Restaurants
Paulette's Original Donuts and Chicken
Paulette's Donuts & Chicken opened Monday - and thanks to the new donut trend sweeping the city, a successful debut at the Stop's night market, and the fact that it's owned by Devin Connell of Delica Kitchen - there was no shortage of customers. I was going to drop by after the lunch rush so I could loiter like usual to take pictures, but well, I got hungry.
Paulette's offers a lot in the way of food, but not space (takeaway only), so what little they have was jam packed with people by the time I got there at 11:30. It's darn cute though, with its mint green walls and uniformed staff, so nobody seemed to mind the line. Those in wait stayed occupied by deciding on chicken sauces or salts, and of course, the donuts of the day - one of each showcased behind glass, in Japanese food display fashion.
Just a couple of weeks ago, I took a trip to New York, and I fell in love with a donut (and then promptly cheated with one of its closest friends). It was a toasted coconut by Brooklyn operation Dough, so when I read that Paulette's had recently been there on a donut and fried chicken "research" trip, I got a little bit too excited. Apparently I'm not very monogamous when it comes to donuts.
Fried chicken on the other hand, has never won me over, but being open to new possibilities I, along with my friend, ordered a snack size portion ($8). Each came with two good sized pieces of chicken and a choice of dipping sauce or salt. We went with Graham's Burning Hot Sauce and Chili Maple Dip.
Now to be honest, we were looking at the chicken as a bit of a roadblock as it stood in the way of our donuts, and we had to finish our meal before our dessert...even if they were the nutritional equivalent of one another. We were blown away though. It was incredible. The tempura-like batter has to be among the lightest and crunchiest of its kind, and although my current cholesterol levels might prove otherwise, it wasn't greasy.
In direct contrast to the batter was the chicken, which was unbelievably moist and so tender that it fell away from the bone. Both sauces paired very nicely, but I favoured the Maple Chili as the hot sauce tasted more of Frank's than Graham's.
Seeing as we did such a good job of eating our meals (it turned out to be pretty easy after all), we moved on to the dessert portion. We ordered a D'oreo -one of their "fancy" full sized donuts ($2.75 each) - and a bag of Garam Masala Hot Donut Dots ($4.50), the indie version of TimBits.
The garam masala flavour on the dots was nice, but the dots themselves were a bit of a disappointment. They were somewhat dry and boring. Maybe if they were piping hot, and I had a cup of coffee for dipping, it would have been a different story.
The D'oreo however was something else. It had a dense cake texture, and the icing that surrounded it on all sides tasted exactly like the innards of its namesake cookie. My friend can be quoted as saying "This might be the most delicious donut ever".
And because I'm a good girlfriend, I bought two more donuts to take home in the name of sharing. And because I had to write this article, I took a bite of each before they made it there...in the name of research.
The Raspberry Royal, covered in fuchsia icing and sprinkled with graham crumbs, wasn't cloyingly sweet as I would have guessed. It was even a bit tart with a hit of raspberry flavour that started strong and then faded until the next bite.
The Root Beer Float might have been my favourite. Its flavour was muted in comparison to the others, but the root beer had a strong enough presence to make it an interesting eat, without making it taste like one of those Bottle Cap candies.
So we came for the donuts, but it was the chicken that stole the show. My American toasted coconut love affair may not have been swayed, but in terms of fried poultry, Paulette's has my heart. And in the new battle between donuts and cupcakes (I'm on Team Donut), Paulette's is a new stronghold - they sold out of full sized ones by 3pm. Good thing I went early.
Discussion
51 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Sounds like its going to be a neat place!
Address or map of location would be nice though
You can fume about your readers "not getting it" but bottom line is, the current approach doesn't seem to work.
Seems like this little stretch of Queen is where I need to be.
But I do think the chicken seems over priced especially since you can't dine in. At Delica, the prices seem to keep going up and up... so is that what is in store for Paulette's as well? I hope not.
I haven't tried the chicken but the doughnuts are yummy. The dough has a distinct taste to it. I like that it's about the flavors and not gimmicky toppings on top the doughnut.
personally way too sweet though..... just glazing the top would be more than enough for me!
cinnamon was the one I preferred.
Maybe it was just a bad day, but I'm not remotelytempted to return. And "fancy".....whaaaa????
Its at Queen and Logan. How inconvenient is that?
You hop on the Queen St/King St street-car, maybe ride your BMX or your car and go east for maybe 10 minutes.
I will be back, but just for the doughnuts.
This place is not cheap - I think the above order totalled almost $30 - and for ironically presented trendy junk food it is not as filling as Burger Priest. For a once in a while treat it is worth a short trip. We'll be back and I wish them success, which they should get at the markups they must have.
(Also please help solve the mystery of where all the skinny hipsters in line are putting away this fatty food? Surely they can't fixie-bike it off??).
I was really looking forward to trying this place out but I am glad that I read before hand that the fried chicken "batter" was THICK as it was really different than any other fried chicken I had before. For $8 for two peices I will not be getting it again but at the same time I was glad that I tried it just to understand what people were talking about. The sauce I had with it (honey and some spices) was good.
I enjoyed the balsamic blueberry donut that I had but I can see what people are saying about them being too "cakey" because I had a bite of the strawberry jammie and it wasn't what I was expecting at all.
Wish them well.... but, if you are in the area to try the donuts I would go to Leslieville Pumps and grab a sandwich to fill you up, you will probably need it after the chicken.
Value: not great
Flavour: pretty good
Notes: food was not fresh. Donought holes were tough and chicken dried out—room temp. Chicken batter is as hard and brittle as rock candy.
Portions are carefully controled like airline food.
I wont be returning.
lol just ask around leslieville and people love this place. i think you are smoking to many cigarettes marty! how could each donut taste the same ;)
but...
The fried chicken was hard and chewy. Seemed like it had been sitting under the lamp for awhile. The flavor was ordinary. The donut (oreo) was MEH. The dipping sauce (honey mustard) was probably the only thing that stood out for me.
The staff was a bit odd.
The biggest let down was how overly priced it was. $8.00 for 2 dried up pieces of chicken and dipping sauce??
I'll stick to KFC and Tim Horton's and spend a quarter of the cost.
As someone said, they took a good idea and blew it. :(
So true comment from above. I wish peeps couldnt annonymously post on here.
GOOD
-the chicken was quite tasty and with the dip I have to say that I did enjoy it. HOWEVER, if I'm going to go for fried chicken, I would still prefer KFC if I'm going to indulge. Have not tried stockyards. I like fried chicken to be greasy and over the top. Thats why I eat fried chicken for god sakes.
MEH
the donuts and the mac were really just meh. maybe if the donut was fresher I would have liked it more... the mac was not cheesy enough - i make a way better mac and cheese at home.
will be back to try the other doughnuts they have on offer.
They only sell cake and no raised yeast donuts which is a letdown. Taking advantage of a rising trend and gouging people.$2.75 is way too expensive even though competition sells for more. All they are is white cake donuts with original glazes. Big deal. Most clever one was balsamic blueberry. But look at the work done on the competitors' products.. Works of art, toasted marshmallows,meringue,brown butter icing and twice the size.