Glazed & Infused

I started a new job last week and one of the perks is being less than a mile walk (a half mile in some cases) from the big 5 doughnut/​donut shops. This particular location is literally on my walk to work, which makes it a blessing and a curse.
The rational side of my brain knows that this isn’t good for my growing waistline. And, I know damn well that I shouldn’t frequent said shops as often as I do, but… life is short so might as well live a little, right?
What do a couple hundred (or probably thousand in my case) calories really matter in the long run? Plus, I walk to & from Union Station every day so that’s at least a mile each way.
Anyway, in terms of doughnut/​donut shops, G&I wasn’t high up on my list, mainly because I didn’t have easy access to it when I worked in the Loop (Monroe & Wabash). This will change given the proximity of this location to my work.
Pro tip: enter from the Wells Street entrance. It’s just a short walk from the guest check-​in desk and Halsted Street Deli.
The shop isn’t very large, but the selection is plentiful, especially if you arrive before 8:00 AM. One big advantage to G&I over the other shops is that they offer minis *and* doughnut holes. The minis are smaller versions of their regular size flavors. I highly recommend the minis so you can sample more flavors. Plus, if you’re on the fence about a flavor, you can try the mini version before committing to the regular sized one.
I sampled the following minis during my two visits:
— Banana Walnut: yeast Bismarck, filled with banana cream dipped in a chocolate ganache and topped with walnuts.
— Chocolate4: chocolate cake with chocolate ganache glaze, topped with dark and white chocolate curls
— Red Velvet: cocoa buttermilk cake with cream cheese frosting
— Lemon Poppy Seed Old Fashioned: cake doughnut covered with a lemon glaze and topped with poppy seeds & lemon zest
— The Pilsen Doughnut: yeast ring covered in a mango-​pineapple glaze and topped with Tajin Spice and lime zest
The minis were the perfect size. I ate two in the morning with my breakfast and two in the afternoon after lunch.
I definitely can see myself ordering any one of those, save for the Pilsen one, in a regular size. I liked the generous amount of cream cheese frosting on the red velvet one. The white chocolate added a nice touch the Chocolate4 one. I loved how light and fluffy the banana walnut one was and the cream tasted delicious. The walnuts worked really well with it too. And, in my opinion, you can never go wrong with lemon poppy seed.
Customer service on both trips was great. On my first visit, the woman working in the shop discussed how she recommends the minis to tourists so they can sample more flavors. Plus, the minis are less caloric than the regular sized ones! The minis are $ 1 each, which are great deal and an inexpensive way to satisfy your sweet tooth.
I’d recommend getting the doughnut holes if you want something small, but aren’t interested in the minis. A dozen will set you back $ 5 and they come in chocolate, red velvet and vanilla. I purchased some on a Friday with the intention of eating them the following day and they held up well.
Another advantage of G&I is they offer platters (fondue & minis), so you can treat your office co-​workers if you feel generous enough. You can also place your order online ($ 10 minimum) for pick-​up or delivery. No more standing in line!
Overall, I’m highly impressed with G&I and definitely will be frequenting this location often as it is on my way to work. The minis definitely have me sold since I can sample more flavors and feel less guilty about eating them!
If you’re craving doughnuts, I’d definitely check out G&I’s offerings!

I’m a really big fan of the donuts here! I don’t think that they do cake donuts as well as they do yeast rings, but I think the yeast rings are excellent. They change up their flavors pretty often, but I’m a big fan of the fruity ones that they tend to do. They always taste fresh and tart, and you can tell that they use real fruit in their glazes. I also think that Glazed & Infused makes the best apple fritter of any donut shop in Chicago :). My favorite thing is that the employees are always really nice, and if you come at the very end of the day, they’ll usually give you a free donut with one that you buy because they aren’t wasteful and also they’re generally awesome :).

It’s a small place, but there’s plenty of seating. You may make some new friends since the seats are pretty tight. However, each one comes with an outlet! Your phone will never run out of battery. Friendly staff. Very clean.
Their jumbo donut is our go to for every celebration. Why get a cake when you can have a huge donut?!

If this is what chicagoan’s believe are good donuts, please fly to California where good donuts are part of life. These were barely a notch better than Dunkin Donuts. Glazed donuts should be airy and these were like lead balloons.
Sorry Chicago but Glazed is not serving you well.

One of my favorite donut spots. Great and interesting flavors to choose from and the donuts always taste fresh! My last donut here was the Tiramisu. I highly recommend!

They have some uniquely creamy, huge and infused donuts. For example, their maple bacon longjohn has a meaty bacon strip on it and I also tried this raspberry cream filled donut that was just having me want even more. The glaze was nice and thick in its raspberry goodness.
If you don’t want to mess around and you’re throwing your calorie watching caution to the wind — come here and fully enjoy what a true donut experience should be like.

I’m not a fan of Starbucks or Dunkin donuts coffee that’s why I’m always looking for different coffee shops. This place is a gem for me. They make delicious coffee that goes well with their donuts. They should really put a sign outside during the winter, too (how else will people find them).

We were meeting my brother for lunch this day and planned on meeting at a doughnut shop near his office. After checking Unilocal for some good options, we found Glazed and Infused. They have several locations throughout Chicago. So we loaded up the van (there were 6 of us) and headed downtown. The plan was to grab some doughnuts before heading to another location for lunch. Looking at their menu they had a good selection of doughnuts and doughnut holes. I figured we would get a dozen doughnuts so everyone could try something a bit different. We ordered an apple fritter, maple bacon long john with a strip of bacon, some cake and glazed doughnuts and something called Cran-​Orange Toffee Bismarck. While I thought most of their doughnuts were pretty good (I’m an equal opportunity sampler) the Cran-​Orange Bismarck was off the charts outstanding! The apple fritter was ok. An apple fritter is my favorite doughnut. The fritter here was ok. It was more doughy and didn’t have the crispy edges like my favorite fritter at Grannies. Anyhow back to this Cran-​Orange. I picked up a couple of these as my life and sister in law like cranberries. Personally I didn’t think it sounded that good. Well I was wrong. This was actually one of the best doughnuts I have ever had. This doughnut is glazed with a sweet orange glaze and topped with a crunchy cran orange toffee. The inside had a fresh cranberry filling that was a nice tart contract to the sweet orange glaze. The toffee added a nice crunch to compliment the soft doughnut. This was an excellent doughnut. Too bad my wife and sister in law didn’t get to try as much of this one as I kept taking bites.

I’m not a huge donut eater, but now that I work downtown, I’ve had the chance to try a few different places out. So far, this is my favorite. I far prefer raised donuts to cake donuts and this place does both. I decided to play it simple for my first visit, and get the vanilla bean glazed. That second word… bean. As i broke the pillowy pastry open, I could see the tiny black specks of vanilla bean inside. I think it’s awesome that the vanilla is not just in the glaze, but in the entire donut. My first bite was excellent, very soft, not too much glaze, plenty of flavor. I would certainly return, maybe for that cranberry orange toffee donut. I just wish they would offer a sugar-​coated or cinnamon raised donut too.

Solid donut joint. Stick to the old fashioned, in my opinion it’s their best donut. The others are good it just depends on the frosting. I could honestly do the maple bacon without the piece of bacon on top but you have to for the novelty of it.
Solid stuff but Doughnut Vault or Stans is probably my tops.

The donuts here are just amazing! Specially the red velvet one! Also, the workers are very nice :)

Back for more sugary warmth on this beautiful fall day. This time it’s a glazed vanilla bean, and a Toffee Coffee, to go with the coffee. Are you listening, Peter Coffee?
Post-​taste review to follow posthaste!

Last time I was in Chicago and bought donuts for office from Do-​Rite (which were great) everyone said this place was better so naturally the next time I was in Chicago, I had to try. But I was pretty disappointed. They were OK but nothing compared to some of my favorites in NY. I got a variety and they all were just very sweet.

The shop is hidden inside the building. There is a sign outside of the building now, but who knows how long thag will last. Love that you can see rows of giant beautiful doughnut from the doorway. The smell of doughnuts is wonderful first thing in the morning. Surprisingly there wasn’t a long line, but that might be due to the fact that the place is literally hidden. They have your old fashion flavor to interesting plays like childhood favorite PB&J. Their seasonal doughnut for this visit was crème brûlée. How could I resist having dessert in the form of a doughnut? At first glance, it doesn’t look like anything special. It almost looks like a sticky glazed bun. Cut into it, you have a somewhat of a hard candy crust, pillowy cakey doughnut, and then this lush decadent vanilla custard in the middle. You can even see the specs of real vanilla in the custard. It was amazing. The fact that the doughnut was the size of a softball was a bonus. Why the 4 stars instead of 5? The service was inconsistent. You have 2 people behind the counter. One is super happy go lucky and the other looks like they don’t want to be there. Unfortunately for me, I got the grumpy one who was annoyed I was asking about the doughnuts (my first time here! I have questions that needed answers, and there wasn’t a line!).

This location is in the 222 N. LaSalle building, but tucked away closer to the Wells Street entrance. If you enter there, it’s on the right side, beyond a deli and something else. Their donuts hold their own with the Vault and Do-​Rite. Chicago is now a great donut town. This location has plenty of seating. The coffee is alright, could be better.

A little hard to in this building, but the same great donuts that you’ll find at their Fulton Market location (at least).
I was hoping to get some chocolate goodness from here today, and it looked they had a healthy stock of all their donuts. Mostly, I wanted a chocolate donut that tasted like chocolate, and this one – from the chocolate cake mix, to the glaze, to the two different kinds of chocolate curls, still hits the spot.
As far as how to find it: it’s towards the back left of the building when you walk in the LaSalle Street entrance.

A cute, brightly lit store. They were giving away free coffee this morning, so they seemed to know exactly where to plant themselves (my bus stop). I walked in with no intention of buying a doughnut, but they were massive and the glaze was just calling my name! I sampled the Raspberry Oreo, very interesting combination that was surprisingly tasty! However, I walked out with a maple bacon (yes, it’s thick cut) long john to share with my colleagues. The doughnut was light and fluffy, the maple part by itself was a tad bit too sweet for me, however with a chunk of bacon– it was heavenly! GET IT! I will try the key lime pie one next time.
FYI, they do serve the giant birthday cake doughnut for those office parties! They also have little holes if you’re feeling greedy and can’t decide on one flavor. No judgment here, enjoy! ;)