Kettle Glazed - Los Angeles

Now THIS is a donut shop! Conveniently seated in a small, seedy-looking shopping center on the corner of a long, dark highway-onramp street, there's no crowd to fight even on Saturday night.

Privacy breeds creativity, and the Cruffin' is so surprisingly out there it's hard to describe. The croissant dough maintains some crude layering, but the layers stack closely to make it dense and thick with all the best combo of croissant and muffin.

Annnnd Cronuts! Omg cronuts. Not quite worth the NYC hype with the mile-long lines, but the pastry-cream-chocolate-drizzle is worth at least a short one.

Even when not quite creative, Kettle Glazed is just plain delicious. The S'mores donut is filled with a small flurry of chocolate and marshmallow, a throwback to campfires and kumbaya.

You think you know what a Raspberry-Lemon Donut tastes like but you don't. This raspberry jam is less sickly-sweet than peanut butter's BFF, and it sits in a circle of lemon almost-icing that creates an exceptional balance.

I love anyone who can make a donut, but I bow to those who can make a tried-and-true taste like something exciting and new. I thought I'd tried all the donuts I've wanted to try, but it looks like I'm far from done with Kettle Glazed.