Fantastic Donuts and Where to Find Them

★★★★★

For those of you who are getting tired of eating kale and drinking kombucha for your New Year’s resolutions, let me do the honors of welcoming you back to the good life. On my most recent donut adventure, I followed the road down Vermont Avenue to an up-and-coming donut shop called Fantastic Donuts.

Though at first glance, Fantastic Donuts doesn’t seem like a typical foodie destination, I believe the shop shows great potential. In the near future, I predict that more and more photos of their donuts will be populating Instagram.

In fact, it was through Instagram that I first heard of this place. I know, I know. Whenever I go to any donut place, I always say, “These are the cutest donuts ever!”— but trust me, these really are the cutest donuts ever!

The majority of the shop consists of other traditional donuts, such as the chocolate old-fashioned donut shown below, but Fantastic Donuts is mainly known for their array of adorable animal donuts and donut holes.

The day I went, there were only two animal donut holes left, but I also noticed a sign saying that those mini donuts were only available through preorder. I was disappointed to say the least, because I was hoping to do a donut photoshoot with both the regular-sized and the mini donuts.

For some reason though, the store owner decided to just give me the two that were left without even charging! To this day, I don’t understand how I got so #blessed, but I’ve learned to not question these moments. However, with that being said, if you do want to try the donut holes, be sure to email [email protected] beforehand to make sure they will be available.

Usually when I go to donut places that make a serious effort to make their donuts look aesthetically nice, I don’t expect them to taste as great as they look. Surprise, surprise! Fantastic Donuts’ confections were fantastic. The frosting on the mini donut holes didn’t just taste like condensed sugar; the chick donut was banana-flavored, and the cat one tasted like blueberries! My favorite, however, was the cow donut — and not just because it was the biggest. I loved the jelly filling, and overall, it had just the right jelly-to-dough ratio.

I will definitely be visiting Fantastic Donuts again, especially since it is so close to campus and it’s open 24 hours. I hope more USC students will find this place as fantastic as I did. So here’s to a new year and new donut places to try in the next few months. It’s good to be back.

Fantastic Donuts is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week at Gold Plaza, 1101 S. Vermont Ave. #113, Los Angeles, CA 90006.

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