Donut Queen

Lovely donuts and lovely service. CASH only. Simple donuts done right.

Saw some of the reviews on here and had to speak up for the place! Depends on what kind of donut you prefer really on whether you’ll love this place or other donut shops. These donuts are light and fluffy, large, and traditional flavors. No dense crazy concoctions here. I’m not a fan of heavy dense donuts which are the craze at some other places in Portland. The shop itself looks like an abandoned restaurant with one tiny food display case holding today’s freshly made offerings. Definitely a stop in and go establishment. Note they are cash only and don’t offer pizza like the signage indicates. If you can handle the mom and pop lack in appearance you can experience some bomb donuts!

This «Donut Queen» should be usurped. Talk about deflate gate! They are kinda tasty, but no substance. Maybe thats why a dozen are dirt cheap. (under $ 8). When you live in a city with donutphiles, you got to get your game on. It’s like a 10 year old made these. C’mon !!!

Get the bear claw! I travel all over the country and finding local donut shops is a hobby of mine. A good donut shop must have unique and tasty donuts… and…the counter help needs character.
So…now you know my criteria.
The bear claws are great. I find reasons to come in here for the bear claws. They are big and tasty. And… they are unique in that you can’t find them every where. So Donut Queen became by Portland bear claw destination.
The counter lady is awesome. She is friendly and has a smile for me every time. She is not super chatty but seeing her and being treated like a valued customer is a rare pleasure in our society these days.
Why a 5? I’m rounding up to help the curve.

A solid donut shop. If you just want a regular ol’ donut without sea salt and bourbon on it, Donut Queen is the answer! I got so used to paying six dollars for artisanal fancy pants hipster donuts, that I forgot how much regular donuts actually cost, so it’s a relief that I can get some donuts and coffee with two dollars! The owner is super sweet and made me the perfect cup of coffee. The shop is super clean and maintained and reminds me of the shops I went to as a kid.

Ick.
The doughnuts here had a chemical flavor to them. Both my wife and I agreed upon this immediately after taking our first bite. I stomached mine down, but she opted to throw hers away. Throw a doughnut away? Yes, that bad. A shame, because the lady running the place is pretty sweet.
Go elsewhere.

Went today expecting them to be open. We arrived to find them closed with the Open sign displayed in the window. No explanation, nothing. There’s not even a phone number to call. I would normally give them a five star but since they are closed without explanation I’m giving them a one star. I hope I find them open the next time I’m in the area.

I’m not a donut-​eating person… most of the time. Was hungry, happened to be walking by so I popped in.
Just had the best donut of my life.
A plain cake donut, spongy, just sweet enough, perfectly moist.
I’m a size 4 as I write this, may be a 6 or 8 by the time you read this if I find myself near Donut Queen often enough.

Updated review: still amazing, just wanted to post their hours. Open everyday 6 – 5:30.

A-​OK fer sure. I think it’s cash only as I did not see any card– taking machines or Visa type decals on the windows. Therefore…
Welcome to 1978. This is worth dropping by if you are driving by. The donuts are strictly old school and are a step up from the grocery store.
This place is quite austere inside. There are a couple of tables if you need to sit but t’s a pretty plain environment. The woman behind the counter is polite but quiet. I do not believe she is comfortable speaking English.
A good place for a quick casual donut (or three).

This is the donut place you go to when you are too broke or too hungover to venture very far from your house. You go to this donut shop because you know they will have the classics and will only cost you $ 1.50 per donut.
Yup, this place is A-​OK. The woman behind the counter is cute and polite, but she doesn’t say much. I’m guessing she doesn’t speak much English.
I would definitely go here again, but only because I live about 3 blocks from here. I wouldn’t recommend it as a ‘must try’ in Portland. I can think of at least 5 donut shops that have better options, but you get what you pay for.
At least they taste fresh!

Donut Queen makes their donuts with solid donut-​making principles.
They make them in an inexpensive way with some varieties but not too many varieties, only a dozen varieties for your dozens of donuts. Each donut is only 80 cents and that’s also about the cost of a small can of soda at Donut Queen.
The taste is fairly good. It isn’t an exceptional donut, but the flavor was there and the glaze worked well with the dough, certainly providing a great quality at the price. They had some legitimate baking equipment.
It’s about the same quality as other donuts, but the cost is low and the line is short if there is any.
There were only a few tables and some of them were stacked in a corner next to televisions.
Overall, Donut Queen delights your donut desires.

Oh, Donut Queen, I miss you already… For at least 5 years, Donut Queen has been our favorite donut place! No hipster weirdness, not even much in the way of décor, but some tasty, very reasonably priced donuts! The day I realized they had started making Boston Cream donuts, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Their other donuts were tasty, but Boston Cream is my favorite! My wife loves their cinnamon twists, and the teen boy loves the bear claws. (They do tend to run out of those, FYI.) Their apple fritters are excellent, too. The couple that own the place are very sweet. Often, the wife is behind the counter — she told me once that her husband is the one who gets up ridiculously early to make the donuts. Their coffee is just basic coffee, so I usually took the donuts home — paired with a nice dark roast, it’s a breakfast so good (and yet, of course, so bad)… We had to stop ourselves from making it a weekly tradition! Now that I’m on the west side, the hunt for a new donut shop begins. *sigh* Get thee to Donut Queen, east side peeps! So good, and hardly ever a wait!

(Original review from another account — damn you Unilocal!)
If you’re familiar with the San Fernando Valley you’ll know about the ubiquitous donut shop on every corner. Typically ran by Asians, they make delicious very unhealthy good old fashioned donuts.
This is one of those places. If you need Capt. Crunch on your donut then you know where to go. If you want an apple fritter as big as you head, or a cinnamon roll frosted with maple glaze or any of the classics then THIS is the place.
Donut Queen is BETTER than the place down in Old Town and you never have to stand in line. The only down side is you don’t get one of those Pepto Bismol pink boxes to show everyone what a hipster you are!

«Tis true, I have experienced better. Somehow, I am here all the dang time for donuts. I’m a fat kid and I just love donuts. What can I say?! An apple fritter or a Bismark with a cup of coffee on my way to work is just a creature comfort I guess. I gotta have it. That is until I stick to a diet… HA!
But seriously folks, this place is weird.
What?! It just is. I think they like it that way. The little Asian lady behind the counter is very sweet but very quiet. The shop is a very large open space with little to no character, warmth or ambiance. Just a huge, cold, concrete floor, an oven, a beverage cooler, a counter and that little quiet Asian lady. That’s it. I wouldn’t be surprised if those donuts weren’t made that morning. See, that’s how much of a fat kid I am. I don’t care if they’re fresh. They’re still donuts. Nothing more, nothing less.

When I don’t want to wait in line for a doughnut at Voodoo Doughnut then Donut Queen is where I go.
I’m a fan of DQ because they make chocolate covered cake doughnuts with chopped nuts. They’re addicting & when they sell half a dozen, of any kind of doughnuts, for less than $ 5 that doesn’t make it easy to walk away with just two.
They also sell bear claws, glazed doughnuts, cream filled chocolate covered long johns, twist doughnuts & much, much more. These may not be as fun or unique to choose from like Voodoo’s are but they still taste good.
The husband & wife team are very pleasant & always greet us with a smile when we walk in. This is a CASH ONLY establishment but the 7-​Eleven next door has an ATM should you need some green.
Fresh made doughnuts sold at a cheap price & there’s never a line! What else can you ask for?

Delicious donuts! The people are always sweet and throw in an extra donut. Try the maple bars or chocolate iced donuts.

CASH ONLY!
Meh, you could get the same quality at a grocery store or the 7 – 11 next door. They owner seems nice; I suppose if you wanna «buy local» you could do worse. If you have time (and it isn’t rush hour) go to Acme Donut on Powell instead.

I’d like to give 5* for customer service. Although I could barely understand the woman’s english, when I told her I didn’t have cash, she offered me the donuts and told me I could come back and pay another day. I felt so uncomfortable doing that, I went to the 7 – 11 next door and bought something just so I could get cash back and pay her.
Sadly, the donuts were not very good. The glaze was thin and not very tasty. The chocolate glaze had undissolved chunks of chocolate in it. The texture of the donuts were very bread-​like and heavy.
Head on over to Annie’s or Tonnali’s.

Went into 7 – 11 for quarters, came out to a delicious donut smell. Decided it wasn’t emanating from 7 – 11 and discovered Donut Queen.
The employee said the place has been there for 15 years and you can taste their experience. I had a buttermilk old fashioned/​cake donut and sampled the mr.‘s maple bar. Both were great.
I respect what Voodoo does on a local, creative level, but Donut Queen is the real deal. It lacks atmosphere and doesn’t have the variety but their specialty is a damn good tasting donut. And isn’t that more important than… they both have Wow factor. They’re both artisan in their own way. Donut Queen is traditional donuts that taste great. Voodoo is unconventional and taste okay.
This place… You could smell them the whole city block! Sweet customer service, a pretty big donut case (25ish varieties), great location. I’m a fan.
Fact still needed: debit? Parking?