Don's (Your Personal Pie Club)

Don's was introduced to me recently by my gf after she bought me one to enjoy at my leisure. They tout themselves as being the one stop solution for chicken pies and have been around for quite a long time and currently have quite about 4 outlets selling their products. Is it good enough to warrant another purchase though? Read on.

Address: 20 Cross Street, #01-34/35/36, China Square Central, Singapore 048422

Contact: 63274344

Website: http://www.donpieclub.com.sg/

Don's Your Personal Pie Club

Interior

A Slice of the Pie ($16.50)

Another Look

I've always liked chicken pies but struggled to find one thats dependable or remotely worth a mention to recommend. Well, i guess the search is over for now. We actually bought the pie on take away on Friday night and ate it over the weekend as breakfast after heating it in the oven. What can i say? Its delicious.
The crust is of medium thickness, which means it feels just right without making you feel like you just paid for flour instead of a pie. It was also fragrant and very appetising, and thats only talking about the crust. The next thing you notice about the pie is how heavy it is. For something that small, its actually quite surprising how much weight it packs. And it is so because of the thick stuffings and ingredients they used for the pie.
For the ingredients, they used chicken meat, egg, potato, corn, green pea, mushroom, celery, peppercorn and spices and everything is halal so our Malay friends can have a slice of the pie (pun intended) and eat it as well. Everything in it tastes authentic and fresh which makes it definitely worth the price.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Last Word:
Try it to see if it is indeed worthwhile of being a pie specialist. Try it and let me know if you feel otherwise or if you know of anywhere better, but whatever your reason, try it!
To Christine, thank you for introducing this to me. Its indeed very good. :)

The Donut Factory

Finally, we get down to business and do a write up on none other then the coveted Donut Factory. Currently available in only 2 locations in town, this orange box means you've either lined up for 2 hours or more for your favorite little fried pastry. I'd like to reiterate once again, i am not a donut lover and asking me to line up for 2 hours for a donut is a suggestion bordering on insane. However, i did find a smaller queue on this very fortunate day and so, we queued, waited and scored!

Website: http://donutfactory.com.sg/

Menu

Box Close Up

The Elusive Orange Box

12 Assorted Donuts @ $12.50

Another View

After an astonishingly long wait of...... 15 minutes (!!!!), i got my hands on a huge assortment of donuts from this famous and much talk about pastry chain. That's right, 15 minutes was all it took and thats a far cry from what i've been told. Even better, most of the flavors were present, i bought 2 boxes of 12 and the other box had the Double Chocolate flavor, which is deemed one of the most popular items.
Anyway, as of present, i have tasted 2 flavors with the third gone before i could try. They are the peanut butter glazed donut, the Raspberry dark chocolate and the spicy cheese flavored donut.

Peanut butter glazed donut has a generous filling of peanut butter within and has a nice glazed surface of sugar which really enhances the taste but may come across as a tad too sweet for some.
The raspberry dark chocolate tasted normal in the beginning as i couldn't make out the dark chocolate nor raspberry taste. Its saving grace came about halfway through the donut when its thick, sweet and sour raspberry filling oozed out for a satisfying spin on the taste.
Finally, the spicy cheese flavored was devoured by my mom very quickly while she kept exclaiming how fragrant and tasty it was as compared to the other donut company i've been reviewing.
Across the board, i believe the main difference in their offerings is the quality of the dough. It was uniformly softer and less porous when compared to other donuts i've had at this point. The fillings it offers also packs a stronger punch as compared to other would be imitators. Delightful!

Overall score: 7.25/10 (After considering a 15 minutes waiting time, score will drop significantly with longer waiting times.)

Last word:
Does it live up to the hype? In terms of donuts, the answer is a resounding YES.
Can waiting 2 hours for its donuts be justified? Unfortunately, i would say no. At least not for the flavors i've had thus far. Donuts are known for being quick munchies and for stemming pangs of hunger, they are not known as a luxury item that demands a long waiting time. =P I suppose the next donut comparison will probably be the original Dunkin Donuts in USA. Till then, the Donut Factory can tide you over till you get the real thing.

Donut Donut (Hougang Central) Pt 2

A quick follow up on this little pastry outlet as promised. For a view of my previous comments, please click here.

Location: Blk 810 Hougang Central #01-234

Contact: 63870787

Cheese Donuts ($1.40 each)

The assorted list ($6 for 6)

If you remember from my previous post, i was quite optimistic about what this little outlet offered and promised to visit it again soon. Well, here it is!
I had a go at the more expensive cheese donut and was quite disappointed by it as i found the dough a little hard this time around and i couldn't justify why sprinkling cheese bits on top and having cheese vanilla flavored cream on the inside increases the price of it by another 20 cents from its other offerings. From there, everything went downhill as i tried once again, the mocha flavored donut, dark chocolate coated donut and the white chocolate donut. Somehow, i can sum the whole experience up as dull after a few bites as everything starts to blend into one familiar flavor. I also began to feel the dough isn't aromatic enough and finally, i've decided i probably would not patronize the place further as their offerings remain largely the same throughout with little to no surprises at this point.

Overall score: 5/10

Last word:
I would like to apologize to anyone who did try this place out because in the end, it really isn't very good. In fact, their donuts are only slightly above average and a good way to put it is that it is simply a flashier version of normal coffee shop pastries that is riding on the success of The Donut Factory. Next write up, The Donut Factory.

Donut Donut (Hougang Central)

With the popularity of donut boutiques like The Donut Factory, it is inevitable that people will want to jump on the donut bandwagon for a piece of this ever growing cash pie. Donut Donut is one such outlet and it seems to have been reasonably successful thus far with about 3 outlets spread across the country (the ones i know thus far that is).

Location: Blk 810 Hougang Central #01-234

Contact: 63870787

A six pack

Address

Yummy looking Donuts!! ($6 for 6)

First up, i'm not a fan of donuts but this box looked simply delightful! It contained 6 donuts, 2 durian flavored, 1 coffee flavored, 1 dark chocolate flavored and 2 more which i don't know because i never tried them. For what i did try, the durian and coffee flavored one, it was quite nicely done. The dough was soft and decidedly porous with an aromatic taste of buns. The durian was not as strong flavored as i thought but still managed to command recognition. The coffee donut had dark chocolate sprinkled atop and was shaped like a heart. The dough was alike with its durian offering and the coffee mentioned was basically mocha flavored cream passing off as coffee. Decent nonetheless.
Good marks for presentation though, i'm looking forward to my next visit to see if there are better offerings.

Overall score: 6.5/10