Arigatō, Café Dulce!

★★★★★

This week, in the heart of Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, I explored a local favorite, Café Dulce. I tasted a variety of the donuts they have to offer, all of which found a special place in my heart.

Because it is located in the Japanese Village Plaza, the little shop is surrounded by authentic Japanese restaurants and cafés. It’s adorned with red and white lanterns, creating a relaxing atmosphere for guests to enjoy good treats with good company. I do have to have one caveat, however: Cafe Dulce is not exclusively a donut shop, which is both good and bad. Though I wish there had been more donut options, it was also nice that they offered drinks and other foods to create a full meal. Though the shop did not have a large variety, I was extremely impressed with the donuts I tried from their limited selection.

The first donut I selected was a Fruity Pebbles donut hole, one of the two flavors Café Dulce offers, the other one being bacon.

These donut holes are unlike the typical ones sold at generic donut shops. Instead of having a glazed frosting, they are topped with a thin layer of whipped cream and then their respective toppings. I’ll admit that eating multiple full-sized donuts in one day can be too much sugar — even though I do this all the time — but these mini donuts are nice for times when you want to treat yourself to something sweet but don’t want to feel guilty afterwards.

The next donut that caught my attention was the Strawberry Cream donut, mostly because the strawberry on top was glimmering with a layer of edible glitter. Of course, I was overly excited to consume glitter in a way that would be socially acceptable, so I definitely enjoyed eating the rest of this donut, too. Though it didn’t eclipse every other donut I’ve ever had, I would still deem it a “good donut.”

And finally, I chose to try the Green Tea donut for my third and final treat to complement the Japanese ambiance in the plaza. This one was by far my favorite because of the contrast in the dry bread and the pleasant surprise of cream filling on the inside. I especially loved that you could taste the green tea flavor, but it wasn’t a try-hard like most of the recent matcha green tea recipes that have become popular recently.

Overall, I had a very pleasant experience tasting all of these unique donuts and relaxing in the Japanese Village Plaza. Now all I can say is, “Arigatō, Café Dulce!”

Café Dulce is located at 134 Japanese Village Plaza Mall, Los Angeles, CA 90012, and is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. all week.

Paulina Ordaz is a freshman majoring in psychology. Her blog column, Donut Worry, Be Happy, runs every other Thursday.