Maple Bacon Doughnut Bout: Oink Cafe vs. Rainbow Donuts

By Heather Hoch Wed., Feb. 13 2013 at 10:00 AM

Heather Hoch

Don't make us choose sides -- we love both doughnuts!

After Portland's sometimes-vegan doughnut mecca, Voodoo Donuts, made a maple bacon doughnut, pretty much every doughnut shop with any sense jumped on the bacon bandwagon. Two local shops, Oink Café and Rainbow Donuts, have followed suit.

Using either a cake or raised doughnut base to paint on richly sweet maple glaze with smoky, salty bacon crumbles, it's easy to see why these have become such a phenomenon once you've had one. It's like a full breakfast flavor experience on one donut. But whose MBD is best?

Heather Hoch

This non-conformist maple bacon bomb was almost disqualified.

In This Corner: Oink Cafe

The Setup: The brightly painted interior is pretty standard for a breakfast spot, though Oink also serves lunch. The menu, as the name would suggest, specializes in all things pig-based, from sausage and pork to, of course, bacon. While Oink offers an array of Benedicts, pancakes, and sandwiches featuring bacon, we were there for one thing -- a maple bacon doughnut.

The Good: We were very close to disqualifying Oink Café on a technical foul: Its cake doughnut actually was more a crumb cake with a hole in the middle than a doughnut. We let it slide, though, and dug into the cinnamon-y, crumbly doughnut that's overloaded with crispy bacon chunks on top. If you have to ask if a bacon overload is a good thing, then you're reading the wrong blog.

The Bad: While the bacon was an ever-present flavor in each bite of Oink's doughnut, the maple was a little lost. We already mentioned the fact that its doughnut didn't really seem like a doughnut, although it was very tasty and unique take on the classic cake doughnut archetype. Plus $2.49 is a bit steep for one doughnut.

Location Info

Venue

Map

The Oink Cafe

4326 E. Cactus Road, Phoenix, AZ

Category: Restaurant

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Rainbow Donuts

5045 W. Thomas Road, Phoenix, AZ

Category: Restaurant

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LGulliford

I would say this needs to be done as a rematch of different Rainbow Donuts versus each other. the Rainbow on 7th Street near Dunlap has a bomb Maple Bacon Donut, or even the McDowell and 16th Street area one. I think this was not a fair match up, sorry oink, but a crumb cake is not a doughnut, I believe it should have been disqualified as you had considered.

Erins_Voice moderator communitymanager

@azomatli Not a bad idea. Do you know which one you would claim the winner?

LGulliford

2 Like

@Erins_Voice I always liked the 51st ave and Thomas Location, but I have to say the 7th Street and Dunlap location probably has the best doughnuts.

Jeff Day

Rainbow Donuts has a Maple Bacon donut? I may have underestimated them...

davelog

@Jeff Day The Rainbow at 7th Street in the 'slope has kolaches, too - but not like the ones we had back in Texas from Shipley. Rainbow's kolaches are like a polish sausage wrapped in donut dough, Shipley's kolaches were a patty sausage crammed into an unfilled donut.