[London] Crosstown Donuts at Spitalfields Market

Crosstown Donuts is a barely 4-year-old donut bakery chain started by Adam Wills, the Kiwi native from Wellington who’s behind Kopapa @ Seven Dials and the GBK burger chain. I never noticed it until fellow Hungry Onioner, @ds pointed its Spitalfields Market outlet right behind me just as we were having some pre-dinner drinks there last week whilst waiting for another foodie friend to join us. So, I decided to take a peek at its offerings. What better accompaniment to a beer than a couple of donuts.

Some flavours we tried:

Matcha Tea According to the description given by Crosstown, Tongan vanilla bean glaze was smothered over a matcha cake dough ring, filled with a layer of matcha & white chocolate ganache. It was good - I’d never tasted a donut with a moist cake-like texture before, sandwiching additional creamy filling for added richness. The matcha (green tea) flavour was pretty pronounced but never overwhelming, and the overall product was never too sweet (like those one finds in American donut places).

Vegan Lemon-Thyme - pink beetroot dough hand-dipped in a tangy lemon-thyme glaze and finished with vanilla crumble and fresh lemon-thyme. This one has a drier texture which I didn’t quite enjoy. Not too sure about thyme on donut as well.

Rum & Pineapple - vegan sourdough with dark rum icing, topped with a slice of rum-roasted pineapple and finished with vanilla crumble. This one was truly disappointing, but I blame myself: I actually expected something stronger in terms of the rum content. Perhaps unrealistic. But the roasted pineapple also did not have that caramelly sweetness and smokiness which I somehow imagined it would have. Overall product, with the sourdough, tasted too “bread-y” to me. None of the fluffy richness of a fresh donut.

So, a case of hits-and-misses. I only liked one out of three which I picked out. Maybe I might just go back for some other flavours some time.

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not sure about these. i don’t eat doughnuts very often but, when i do, i like them to blow me away every time! am i remembering correctly that they cost a lot? we have ‘the dough society’ here in hackney - vegan doughnuts… also £3-3.50. the matcha does look good! anyone tried ansel croughnuts? i haven’t.