North Carolina Donut Shop Ranks Among The 10 Best In America For 2023

By Sarah Tate

Photo: Getty Images

Is there anything better than a hot and fresh, made-from-scratch donut? Donuts are the best pick-me-up. Whether you pair your favorite donut with a cup of coffee in the morning or just want a sweet afternoon snack, there are plenty of amazing local shops waiting to serve up some of the best jelly-filled and heavily-glazed treats.

Yelp compiled its 2023 list of the 100 best donut shops around the country, serving up everything "from old-fashioned frosted classics to bacon-topped maple creams, and trendy Hawaiian-style donuts with ube-flavored glaze." Several local favorites around North Carolina managed to snag a spot, and one even ranked in the Top 5 overall.

Among the best donut shops in the country is HOLE Doughnuts, with the Asheville donut and coffee shop landing the No. 2 spot overall. HOLE is located at 168 Haywood Road in Asheville.

Here's what the site had to say:

"HOLE serves just four flavors of yeasted donuts — and each is pure 'perfection,' according to Yelpers. Husband-and-wife duo Ryan Martin and Hallee Hirsch make their donuts fresh to order from a slow-rising dough, for a result that's 'delicately crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.' 'We like to keep things as simple as possible [and] get the donut perfect each time,' Ryan says. That requires a labor-intensive process of making 700-1,500 donuts daily — each of which is carefully hand-rolled and hand-shaped in HOLE's open kitchen."

HOLE wasn't the only North Carolina locale to find a place on the list. Here are all of the Tar Heel State donut shops named among America's best:

  • No. 2: HOLE Doughnuts (Asheville)
  • No. 13: Superior Bakery (Fayetteville)
  • No. 57: Baker's Dozen (Raleigh)
  • No. 62: OMG Donuts & Bakery (Concord)
  • No. 97: HenDough (Hendersonville)

These are the Top 10 best donut shops in the U.S. for 2023:

  1. Rocklin Donuts & Cinnamon (Rocklin, California)
  2. HOLE – Hot Doughnuts and Fresh Coffee (Asheville, North Carolina)
  3. JD Flannel Donuts and Coffee (San Juan Capistrano, California)
  4. Munchkins Donuts (Covina, California)
  5. Hot N Sweet Coffee and Donut Shop (Page, Arizona)
  6. Round Rock Donuts (Round Rock, Texas)
  7. The Jelly Donut (San Francisco, California)
  8. Stan's Donut Shop (Santa Clara, California)
  9. Simone's Donuts (Long Beach, California)
  10. Purvé Donut Shop (Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii)

Check out Yelp's full list to see more of the country's best donut shops this year.

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