The Jelly Donut in San Francisco, California: A Review

For a simple, low-price donut and some coffee, The Jelly Donut is about the best around in San Francisco.

It occupies the corner of 24th and South Van Ness, just a block down from the 24th and Mission BART station, close enough to run down for a snack or a light breakfast while commuting. The Jelly Donut gets pretty much everything right - convenient location, good service, low prices, and quality edibles.

Donuts are only 75 cents here, which is a little below the city average (usually 80 to 90 cents.) They're competing with a lot of low-cost Mexican bakeries in the area so that might account for it, but those bakeries don't offer up the donut supply that this place does. You have your standard raised glazed, glazed twists, maple and chocolate bars, cake in all sorts of different flavors, cinnamon rolls, apple fritters and donut holes. I've sampled a pretty good range of the menu by this point and feel confident in saying it's all pretty good, and it also doesn't taste like the generic stuff that Happy Donut/Donut World has. The place also smells like fresh donuts when you walk by in the morning, so I think they bake all this stuff on-site rather than getting it from some mass production pastry factory somewhere.

Aside from the good quality and price, the man and woman that usually work the counter are super sweet and the place has a policy about sliding you all sorts of free stuff with your order. If you order one donut, you'll usually get a handful of donut holes. If you order two donuts, you'll get a comp donut of some random variety and possibly also some donut holes on top of it. I haven't tried ordering three or more donuts yet but they might just load you up with a whole box if you do. In stingy, high-priced San Francisco this sort of service is amazing and makes the place worth patronizing all by itself.

The coffee isn't anything special, but it's cheap at $1 for an OK sized cup, and it's no worse than the generic stuff available at similar donut shops. The menu doesn't really offer up much else, they just specialize in hooking you up with heaps of donuts at a low price and being hecka nice about it. The secret on this place has definitely been out for at least a few years now so it's really packed during peak hours, but if you go later on in the day they may hook you up with even more freebies as they try to clear out the day's inventory. Also don't make plans to sit and eat, as the neighborhood seniors are usually camping what few seats are available. This is definitely the spot to hit if you get a sweets craving in the Mission, however, and it's even worth getting off the BART for (if you've got a city FastPass, anyway.)