Shortstop Coffee & Donuts, Melbourne CBD by Bureaucrat

Schmick, pricey and interesting flavour combinations meant I just had to try the doughnuts at the new-ish ShortStop (which is right next to Raw Trader).

Following a morning team meeting at Krimper, I badgered my team mates into trying a couple of the doughnuts with me.  We got ours to go as the place is small (only a few tables and stools if you want the dine-in option), plus the place gets crowded quite quickly as people are milling about to place their orders and to wait for doughnuts and drinks to come out.

There’s about seven or so flavours to choose from.  We decided to get the plainest flavour – the cardamom cinnamon sugar doughnut and (because I can’t pass up the opportunity to try a custard filled doughnut) the crème brulee doughnut.

Of the two, the plainer one was the best.  A relatively big doughnut, nicely yeasted but a bit denser in texture than I would have liked.  The gentle aroma from the cardamom was a nice touch and gave a nice counterpoint to the cinnamon. 

The crème brulee doughnut was a little bit disappointing.  I benchmark all custard doughnuts with the ones at Walkers Doughnut (although, admittedly, in recent times, the custard doughnuts at Walkers have dropped in quality a bit).  The good points was that it had a nice crisp sugar crust – just like a proper crème brulee - and that the custard had a proper booziness from the bourbon and the presence of vanilla bean seeds.  Not so good was the rather runny texture of the custard (it literally seeps out even before you bite/cut into it).

Pick a doughnut, any doughnut.

Verdict – we liked it.

Overall

The doughnuts are okay - at around $4.50 to $5.50 each, they are much pricier and a wee bit smaller than most doughnut places.  As they’re more expensive I expected them to be much more tasty to justify the price.  For me, I might just try one or two more doughnuts as the flavours seem quite interesting but I can’t see this being my go-to place for doughnuts (that will still be Walkers Doughnts).

Service is a tad slow and the place seems a wee bit chaotic – but I’ll put this down to teething problems for a new shop.  Be prepared to queue up to place an order and to get your doughnuts.