something sweet and fun, try the Jingle Shells donut with a chocolate glaze and rainbow sprinkles (pictured bottom row). You can expect a line when you visit, but customers say the donuts are definitely worth waiting for. There are two other locations, in Maryland and Virginia.

Country Style Donuts has two locations in Richmond, and both are hugely popular for one reason: the donuts are delicious. These are mostly no-frills donuts, which is what customers tend to love. The classic raised style with a maple frosting is one of the favorites, with its tasty topping and beautifully light, fluffy texture. Some devoted customers say they’re the best in the world.

Handcraft Doughnuts specializes in making small-batch donuts in interesting flavors, using local ingredients. It's a popular spot, and its donuts regularly sell out. Manage to get your hands on one, though, and you won't be disappointed. The signature blueberry cream cheese donut is glazed with mascarpone and filled with fresh blueberries tossed in wild blueberry compote, lightly sweetened cream cheese, lemon zest, and fresh lemon thyme. It appears on the menu for limited periods of time, so keep an eye on the website to check availability.

The customer decides the donut at Mountain Donuts, whose tagline is ‘top your own.' The South Ogden spot has a wide and eye-popping array of donut styles, glazes, toppings, and drizzles to choose from, so everyone gets exactly what they want. The trickiest thing is deciding, though people love the fun of it – and they say the donuts are top quality, too.

Long’s Bakery is no-frills and cash only. It’s also, according to many who’ve visited, one of the best donut bakeries in the entire country. This place proves that fancy isn’t the only way to go with donuts; the plain, yeast-glazed option regularly gets rave reviews. 

Jason’s Donuts doesn’t look like much from the outside; the small shop is tucked behind an unassuming door in an old lot. Inside, though, the air is scented with just-baked, freshly glazed donuts that have a tendency to fly out the door. Everything is delicious, and flavors are offered on an 'until sold out' basis. The chocolate cake is a regular variety (and a firm fan favorite).

Nok's Donuts in Lafayette sells an array of scratch-made donuts, including cake donuts, mochi donuts, French crullers, and sweet potato donuts, all prepared using as many natural ingredients as possible. The daily changing menu features numerous delicious flavors, from raspberry and passion fruit to chocolate and coffee, but it's the fresh and zingy lemon iced donuts that consistently receive rave reviews from customers.

Pip’s Original donuts may be miniature, but their flavors are big. The Portland-based company, which has a bricks-and-mortar shop and a mobile van, regularly switches up its menu with seasonal specials like banana custard and strawberry rhubarb donuts. The raw honey and sea salt donut, among the shop's first creations, is an enduring favorite and has won awards. People love that it’s not too sweet – and it tastes especially delicious with the store’s specialty chai.

Donut Therapy is loved by customers, who travel from miles around to sample its freshly baked glazed ring and custom-made donuts decorated with a variety of different colored icing and available in an array of flavors. One of the most popular options is the lightly spiced, soft and sweet pumpkin cake donut, while kids love the specially designed character donuts. The chocolate-glazed, M&M–topped ring donut is the runaway favorite, though.

The New Hampshire Doughnut Co. receives rave reviews from customers, who say it's the best donut place they've ever been to. With a seasonally changing menu of artistically decorated, delicious treats, it's hard to know which donut to go for – but for a truly decadent experience, try the Baklava (pictured left), a yeast ring donut dipped in brown butter frosting, topped with crumbled baklava and drizzled with honey. You can also pre-order bespoke designs for special events.

This beloved family-run spot in Paducah serves the best donuts in Kentucky according to many – and, according to some, the best in the US. Red’s Donut Shop has been pleasing customers with its perfectly prepared rings and balls since 1955 (though it was originally called Nunn Better). The cream-filled donut holes are a favorite, but it’s the glazed ring donut that wins the most praise. Customers describe it as ‘soft, fluffy, and gooey.'

The classic buttermilk donuts and buttermilk minis are the favorite at this small, old-school bakery, which has been in operation since 1975. Customers rave about their perfect balance of flavors (they aren’t too sweet or too sugary) and their light, airy, melt-in-the-mouth texture. The glaze is just right, too. Other top-rated donuts include the honey-dipped glazed ring and those piped full of cream and fruit jelly.

This quaint donut shop, located next to a gas station, uses years-old family recipes to make its popular sweet treats, which customers say are 'remarkably delicious.' Sunny's sells maple cinnamon donuts, maple bacon donuts, chocolate old-fashioneds, buttermilk bars, and other classics, but it’s the soft and pillowy cinnamon sugar and raspberry jelly–filled donuts that are the real must-try.

Ankeny's Ambrosia Donuts make flavorful, fluffy, fresh donuts every day, and locals say they're the best you'll ever taste. There's a variety of ring donuts, filled upon request, and cronut flavors available, but it's the plain glazed ring that wins praise from customers for being melt-in-your-mouth perfect. You can also customize your donut with a filling of your choice.

When Neil Bukowski opened his donut shop in 2001, his jelly injector machine broke, so he decided to cut his donuts in half and fill them by hand. Customers loved that they got a taste of the juicy filling in every bite, and so Neil continued to fill the jelly donuts in this way. But that's just one of the reasons these treats remain so popular; customers also say the donuts are perfectly light and fluffy, and they rate the wide range of both ring and filled donut flavors available.

A donut filled with strawberry jam and tossed in vanilla bean sugar is a firm, gooey favorite among customers of Peaceful Provisions – they rave about its amazing texture and flavor. The menu here changes weekly, but this one is a regular, alongside creations such as maple pecan and blueberry vanilla ring donuts, cake donuts (including double chocolate), and another customer favorite, the NY Cream donut, which comes filled with vanilla pudding and topped with chocolate icing.

Olsen Bake Shop is a real hole-in-the-wall spot – and, as many foodies know, these are often the places that really deliver the goods. Devotees rave about its classic donuts, with the perfectly fluffy glazed ring donut a fan favorite. There are no frills, either in the shop or on top of the donuts, and that’s what a lot of customers really love about this place.

People travel for miles to sample a sweet treat from Granny's Gourmet Donuts, so you have to arrive early and be prepared to wait in line (it’s only open Friday through Sunday, closing at 1pm each day). The effort is worth it, though; customers say Granny's serves the most flavorful and decadent donuts around. The donut of the day is always a popular choice – expect delights such as a raspberry peanut butter number (pictured), filled with raspberry spread and topped with peanut butter buttercream.

Gloriously rustic, old-fashioned donuts are a specialty at Greenbush Bakery, which has two locations in Madison. Sour cream is added to the batter, which lends a distinctive flavor and helps to counterbalance the sweetness, while also giving the donuts a beautifully crisp finish. They come in classic sour cream or with blueberry, cherry, chocolate, or apple cinnamon added to the mix. According to devotees, they’re simply the best.

It's often the small spots that serve the best donuts. Dale’s Donut Shop is definitely one of those places, with customers willing to travel out of state to get their hands on its fried-to-perfection treats. They’re all worth the journey, but it’s the pretty, pink glazed ring that people often come back for, with fans raving about the sweet strawberry flavor, as well as the perfectly fluffy texture.

The Donut Shop on Central has amassed a seriously loyal following over the years, and this can be attributed to two things: the warm and friendly welcome offered by owner Vanny Leas, and the shop's exceptional donuts. The perfectly imperfect-looking classic apple fritter donuts are a delight – light, fluffy, and deeply fruity – while the glazed frosted bars and twists are an absolute treat, too.

Don’t let the name fool you. Novel Ice Cream does serve its ice cream in a cup or waffle sandwich, but it’s the warm donut buns, with a scoop stuffed inside, that customers adore. The Dough Melt, with bright blue Cookie Monster ice cream, mini cookies, and crushed Oreos, is a true standout. There are also locations in Mesa and Peoria.

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