Tag Archives: donuts

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2024

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​Our crew brought out a minivan for the Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl for 2024, as we added two new people to the crawl. Going on Christmas day meant some of the bakeries had lighter staffs, and going later in the day meant some stores had run out and donuts were not at their peak freshness.

We added several new destinations based on people’s Instagram posts. Let me share that some of the IG posts may be paid advertisements (this blog takes no money or ads- please just get friends to subscribe on topics covering Jews, Judaism and Israel) since some were quite weak and overpriced. We also added a nice new bakery based on conversations with people we met at the stores. The list for 2024 is (in the order we visited them):

  • Oneg Bakery, 188 Lee Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211 [Williamsburg]
  • Almah Cafe, 87 Utica Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11213 [Crown Heights]
  • Ricotta Coffee, 513 Albany Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11203 [Crown Heights]
  • Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery, 3008 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11210 [Flatbush]
  • Pita Sababa, 540 Kings Hwy, Brooklyn, NY 11223 [Flatbush]
  • Maison Valero, 501 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Sesame – Flatbush, 1540 Coney Island Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Taste of Israel, 1322 Avenue M, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]
  • Ostrovitsky Bakery, 1124 Avenue J, Brooklyn, NY 11230 [Flatbush]

For those familiar with Brooklyn, you will note that these are a bit scattered, but there is a method to the madness that you will see in the descriptions below.

Oneg Bakery

We’ve skipped Oneg over the last couple of years since Williamsburg bakeries do not, in general, stand out. Oneg is the exception. It is famous for its babkas which are among the very best in NYC. You should pick one up (do not get overwhelmed by the size which looks prepared for a synagogue kiddush; they will cut it in sections. Note that they freeze very well.) You can order from Goldbelly if you do not want to visit in person.

Oneg is small “Old World” bakery and has a small staff during Christmas. Here, a worker prepares dough for their apple strudel

There is not a large selection of donuts at the small store, and they didn’t have frittle when we visited as they were short-staffed on Christmas. Some of our tasting crew thought the plain jelly donut was “fantastic!” and others really enjoyed the Boston cream.

Oneg’s jelly, custard, caramel and sprinkle donuts

Almah Cafe

Almah is a new addition to the donut crawl, being flagged on Instagram. We decided to taste some of their other baked goods like the olive and mushroom focaccias, which were great. It’s a small and fantastic place to visit for brunch. However, I would NOT suggest going for the sufganiyot. They are small, very expensive at $7 each, and not that tasty. We tried two, including strawberry cheesecake. There was little filling and the flavor is so subtle to be virtually non-existent.

Ricotta Coffee

Ricotta Coffee is a pretty new establishment that doesn’t even have signage on the doors. The small place was packed with people eating lunch which looked very fresh. Unfortunately, we did not know that you have to order in advance, so please do so at (347) 365-5177, the day before you plan on picking up donuts. We were very fortunate to meet a Chabad rabbi and his wife that we know who very generously gave us their order of three donuts, as they lived nearby and were able to pick up another order the next day. So nice!!

We found the raspberry donut to be okay and the pistachio to be interesting- it is much saltier (like salted pistachios you might normally eat) with bits of pistachios in the filling. It’s a much more crunchy, saltier version than Sesame which is creamier and sweeter.

Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery

We visit Schreiber’s each year to get their lace cookies, which they do to perfection (I know that it’s a simple cookie but we love places that perfect things).

The sufganiyot were all in the back and they have simple jellies for about $2, and fancy ones for $5. They have a nice selection of packaged donuts for quick takeaway or you can select the ones you want. We bought one pretzel and one graham cracker donut. Both were good, not too sweet.

At this point, we had our first sugar rush. We broke for sushi at Sushi Meshuga, 1637 E 17th Street. The sushi was fine, and helped cleanse our palates for the second half of the donut crawl.

Pita Sababa

As a non-Brooklynite, (and non-Sefaradi) I did not know Pita Sababa, a large Moroccan bakery. I heard about the bakery from a woman on line at Almah who told me she absolutely loved the bakery. It seems so do many others!

The bakery was totally sold out when we visited. Tal, who runs the store, told me he thought he’d sell 10,000 donuts on Christmas! He expects to sell closer to 5-7,000 on the other days of Chanukah. One needs to order in advance on the website. We decided to try a sfenj which is a Moroccan donut. It’s basically just fried dough, somewhat like a churro. It was straight out of the oven, warm and delicious.

Sfenj

You can also pre-order at sabababakery.com or with the QR code below. There are just a few flavors, including chocolate ($48/dozen), custard ($42/dozen) and jelly ($42/dozen). They also sell mini donuts in smaller sizes.

Maison Valero

Some of the smaller bakeries only cook in the morning (as opposed to larger one’s like Sesame and Pita Sababa which bake all day). As such, one needs to come early to get donuts at the smaller shops, and this store was closed by the time we arrived in the afternoon.

Sesame

Sesame has a well-earned reputation for excellent donuts so the few bakery locations are packed. Because they bake all day, people stand around and clamor over the next flavors to emerge from the ovens, shouting “lotus!” and “white chocolate!” Pareve flavors include Oreo, Halvah, Lotus, Pistachio, Peanut Butter, Lemon and classic jelly. Dairy varieties include White Chocolate, Nutella, Caramel and Cheese. All of the fancy sufganiyot were about $5.25.

Crowd standing outside of Sesame bakery in Flatbush waiting to fill in boxes of donuts with the next great flavor to emerge from the kitchen next door to the retail store

Note that these sufganiyot and large and have very rich flavor. We suggest cutting them in quarters so you can try from their wide variety. All are excellent. We ordered a dozen and brought them to friends for dinner.

If you are not planning on eating them for a while and not so particular of the flavors you get, consider picking up packaged Sesame donuts at stores like Sprinkles. We met people at the Oneg bakery who had done just that.

Inside Oneg bakery, people show the Sesame sufganiyot they purchased at Sprinkles. Many people like to sample baked goods from several bakeries

Taste of Israel

Taste of Israel is small general store, but you can order sufganiyot in advance at (347) 554-8133. They have eight varieties ranging in price from $4 to $6, and all are very good. We bought another dozen here to bring to people.

Ostrovitsky’s Bakery

Ostrovitsky’s was cleared out of their fancy sufganiyot (Rosemarie, Chocolate Mousse…) when we arrived around 4pm. We tried a custard donut which was just okay. Dough gets heavy as the day goes on which weakens the experience.

Summary

If one budgets $2-$4 for a donut, look for simple jelly donuts or custard which are usually quite good at most locations (including Pomegranate). The more expensive varieties run $5-$6 each. There is absolutely no reason to spend $7 for a small donut at Almah.

Sufganiyot are much, much better fresh. If one is planning to eat them at the time of purchase, go early to the smaller bakeries which only bake in the morning. The larger locations like Sesame and Pita Sababa can be visited at any time and recommended if one is planning on having them at dinner.

Some places require ordering at least a day in advance, including Pita Sababa, Ricotta Coffee and Taste of Israel. It is very unlikely that you will be able to get any if not ordered early. However, I imagine that it will get easier on the last few nights of the holiday.

Sesame sufganiyot
Taste of Israel sufganiyot

Lastly, talk to people! We discovered Sababa from talking to a woman in line and got gifted donuts at Ricotta from speaking to a Chabad rabbi. People are out enjoying the holiday and you should view the bakery hop as an experience to enjoy with everyone, and not just picking up donuts because pictures looked pretty on Instagram.

BONUS: Latkes (Pomegranate and Essen Deli)

We sampled latkes from Pomegranate (across from Sesame-Flatbush) and Essen Deli (not far from there, next to Ostrovitsky’s). Pomegranate had a few flavors like potato, sweet potato and zucchini which were flat and wide. Essen had potato which were very crunch and thick. The Essen latkes were a bit saltier and people preferred them to Pomegranate’s which candidly, did not look as appetizing when placed side by side.

Wishing you and your families a very wonderful Chanukah!

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2023

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The riders of the sugar storm went to Brooklyn again this year, focused on Flatbush. We started at Schreiber’s which is usually at the end of the trip, because we picked up an important taster who had just flown in from Israel into JFK Airport after ten days of volunteering after the horrible October 7 massacre. We hoped the sugar would alleviate the jet lag and stress.

All of the bakeries we tried were good, as this was our fifth year going to Brooklyn, and have eliminated those bakeries which did not score at least a “6” in the overall ranking in the past. We were sugared out after five locations, so did not make it to some favorites like Ostrovitsky’s.

Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery, 3008 Avenue M

Per tradition, we immediately picked up Schreiber’s lace cookies which are amazing. We grabbed dairy cheese sufganiyot from the back of the store to bring to a niece who said they were amazing. We sampled the pareve selection which were just mediocre. The pistachio one only had pistachios on the outside but no pistachio flavor inside. The dough was too heavy without a lot of flavor. Overall a 6.

Pistachio donut from Schreiber’s

As we debated our scores outside of the bakery (note the filling flavor started as a ‘3’ and settled on a ‘5’ after everyone’s input), a local came over and asked our thoughts on the top bakeries in the neighborhood. It seems that other people are also doing the crawl.

Schreiber’s bakery kicked off the scoring for Hanukkah 2023

Kaff Bakery 1906 Avenue M

Kaff was a new addition to the crawl. We were impressed that several sefaradi people were picking up jelly donuts, as their bakeries do not have a tradition of making the holiday treats. Each one said that Kaff was a favorite but we were disappointed. While the lotus donut was packed with filling, it was not smooth and creamy, and was overly sweet (for me). Fellow travelers loved them which gave a more balanced overall score of ‘7’.

Kaff Bakery had a nice selection of donuts

Presser’s Kosher Bagels and Bakery, 1720 Ave. M

Presser’s donuts candidly did not look at all appetizing and we didn’t purchase any. Instead we tried the chocolate horn which had tasty chocolate but the dough was not as flaky as Weiss’s bakery.

Patis Bakery, 1716 Ave. M

Patis was almost completely sold out by the time we arrived around 11:00am. They had one variety – almond hazelnut – which was fantastic. Very buttery soft dough, good hazelnut filling and tasty toasted almonds on top. An ‘8.5’.

Almond hazelnut donut from Patis, Hanukkah 2023

Taste of Israel, 1322 Avenue M

Taste of Israel requires a pre-order some days in advance at (347) 554-8133. We highly recommend it. It was a new addition to the crawl and tied for top marks with Sesame. The dough is actually better than Sesame in terms of fluffiness and flavor, which is not always easy because it needs to contain the heavy filling. TOI mastered it. While the presentation is not as pretty as some of the other bakeries, the overall taste was terrific even when we ate them later at night. We went for Oreo and Halva; they also have lotus, caramel, custard, jelly and rosemary. A ‘9’.

Taste of Israel donuts ranked highest for dough, and also good flavor

Sesame – Flatbush, 1540 Coney Island Ave

Sesame did not disappoint. Unfortunately, the store has developed a reputation for excellence so is a bit packed but perhaps that’s sharing the joy of the holiday. We heard that the dairy varieties (marked with blue labels) were out of this world but mostly purchased pareve to bring to people for dinner. The pareve (marked with green labels) peanut butter was outstanding – a 10. White chocolate, which I do not usually like was very tasty. Pistachio, as always, was terrific as was the lemon. Sesame puts flavor into the fondant on top of the donut for a doubly amazing experience. We bought dozens to bring back to share with people. A solid ‘9’.

Sesame bakery donuts, Hanukkah 2023

Below is the overall scorecard for each bakery. We hope you enjoy them and Happy Chanuka!

Related articles:

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2022

Jerusalem Donut Crawl 2021

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2020

Chanukah Donuts: Brooklyn 2019

Brooklyn’s Holiday Donuts

French Riviera Crawl

The Last of the Mo’Kichels

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2022

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The annual Chanukah tradition of tasting sufganiyut (filled donuts) at local bakeries returned us to Brooklyn this year. We decided to focus on Flatbush and Williamsburg, and skipped the usual run in Boro Park. Below are the bakeries we went to in order, in case anyone would like to replicate the tour.

Ostrovitsky’s, 1124 Avenue J

Our first stop was Ostrovitsky’s which scored well in prior visits. Unfortunately, the selection this year was beautiful but not good. The flavors looked great – Hazelnut, Napolean, Lotus, Oreo, Chocolate Mousse and Rosemary – but the dough tasted like it was a few days old. The filling flavor was still good but the amount of filling was very different depending on which donut we sampled (yes, we taste everything).

Pomegranate Supermarket, 1507 Coney Island Ave

We made an exception for the strictly bakery locations for Pomegranate, because of the store’s great reputation. There were basic flavors to try – jelly, chocolate, custard and caramel – and the jelly was really great. Dough was light and tasty and just the right amount of jelly and flavor. The $4.00 each for non-fancy seemed steep, but they were good.

Sesame, 1540 Coney Island Ave.

Sesame was packed as usual with a line to get in the store (and Chanukah didn’t even start until that evening!) The bakery always has a great assortment of flavors and they are usually terrific. This year, we found the dough and filling excellent once again, however a bit sweeter than past years. We are biased towards flavor over sugar, and this year, there was a complete lack of subtlety. Pistachio is always a favorite but now it comes complete with a sugar rush. We tried hazelnut and peanut this year too, and picked up a couple dozen for people in our neighborhood who crave them.

Sesame’s Flatbush location

Taste of Israel, 1322 Avenue M

We heard good things about TOI but were then told that they only took pre-orders. We may stop by again next Sunday.

Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery, 3008 Avenue M

Schreiber’s simply has the best lace cookies so we go every year. While not a complicated dessert, they have a great crispiness in a single layer and a generous dipping of excellent chocolate. Make sure to pick some up along with the sufganiyut.

The majority in the store are pareve. They have pre-boxed assortments and we picked up a few to bring to a dinner party (see below). The dairy ones which we ate on the spot had amazing dough – very light and tasty. Please go to the back to pick these up. The strawberry had the perfect amount of filling and also a really nice light flavor. The cheese was a little too light on flavor.

Schreiber’s pareve assortment presents nicely on a dessert table

We took a short break to watch the World Cup finals and got to see the end of the second period of extra time and the shootout with Argentina beating France. I’m not sure how many families watched the end of the amazing 2022 game in a hair salon in the middle of a Chanukah donut crawl, but to those who did – wasn’t it great?

Oneg Bakery, 188 Lee Avenue

We drove to Williamsburg which is a hike I do not recommend. If you are going to the neighborhood anyway, that’s fine but not together with Flatbush which can be 45 minutes away.

Oneg is rightfully famous for its heavy babka, among the best in the world. They are huge at $45 for a half and $90 for a whole. We actually get the large and cut it into three, as they freeze well.

The store is very small and old school. The donuts aren’t fancy but the classic jelly was excellent, maybe only slightly behind Pomegranate’s in terms of flavor and consistency of filling.

Black and White Bakery, 520 Park Ave

B&W was a real disappointment. We had a good experience there in the past, and the chocolate horn was indeed very good. However, the donuts are too expensive ($6.50), almost all dairy, and lacking a variety of taste. Every donut seemed to have the same cheese filling, just with a different topping. While the toppings were attractive, they lacked in flavor. On the plus side, you can daven mincha at the Yeshivat Viznitz around the corner with over 100 Satmar students.

Below is the ranking for this year’s donut crawl. If you visit, please tell them about the review on the blog First One Through. As Chanukah covers two weekends this year, we are likely to make a second run next weekend, possibly visiting Boro Park and Crown Heights bakeries.

Related articles:

Jerusalem Donut Crawl 2021

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2020

Chanukah Donuts: Brooklyn 2019

Brooklyn’s Holiday Donuts

The Last of the Mo’Kichels

Jerusalem Donut Crawl 2021

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This year’s Chanukah donut / sufganiyot (filled donuts) crawl took us around Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem and surrounding suburbs. The selections were plentiful and the quality varied significantly.

There are a number of observations to share before reviewing each location. First, many places emphasize toppings and appearances which often do not correlate to taste. Second, out of the way and unpopular places were amazing. Lastly, some places that had great reviews had long lines and sometimes ran out of any donuts (and thus were not reviewed).

Roladin (Mamilla Mall)

Roladin is a big chain with locations all over Israel. They have a large selection of fancy sufganiyot on Chanukah. However, the quality and taste varied depending on the selection, and generally, the taste did not live up to the hype or presentation.

The sufganiyot looked really great and the chocolate truffle seen above had great flavor. Unfortunately, most of the others like pistachio had little taste other than sugar. The cookies and cream, while tasty, relied too heavily on the Oreo cookie on top.

Kadosh (Ben Yehuda Street Area)

The food at Kadosh is amazing so don’t just stop in for the donuts and stay for breakfast or lunch. The problem is that there is a long line to get in – even just for donut pickup – as they have a great reputation. The donuts basically met the high expectations: excellent dough, nice flavor while not being too sweet. They were differentiated in presentation from many places, as it placed a dollop of filling on one side and had a sugar coating.

Gourmandises by Yoel (Ben Yehuda Street Area)

Go through the Friends of Zion Museum to locate a nice cafe in the back run by a French couple with amazing desserts. Gourmandises makes wonderful light sufganiyot which were tops in regards to flavor and texture of the dough. The icing and filings were light and tasty and avoided the heavy sugar found in many others. Try the pistachio and roses. Or the lemon. Or just about any of them – I had six! Remarkably, there were no lines at all.

Boutique Central (Ben Yehuda Street Area)

The small cafe was recommended to us but the sufganiyot were more of a pastry with no filling. The dough was tasty but disappointed overall.

Boutique Central donut had no filling

Uri’s Pizza (Me’a She’arim)

One can easily miss this place on a side street, and, as it’s not a classic bakery, one would imagine an easy skip for a donut crawl. Not so. While the donut was simple and not beautiful, the dough was light and the filling was just right.

Brooklyn Bake Shop (Me’a She’arim)

Brooklyn sells out fast and we did not get to sample their donuts but heard they were amazing.

Brooklyn Bake Shop with sign in green that they were sold out of donuts

Brizal (Me’a Shearim)

Brizal is near Brooklyn and there’s a reason they had donuts while Brooklyn did not. They looked nice but are inedible. Sweet and artificial. We threw the two we purchased out after the first bite.

English Cake (Mahane Yehuda)

English Cake supplies the sufganiyot found in many of the small stores located around the city. Like Roladin, they look pretty but rely too heavily on sugar as a substitute for taste.

Sweet Nation (Mahane Yehuda)

Like English Cake, Sweet Nation has a beautiful presentation as a cover for a sugar fix. Most of the flavor comes from the fancy toppings. Very festive, but not for a foodie.

Beautiful sufganiyot at Sweet Nation relied heavily on the toppings

Delicases de Paris (Emek Refa’im)

After the great experiences of the French bakeries of Gourmandises and Kadosh, hopes ran high for the two French bakeries on Emek Refaim. Both were disappointments. Delicases sufganiyot had heavy dough that resembled a challah roll – dense and completely off.

Moulin Dore (Emek Refaim)

Moulin Dore was probably the biggest disappointment. The heavy dough was coupled with a spoiled filling. Simply horrible and tossed in the garbage.

Ne’eman (Emek Refaim)

The third stop on Emek Refaim was not a French bakery but a tried and true location. Unfortunately, Ne’eman’s donut simply had little flavor, even while the top and icing were quite good.

Pat BeMelach (Efrat)

Outside of Jerusalem is a great cafe with tasty food and great sufganiyot. The icing, filling flavor and dough texture were all great in every flavor we sampled – and there were many!

Summary

Here’s a table summarizing our review of the sufganiyot of Jerusalem for Chanukah 2021.

BakeryDough textureDough flavorfilling amountfilling flavortopping flavorpresentationoverall
Gourmandises by Yoel101010778.59
Pat BeMelach8798.5778.5
Kadosh888.587.588
Uri’s Pizza996 7NA57.5
Roladin4475.57.58.56.5
English Cake65757.58.56.5
Sweet Nation5584786.5
Ne’eman542687.55
Boutique Central970NA66.57
Delicases de Paris1284564
Moulin Dore1280462
Brazil2000031
Results of the Jerusalem 2021 Donut Crawl

Israeli sufganiyot are quite different than those found in Brooklyn, NY and varied widely in terms of quality. Top scores go to Gourmandises, Pat BeMelach (in Efrat) and Kadosh. We understand that Brooklyn is very worthwhile as well, although it was sold out of donuts when we arrived. Roladin donuts are fine and are easily found throughout the country. We hope you enjoyed the holiday!

Related articles:

Brooklyn Chanukah Donut Crawl 2020

Chanukah Donuts: Brooklyn 2019

Brooklyn’s Holiday Donuts

Chanukah Donuts: Brooklyn 2019

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The annual Chanukah pilgrimage in search of great donuts went to Brooklyn again this year. Due to the horrible tragedy that struck the Satmar community in Jersey City, NJ a few weeks ago, the first leg of the trip was in Williamsburg where the Satmar community has a large presence. We set out to try the donuts of seven different bakeries of which two were standouts. Later we headed to Boro Park where we sampled four bakeries which were all very good.

Williamsburg

Oneg Bakery, 188 Lee Avenue

The best donuts of Williamsburg were at Oneg Heimishe Bakery.

The store is small and the selection of donuts is limited but that says nothing about the quality of the food. The caramel and custard filled donuts were outstanding. They were overflowing with delicious centers which were very tasty and not too sweet. The dough was light and the icing was very good. An overall rating of an 8. Considering that the donuts only cost $2.00, lower than many others, if felt like a 9.

Oneg also was the only bakery we visited that carried “frittle,” essentially small and light pieces of fried dough with sugar which are made only on Chaunkah. They were quite good. May I add that the babka from Oneg is among the very best in New York.

Black and White Bakery, 520 Park Ave

The Black and White Kosher Bakery is not that close to the other bakeries but worth the trip. There is a mix of dairy and pareve donuts, plain and fancy, with prices ranging from $1.75 to close to $5.

The donuts were heavily filled with the taste of the fillings getting a range of reviews from amazing to just OK. The dough was very good, perhaps not as good as Oneg due to the freshness of when we arrived (jelly donuts decline in value as rapidly as a BMW). Overall an 8.

Traditional Kosher Bakery, 123 Lee Ave.

A very simple store with a simple name. It serves a number of non-baked items as well as some other baked goods including a cinnamon stick (OK) and a nut/craisin/cinnamon loaf which was terrific. The plain jelly donut had a very tasty raspberry jam but the dough was tough, heavy and thick. Overall, a 6.

Steinberg’s 701 Bedford Ave.

Steinberg’s exterior has no signage whatsoever. The store is clean and decent size with a pretty good selection of donuts. Some of the jelly donuts were assembled in sandwich-format rather than center infused.

The donuts had a very nice amount of filling, but unfortunately, not that tasty. The icing fell apart and onto the floor on first bite and the dough was not that fluffy. Overall rating of 5.5.

Kaff’s, 73 Lee Ave.

Kaff’s was one of the largest bakeries we visited in Williamsburg and they had a nice selection including two fancy choices with elaborate toppings. Regrettably, the dough was too heavy and the filling, while plentiful, was not on par with the presentation. Overall score of a 5.

G’shmak 164 Wallabout Ave.

G’Shmak was a real disappointment. While thrilled to have a halavah donut which had great flavor, everything else was lacking: The donuts had very little filling and the dough was very heavy. Huge piles of garbage near the entrance did not add to the experience. Overall rating 3.

Sanders 159 Lee Ave.

We stopped into this nice store – twice. Each time we were told that donuts were about to be ready, and each time kept waiting. On the second visit, the person at the store said that he had three small donuts in the back which he could give us, and after five minutes he confessed he had none and that we should return yet again. Nope. Gets a 0. The gluten-free cookies were also not great.

Boro Park

Boro Park bakeries had a much better consistency of high quality donuts than Williamsburg. I would recommend any of the four we visited. Here they are in rank order:

Gobo’s, 1524 New Utrecht Ave.

Gobo’s is a new addition to the Boro Park donut crawl and it did not disappoint. They have a different kind of jelly donut which is based on a churro, a cinnamon fried dessert. It was magnificent, with a slightly crunchy exterior, light and flaky dough, with a light creamy inside. An incredible treat and different than every other donut on the crawl.

The more traditional donuts were also very good with excellent dough, heavily filled. Toppings and icings remained on the donut. Overall rating of a 9.0.

Sesame, 5024 13th Ave

We typically go to the Sesame in Flatbush, but decided to try the location in Boro Park due to the proximity of our other stops. The bakery was a knock-out, just like the Flatbush location.

There are dozens of flavors to choose from, including unusual ones like pistachio. The donuts score at the top of the charts in every category: delicious and plentiful fillings, light and tasty dough, flavorful icing that is not overly sweet that stays atop the donut. An incredible treat, whatever flavor one tries. Scores a 9.0.

Taam Eden, 4603 13th Ave.

Ta’am Eden has long been a subtle favorite, a great counter-balance to Sesame. Both have fantastic dough and tasty fillings, but Ta’am seems to not want to overwhelm. The donuts seem smaller than Sesame and the filling doesn’t ooze out all over the place. But such amazing flavor, with new options like Passion Fruit and Pina Colada (seems like you can get some vitamins in donuts these days). The toppings were perfect in that they were very flavorful and remained in place. Overall an 8.5.

Weiss Bakery, 5011 13th Ave.

Weiss is simply an all-around great bakery. Compared to the other stores like Sesame which basically only serve donuts on Chanukah, Weiss adds donuts to its delicious repertoire, but doesn’t try to redefine its store.

The donut fillings are full and very tasty as were the toppings. The dough was not on par with Ta’am Eden or Sesame, and therefore got an overall score of 7.5. However, the store was handing out donuts to children who participated in a Boro Park scavenger hunt, worth an extra point for being a great member of the community!

Here is a chart summarizing the ratings for the 2019 Donut Crawl. Feel free to share the article and peruse and share the other articles on First.One.Through which focus on Jews, Judaism and Israel.

Happy Chanukah!

Related First.One.Through articles:

Brooklyn’s Holiday Donuts

The Last of the Mo’Kichels

A Sofer at the Kotel

Ruth, The Completed Jew

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Brooklyn’s Holiday Donuts

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Okay, so my family has a bit of an obsession about food. It’s a statement that’s always true, and it gets worse on holidays.

On Chanukah, we make an annual pilgrimage to different areas of Brooklyn, NY to sample the great donuts. Well, not really “sample” as much as devour. Here are the highlights so you can participate in the fun.

Sesame. 1540 Coney Island Ave.

The store is located on the diagonal corner from the large Pomegranate kosher food store. The donuts are simply delicious. The shelves are often wiped clean and people must wait for the fresh donuts to be brought in from the oven around the corner.

Ever eat a lemon jelly donut fresh from the oven? It’s out of this world. The hazelnut? Amazing. The Lotus and regular jelly donuts were also terrific.


Selection of jelly donuts from Sesame

Grab a cardboard box for six when you enter the store. It’s easier to handle than the large box for a dozen as you try to grab some fresh donuts as the store workers bring in the next batch. (We had two six-packs and another plastic container for two more).

Bagels N Greens. 1379 Coney Island Ave.

This store is for people looking for elaborate donuts with multiple and complex toppings. Excellent flavor at a steeper price. They also have a nice lunch menu and chairs to sit – unique among the bakeries listed here. I suggest factoring in some healthy food somewhere in the donut crawl so your kids don’t think you’re totally insane.

Ostrovitsky’s. 1124 Avenue J

Nice, clean and well lit, the holiday donuts are just one of many great things to sample here (also try the chocolate horn – yum). The Rosemarie chocolate donut was marvelous. The place is often busy, with an organized line, but definitely worth the wait.


Line at Ostrovitsky’s worth the wait

Gombos Heimishe Bakery. 328 Kingston Ave

Gombos is in Crown Heights. Over the holiday, it is ALL about the donuts; there is nothing else really going on here. Prices are the cheapest and the selection and taste is quite good. They have a good mix of dairy and pareve donuts. The place is a bit of a balagan (crazy disorder) but a required stop if you have kids and/or buying dozens of donuts.


Some of the donuts at Gombos

Those are the top four bakeries if you’re looking for exceptional donuts and a great holiday experience. Here are some others that were sampled and worth visiting:

Weiss Bakery. 5011 13th Ave

Excellent bakery. Try the rugelach or chocolate horns. The donuts are okay, not required eating during the holiday.

Taam Eden Bakery. 4603 13th Ave

Right down the block from Weiss Bakery is Taam Eden. Very nice selection of donuts at good prices.

Schreiber’s Homestyle Bakery. 3008 Avenue M

Quite close to Sesame, is a small (not as clean as one would like) but definitely delicious bakery called Schreiber’s. In addition to the pretty good and very tasty selection of donuts, are lace cookies which among the best in Brooklyn.

Mansoura Bakery. 515 Kings Highway

Mansoura is a Syrian bakery and does NOT carry donuts. They do carry some amazing baklava and other Sefaradi dishes. Note that it’s not so close to the other bakeries.


Baklava at Mansoura

Enjoy the holiday AND the food!

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