Restaurant Review: Me Donut?

Me Donut?, a Japanese bakery chain known for its viral popularity and intriguing name, opened earlier this year in a sleek storefront in Times Square. The company’s specialty is They slept A donut (the word in Japanese means “raw” or “fresh”) is a moist, very light mass of starch and sugar that seems to have been captured by gravity thanks to the marginal heaviness of various frostings, garnishes and fillings. This textural magic is achieved by means of a special yeast dough whose recipe includes, among other things, kabocha squash, which introduces a hint of earthy sweetness and gives the interiors a sunny yellow hue. The brand’s “original” donut, a round, sugar-filled pillow with no hole in the middle, is a miracle — breathy, yeasty, soft, and warm, it was the dream donut I didn’t realize I’d always been craving.

These miracles come not only without sacrificing one’s time, for the most part, but also one’s money, since the most ambitious stuffed and decorated selections can exceed ten dollars apiece. Is Donut still located in New York? It’s a real feeling, even months after it appeared. The store, very minimalist, with a blank white facade that evokes the toned-down simplicity of an Apple Store, is the chain’s first outside of Japan, where the brand originated in 2022. Depending on the day, time and weather, you can walk right in or join a winding line of a hundred people who alternately wonder if the wait is worth it and look at the “Oh, Mary!” marquee across the street, enthusiastically filming vertical videos about the phenomenon of the line itself.

Delicious options include a donut-topped BLT

You should get the original donut, of course, not just for its own merits but as a control. There are different types of chocolate and matcha, whose delicate flavors are baked into the dough. Then there are the filled donuts, whose puffy centers are pumped with flavored creams, all lively and not too sweet: custard, more matcha, fragrant sake jelly with Chantilly, and airy peanut butter cream with Concord jelly and grapes. There were some New York-exclusive flavors, like a shaved donut topped with a neon-pink strawberry glaze, decorated with freeze-dried raspberries that crackled and melted on the tongue, or a chocolate variety with a caramel-espresso cream filling that was unexpectedly bitter and complex. The somewhat controversial scrambled egg donut features an original, sugary donut filled with soft curds and a dollop of sweet tomato mayo — a bold, quirky breakfast statement that refuses to be definitively sweet or salty. I loved it unreservedly, although I imagine I may be in the minority.

Am I a donut? In short, the cakes are excellent, but as with many places that achieve extraordinary virality, what the shop is really selling is the experience of experience, the novelty of novelty. This noise can be described as infrastructure: the supports corralling the line outside, the security guard at the door, the smiling staff walking up and down the queue, handing out checklist-style paper menus to speed up the flow of orders. This isn’t the first international chain to open in the city, but it is one of the few that has broken through and become truly popular while maintaining a significant amount of goodwill.