Top Pot Doughnuts

When a donut place looks like a place to study, I am sold! The upper level looks like a library lounge for you to get some work down. Then you can run downstairs and grab a dozen donuts to enjoy upstairs! This is a really nice and delicious donut place!

I crave a good donut once in a while, and when I do, I usually go to Top Pot.
But is there really such a thing as a bad donut?

I feel like you can easily make a Pacific Northwest trip centered around just trying different donut shops. While I don’t get too picky about what makes a great donut, I can say that I enjoyed these donuts much more than other donut places on my trip.
As a tourist, I found that this place made a great place for a quick break on a walk between the Space Needle/​Chihuly area and Pike Place. It’s approximately halfway there and is a nice place to stop along the way to either if you’re going between the two. Stop and get a donut or two with a cup of coffee.
What I like about this place is that it has a library feel to it. It reminds me of my high school days when my friends and I would sneak food into the library and eat while we worked on group projects. The bookshelves and great amount of sunlight give this place a great feel.

Come hungry. Leave happy. Funky chatty library atmosphere with coffee and donuts. The donuts are rich and the flavors are dense. Go out of your way.

I came here at 7 am for 18 donuts and ur was awesome service. They have the 12 donuts ready to go if all mix and 6 donuts that I could select. The Bavarian cream filled chocolate donut was very hardy and delicious. The coffee was about $ 3 and pretty tasty. The location is great to sit down and get out of the hustle of Seattle. Large windows and great bakery smell makes you want to indulge a little longer than you have time for in a work day. Perfect place for visitors and great donut!

I gave four stars because of the nice atmosphere and setting here. It’s rare to find a place that feels like library but with high ceiling, lots of sunlight, a loft and culture. It’s one of my fav cafes so far.
The food meaning the donut is not so great. Very sweet and nothing special. But cost $ 2.2 each doubling the price. Their coffee menu is super normal also.

[Out-​of-​Towner Review]
I’m obsessed.
Like seriously. My obsession with donuts, rivals my obsession with coffee. For a place to sell both exceptionally is like a unicorn. I was a little sad that their donuts weren’t my absolute favorite. But that is NOT to say that they weren’t good. They were good, just a little thicker consistency than I like my donuts. Their drip coffee was amazing. How do I quantify that? I didn’t add any sugar to their coffee.
I’m not doing this place justice.
A place that has walls, floor to ceiling, filled with books is already a place I want to be. But add really good drip coffee, I’m sure all the fancy stuff is good too, but I didn’t even want it after I tried their drip. They have a large selection of donuts for every type of donut lover. They don’t do Voo-​Doo style donuts, but they don’t have too. Their selection is just good enough on it’s own and covers all the bases.
Also, I loved that they were two stories, which meant there was plenty of seating for everyone. They even had a few patio seats in the front. I also love their old school sign that hangs outside of the shop.
I had a not-​so-​good experience at Assembly Hall on a different morning, so we walked here for a second breakfast and it totally made up for the sub par first try.
I would be in trouble (re: fat) if I lived near one of these…

We were staying at Hotel Five which is about a 1 minute walk away and came here for coffee and donuts.
My husband was so excited to come here ever since he watched them on some food show. I personally don’t like going to places that have been on TV, I like the off the beaten path type places that no one would care to bring a film crew to. The type of places that are so small yet so busy bc they are so good! This isn’t one of those places.
The coffee was meh. The donuts were meh. The selection was smaller than I expected nor was it anything special. The décor of the place, felt like we were in a library of some sort and it was mighty cute. We came here twice and that was bc my husband needed something in his stomach. After the first time, I wanted nothing.
The gist: overpriced and overrated. On the second trip to this place, Hubs was the only one who ordered anything, I just waited to go some where in the Market.

Look, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the doughnut and coffee I got here. However, my experience left me a bit confused by the hype people seem to have over this place (although maybe that’s all from the tourists).
The interior of this location was probably the best part of the whole experience. It was really cool how you could see where they make the doughnuts, and the fact that this location has two floors and floor to ceiling bookshelves was very unique!
As for food: I got the salted caramel old fashioned doughnut and a cappuccino. The salted caramel was tasty, but so sweet that it drowned out the flavor. It was reminiscent of caramel, but because of the sweetness there was none of that salt flavor that I love. The texture was decent, but nothing special compared to other doughnuts I’ve had. The coffee was perfectly fine and had lots of foam, which is a requirement for me when it comes to cappuccinos.
If you’re visiting Seattle, you’ll want to check this place out because of its fame (even Obama has visited). However, don’t expect a life changing doughnut. Just some decent food and cool décor.

Such a cute café style doughnut shop. I had been researching doughnut shops in Seattle for a week before my trip, and this one was one that I had to try. I got the maple bar, and my friend got the sugar donut. We are very much into the classics. Both donuts were fluffy and delicious, although, I would recommend getting them earlier. I really love a soft, warm and yeasty doughnut, but mine was not as fresh tasting as I had hoped. Nonetheless, it it a really cool, quiet place to enjoy a doughnut and get your sugar rush!

I am quite the doughnut snob so standards are high. Had to have myself a doughnut since I walked past half a dozen of these doughnut shops in Seattle.
I had the cherry fritter and it was underwhelming. It definitely needed more cherries and less sugary glaze.
Not that many unique flavors to pick from but decently priced.

Very friendly workers! We ordered about 14 doughnuts and he gave us two for free!
Enjoyed the doughnuts but of course had a sugar crash later!
The classics were my favorite; chocolate frosted and old-​fashioned.

Having just moved to the area, I wanted to try this local favorite. This location off of 5^th street (I believe the original location) has wonderful open space to sit and relax in a bookstore style environment/​décor. I loved the second story seating area with an open loft style overlooking the main entry area.
Loving apple fritters, this was the first think I wanted to try. On first bite I was surprised that it wasn’t as sweet as other apple fritter’s I have tried, but of a sweet bread style. I also tried a piece of their old fashion with a cherry/​strawberry glaze which I found also on a less sweet style; most of the sweetened coming from the glaze.
Prices are very reasonable (1 – 3 dollars per doughnut) and your coffee is crafted with a careful hand.
With a nice space, I would come back here every once in a while for a sweeter snack or a place to sit and work with a nice cup of coffee.

Upon entering Top Pot, you’re greeted by an interesting arrangement of books which are held up on the walls by horizontal slabs of wood. They give the small restaurant a very rustic, almost classy feel. But you didn’t come here for books and reading did you?
Absolutely not. You came here because you wanted to stuff your face with thousands and millions of calories of dough, nuts, and everything in between.
Which brings me to the whole point of this whole review: doughnuts. Those rings of sugar filled with and sometimes covered with jam, sprinkles, and an assortment of other absurdly hype-​inducing toppings which we love to indulge in.
The donuts here are not bad at all, but their selection around lunchtime can sometimes be a bit lacking. They have special flavors which are interesting, and also have day-​old donuts/​loaves of bread which they sell for half-​price.
Ultimately, TP is a decent place to cop a donut or two, but their selection is not always the best and I’ve definitely been to better donut places in my time, mainly places in Portland which have savagely raised my standards for nuts of dough.

This place is Legit! I have a donut obsession and this place is really worth all the hype. I had stayed close to recently and made it point to visit the 1^st morning I was in the Northwest. I even worked out early to try to pre-​burn the calories I would gain by visiting this local destination. I had started with a Mocha and grabbed a mixed dozen of different variety of donuts. Raspberry Bismark and the Custard were my favorites but honestly I only tried only ½ of the donuts because they were that good and so sweet. I had been impressed with the Service and the cleanliness of the place. My friend had ordered he Ovaltine coffee drink and he said it was pretty good. My only regret is I didn’t bring any back home. Will visit again if I am in the area.

This particular location looked really awesome! It’s kinda like a garage/​library/​diner looking. They didn’t have a large selection of doughnuts but the ones they did have were pretty good. It’s hard for me to rate doughnuts as much better than others because, to me, a doughnut is a doughnut… However, they’re much better than the over-​hyped dried out Voodoo Doughnuts in Portland.
I would say the ambiance was more coffee shop than doughnut shops with tables for conversation or to pull out your computer and get some work done. It has a loft upstairs for more private conversations. According to a photo on the wall, President Obama stopped by and had himself a little snack! You can youtube it and see the Prez himself on video surprising people. Pretty cool!

I love doughnuts. Who doesn’t love doughnuts? Well weird people, maybe…
Anyway, these were some delectable baked treats. We actually decided to do the totally adult thing and have a half dozen for lunch one day during our 3-​day foray to Seattle, and there were no regrets.
I loved the interior of the place. Bookshelves go right to the top of the walls, and they’re stocked with actual old books and encyclopedias. The windows are huge, so there is a lot of natural light, and the large loft area has tons of seating for quiet working/​reading/​studying/​eating until you pass out. There were also doughnut recipes on the back of the box! I saved those for later use.
We had a chocolate bar, chocolate sandcastle (chocolate cake covered in sugar), cake doughnut with cinnamon sugar, apple fritter, orange glazed, and raspberry cream. Every bite was delicious. I actually had to abandon part of the chocolate sandcastle, and it killed me to do it. There aren’t many coffee houses at home that make rest doughnuts, so this was a great treat.
For drinks, Shawn had a couple London fogs, and I had a hot chocolate (because I can’t have any hot drinks with caffeine; also, it’s delicious). Those didn’t disappoint either. This is another stop on our trip that we would gladly return to, though maybe not for lunch next time. Maybe.

3.5 STARS
The roommate loves doughnuts. So any time we go anywhere, I look up a a doughnut place to check out. We had just finished a late lunch nearby and decided to walk to Top Pot. It was Tuesday, January 19^th around 4:15pm on a rainy day.
They had an assortment of doughnuts. I wish they had some custard filled ones as that is actually my favorite kind of doughnut. The roommate ended up getting the Chocolate frosted raised ring and I got the Valley girl lemon. I love powdered doughnuts so I enjoyed this. The doughnut wasn’t too sweet and the lemon had a nice tartness. The doughnut was rather big, so I wasn’t able to finish it. The roommate said his doughnut was pretty standard. Didn’t think it was anything special. We both also got a beverage. The roommate, a Hot chocolate, and me, a Hot tea: peppermint.
I really like the space of this shop. They have an upstairs loft area with tables. Good view of the street and just a nice atmosphere to chill and enjoy your food and drink. There are some tables along the wall with plugs if your electronics need a charge. We started at a table overlooking the entrance and then moved to a table along the wall when my phone started dying.
Very cute place. I love the space, so I’m rounding up to 4 stars.

Being lovers of cake donuts, my boyfriend and I made the mistake of purchasing not 1, not 2, but 3 cake donuts! I bit into each one and found them all to be disappointing. The flavors were okay, but the texture was just way too cakey. I like my cake donuts deep fried to perfection.
Upon reading reviews, I think we should have ordered the old fashioned donuts instead. The cake donuts were definitely not worth the calories so my boyfriend finished the rest just so we don’t waste food. They weren’t cheap either… I paid around $ 7 – 8 for 3 cake donuts :(
3 stars because the shop is super cute and it seems like it would be a great place to study/​work.

Delicious breakfast to end a great trip to Seattle! We stayed at an airbnb apt a block away, so I stopped by Top Pot to grab some coffee and a donut before heading back to the airport. The inside is so cute with walls lined with bookcases! It would definitely be a great place to sit all day and read a book while watching the rain sprinkle outside.
As for the food, they have a glass case with all the donuts and the guy working there at the time was very friendly and offered his opinion on their popular donuts when I couldn’t decide. Though the favorites are the old-​fashioned donuts, I opted for a raspberry filled glazed donut. The donut itself was huge and fluffy but not too sweet! And the raspberry filling was also delicious. To go with the donut, I tried out their Ovaltine Latte, which was like drinking the best of both worlds. coffee and chocolate!
Definitely a must try if you’re nearby!