Best Doughnuts in Madison Wisconsin

I miss the town I went to school in for a whole lot of reasons, one of them being the awesome donut shop that was open 24 hours and had a walk-up window. I learned about it the third day in town when nearly my entire dorm went in one superlong line down to the shop. Sadly, I don't live there anymore and even more depressing is the fact that on my last visit I found they had completely revamped the shop into one of the local chains, totally ruining the charm of the little bakery.

But now that I'm back to my hometown of Madison Wisconsin I have a whole different selection options. So drumroll please as I list the top three doughnut shops in Madison Wisconsin.

Number three: C's bakery and coffee shop

This bakery is on the far West side, hilariously located right across the street from a health club. The place definitely doesn't look like very much inside or out but that's hardly that important. The doughnuts are consistently good though never excellent and the prices are a little high but not too extreme. My biggest complaint for the bakery is the fact that they're only open for breakfast and lunch and I'm not much of a morning person; if I was then C's bakery would probably rank higher than number three.

Number two: Big Bob's bakery

Big Bob's bakery is ironically small shop located downtown. The atmosphere and the decor are simple and the prices are mostly acceptable. The big selling point though is the chocolate éclair.

Have you ever seen the episode of The Simpsons in which Homer becomes a food critic and one of the local chefs tries to kill him by giving him the largest, most insanely calorie filled éclair ever made? Well I think big Bob must have because the house special is a chocolate éclair easily twice as big as any I've ever seen before. Unfortunately it costs a little more than four bucks with tax so the big treat can be a little pricey.

Number one: Greenbush bakery

Here in Madison Greenbush bakery has only a couple main selling points. Sure they have kosher doughnuts, everything is delicious, the prices are decent, and the bakery is centrally located. And while all these points are important the most common reason people go to the bakery is the extremely late hours and the proximity to the local bars. If you go at a time besides bar time or can tolerate the local drunks Greenbush bakery is an easy choice for excellent doughnuts.