Anybody that knows me well knows that I cannot say “no” to a donut.  And that I spell doughnuts “donuts”.  Hakeem told me about a place that he reviewed for a website that he writes for (which I have also guest-contributed) called Nuok.com.  If you want to read Hakeem’s novice attempt at restaurant criticism, go here.  But if you want the real scoop about the Italian donuttiere - Bomboloni, continue reading my intrepid followers!

Bomboloni is the Italian version of a custard filled donut, and Bomboloni the restaurant is the Italian attempt to chime in on the nascent donut trend sweeping the nation*.  I apologize to what few vegan readers I have, as bomboloni and doughnuts by definition are not vegan, so maybe you can read more about my trip to Blossom erstwhile.  Nevertheless, after a long day of strolling the streets of New York, Hakeem and I had a hankering for something sweet.  Now, we had far more common sense than the 45 people waiting in line for Magnolia Bakery, so we went to Bomboloni to try out the donuts that he recently reviewed for Nuok.com. 

I ordered a pistachio bomboloni, which I devoured immediately, barely savoring any pistachio-custard-filled morsel.  Despite purchasing them late in the day, the donuts were still very fresh-tasting, probably biased by the quality of the custard filling.  Hakeem also had the bright idea that we buy a few more donuts to eat the next morning for breakfast, and I could not even muster a response to such a brilliant suggestion beyond “Sounds good.”

The next morning, I looked forward to trying out my gianduja donut and my tiramisu donut.  The tiramisu donut was topped with a chocolate wafer, which after a night sitting out was quite soggy. The donut was not as good as it could have been, but still 100X better than any Dunkin’ Donuts donut, which leads me to wonder just what exactly they are doing to their donuts to make them so bad.  The tiramasu filling was sort of a rummy chocolate flavor, and was pretty average especially when compared to the pistachio from yesterday.

The gianduja also had a pleasant dark chocolate flavor, and surprisingly, I preferred this to the tiramasu (I’m sure regular readers are familiar with my stance on tiramasu).  However, the chocolate was much darker, which I appreciate, so I like to think that I was at least getting some anti-oxidants from this donut.

The donuts at Bomboloni are fantastic, and the best part is, you can still get a good selection late in the afternoon.  This is one of those special New York places that not everyone has found out about, so it’s not been ruined like Magnolia.  I know I continually deride places like Magnolia, but I actually like it as a bakery.  I just don’t think it’s 45 min wait good.  Bomboloni is another such place - it’s great as long as you don’t have to wait in line (which we didn’t).  Because of that, I’ll give it four cheese sandwiches for making a great donut.

*I’m predicting that there is a donut trend that will finally eradicate the stupid cupcake trend that has already destroyed so many lives the last few years, and restore some balance to the universe.

Bomboloni
187 Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023-5103 
(212) 877-3080