Acme Doughnuts

by Kimberly P.

Just sampled some Acme donuts from a box on the shared food table at work. I don't know who brought these tasty treats in but I would like to know so I could give them a great big hug.  YUM YUM!  Will have to pay a visit to their shop soon!

by Brice B.

Things I would not do without being totally prepared:- Go into battle- Act in a play- Deliver a speech- Open a hip donut shop in Voodoo's backyardWhy wouldn't I, you ask?  Because if I do any of these in a half-assed way, everybody's gonna know it. The menu board lists tons of neato donuts.  Don't bother looking, though; these are just concepts.  We've been twice now, and their answer is that they're "working on new flavors."  Huh.   It seems like they're so stoked that they have such a hip little donut shop that they overlooked an important detail: the donuts.I could rant for days about opening an unfinished business, but I'm going to hold off.  I really want this place to be successful.  The people seem nice, and the idea of Acme is cool.   Right now, though, the selection sucks, the donuts they have are bland, and the staff seems pretty impressed with all of this.Acme... do me a favor and get your shit together.  I want to love you.

by Todd S.

Sigh. You know, Acme is nearly everything I want: close to my house, a small independent business, doughnuts, not a business called "Urban Hookah" (the previous name of this location), and so on.But the doughnuts ... sigh. Look, I'll admit I'm a fan of Voodoo Doughnut, the inevitable comparison here. Yes, Voodoo is way over-hyped, there's no question. But in the end, Voodoo not only makes some very inventive offerings, they also make a solid doughnut. I wasn't expecting Acme to match Voodoo's craziness, but I was hoping -- and expecting -- for a solid workaday doughnut for the occasional sugar rush on the way to, well, work.I've tried two doughnuts -- the chocolate-covered raised and the "Boston Wicked [espresso] Cream", both of which seemed to have the potential to be a good doughnut and then some, and in both cases, I was left unimpressed.Neither was as sweet as a doughnut should be. Now, some people will take that as some sort of gourmet nod. But we're talking doughnuts here, people -- I eat them for the sugar and the fat, not for subtlety. The chocolate-covered seemed to have dark chocolate on it, rather than the usual milk chocolate -- and I love dark chocolate! But the end result was more like unsweetened cocoa powder on fried bread than an actual chocolate-covered doughnut. The "espresso" cream-filled doughnut was sweeter, but it still wasn't right.Frankly, I wish the stupid check-cashing store up the street on 39th were still a Dunkin' Donuts, because their offerings are better than Acme's.And finally, the person behind the counter could use a few lessons in selling a doughnut. It's like pulling teeth to get her to tell me about the different varieties and why I should buy one. The first time I went, the only description I could get for each doughnut from her was, "That one's a yeast doughnut ... that one's cake." Yeah, I could've guessed that much, thanks.I haven't given up on Acme entirely, but I'm not sure how many more chances I'm going to give them.

by Anna B.

Last night, I was standing out front of Vino Vixens next door and keeping an eye on Acme.  It was dead in there.  And what do you do when you work at a donut shop and you have no customers coming in?  You bust a freaking move, that's what.  I was stopped dead in my tracks for a second as I watched a gal in a microscopic skirt seriously get down for a minute.  It was awesome.  After the show was finished at VV, we bounded across Powell to walk home, but upon reaching the other side of the road, looked back at Acme and realized we were hungry.  Back across Powell, and in retrospect, I realize all of this gallivanting across a really busy road was somewhat dangerous.  But donuts at midnight?  That's how we roll, apparently.  It was a nice shop, really friendly people working (including dancing mini-skirt girl) and they had a pretty good selection out for it being that late at night.  I was expecting they would be down to the last dregs by that hour, but nosiree!  It was not dead by the time we rolled in, they even had a little line going for a bit.  My donut was solid.  I mean, literally solid.  It was dense and doughy and I mean that in the best possible way.  I like breadier donuts.  The caramel on top was also good, good enough that I licked most of it off of the wax paper the donut came in.  While crossing Powell.  Again.   I will come here again next time I'm due to bring treats to work for sure.  Lots of vegan options.  Best of luck to these guys... I'm sure they get tired of Voodoo comparisons, but really Voodoo has become ubiquitous enough to the point of annoying, so kudos to Acme for being a little different in a donut-obsessed town.  And kudos to that girl for her sweet, sweet dance moves!

by Reba T.

Krispy Creme makes me want to ralph and Voodoo has morphed from wicked cool to simply pretentious.  So when i recently moved to SE,  I was so happy to find a tasty donut shop within walking distance of my house!   Great tasting donuts, fun/funky atmosphere, chill owners.   Acme uses such great ingredients  that their donuts are almost healthy- real fruit, dark chocolate, apple/lemon sauce, cinnamon, espresso, and chocolate-covered sunflower seeds.  Yummmm!  Acme has become one of my regular joints.  Donut snobs should just chillax and celebrate the fact that there is now even more donut joy in Portland.

by Mike K.

We have two visiting grandkids, ages 2 and 3, and the older one wanted donuts. I had wanted to go to Acme Donuts for quite a while because it's close by, so today I went. Unfortunately, I discovered when I arrived that they are closed on Mondays. Fortunately, the nice gentleman in the doorway saw that I was craving donuts, possibly by the drool on my chin. He said, "Would you like some day-old donuts? We're not open, but I can give them to you since I'm here."I wound up taking home a box of day-old donuts, gratis. The man who was at the door, when I told him the donuts were mostly for my granddaughter who wasn't feeling well, filled an entire box with an assortment of what he said were the most "kid-friendly" donuts. I've gotta tell you, those day-old donuts were worth four stars, and opening the door on a day when the store was closed and giving me the donuts free was worth five stars. I guess I can't give nine stars, so I'll stop at five. I'll re-evaluate when I find out how good the donuts are when they're fresh and paid for, not day-old and free.

by Minna S.

Stopped by here on my way to work (it's in the neighborhood) and got a random dozen on the owner's recommendation.Generally I will eat any kind of donut, from your Krispy Kreme hot and nows to more fancy concoctions (mostly Voodoo, Annie's, and Donut World in Gresham) - my all time favorite donuts are the old fashioneds.The general consensus in my office is that these donuts are great!  Not crazy sweet, and more than one person was pleasantly surprised by the fact that they "taste like donuts".Thusfar I've only tried the Wicked Boston Cream (great espresso cream center, extremely subtle and not cloyingly sweet - though the texture is closer to a slightly-over-set custard) and Choco-rama (I recommend this triple-chocolate to anyone who prefers dark chocolate over sweeter permutations).  The Apple-Lemon cake and Coconut Job donuts also got enthusiastic thumbs up from co-workers.I would give Acme three stars since I think these more subtle donuts are an acquired taste, but the convenient location and excellent customer service (and apparent responsiveness of the owner) bump my rating up to four.

by Daniel P.

There is a new donut in town!Acme opened this weekend on Powell 29th next to Vino Vixens and across from Hopworks.We were driving down Powell headed to Bend and saw this sign on the sidewalk.  Donuts?  YEAH!  Around the block we went for some sugar express driving help.They had been open for a few minutes it had seemed.  Very nice people.6 - 10 different donut flavors. They seem like homemade. Just good, clean flavors, nothing crazy, nothing fancy.We had a classic cake with powdered sugar.  Tasted like we expected; good cake.We had a similar chocolate - good cake.We also had a  coffee-chocolate filled 3rd option.  It was very well made; just not my favorite.  Kind of tasted like instant coffee whipped with cocoa...almost a burnt coffee taste.I say good on them for opening a new niche place in this crazy work.  Give them a try if you are driving

by Krystal O.

I'm really disappointed with Portland's lack of a good doughnut place. This place seems like it is trying too hard to compete with Voo Doo doughnut and the poor doughnuts suffer! They are really dense and chewy ... not overly sugary (like KK) but that's ok. Weird "hip" flavors... can't I just have a freaking glazed doughnut? Can't I have a chocolate sprinkle doughnut? My husband just gagged and spit his out.. yikes! Apparently the chocolate topping of his Boston Cream was like baking chocolate!

by Ken N.

All the postive reviewers for Acme Donuts have only reviewed one plac... Acme Donuts!!?? Don't be so obvious. If you want good reviews on Yelp you need to make some great donuts, have great service, and be different. I believe you can do it. But cooking your Yelp review is not cool in my book, and it won't last. Like other Real reviewers said, you need more variety. You have potential. But you can't fake it if you want to make it.By the way the donuts were ok. Better the Voodoo in my opinion. But nothing outstanding. Cool decor and great signage.