Lee’s Donuts is one of the pride and joys of the Granville Island Public Market. It’s a famous donut shop that’s known for their filled, long johns, fritters and regular donuts. What sets Lee’s Donuts from other donut shops are that they have a soft and chewy dough which makes them a delight to bite into.
On the day we were there, we had to wait 25 minutes to get through the door to get them! While you can access the donut shop through the interior of the public market, currently you can only access the line from outside. The line is usually pretty long and it gets quite crowded so make sure you make it your first stop!
The menu at Lee’s Donuts is pretty simple. You can buy the donuts individually, by the half dozen or dozen. Specialty donuts are priced higher but they are worth it!
Jelly Filled Donut
The jelly filled donuts vary in flavours depending on availability and season. If you get earlier in the day there’s more choices to choose from but only strawberry was left when I got there. I don’t mind though because strawberry filled jellies are such a classic. Instead of being covered with powdered sugar, these jelly donuts are coated in granulated sugar. I liked it better this way because the exterior didn’t get melty and sticky quickly. The donut was fluffy and had a nice chewy texture. The strawberry jam was on the sweeter side but I’d get this classic again in heartbeat.
Butter Crunch
The butter crunch donut is a vanilla donut with crunchy topping on the outside. This was a cake donut was was crumbly in texture instead of being more doughy like the jelly donut. It wasn’t as sweet as the jelly donut which I appreciated and reminded me of vanilla cake. The crumbles were a great textural addition to the soft donut. They also have this one in a chocolate version!
