Crodough Hawaii

Maybe they were better when they opened but I checked out this truck at Discover Kaka’ako October and I wasn’t all that impressed. At least I think the price did go down $ 1 after seeing some of the prices from their opening. This time around the special ones were $ 5 and the others were $ 4. But still they’re very very small for the price, I was expecting them to be a lot bigger.
PREPARE TO WAIT~ It’s a pretty slow process but at least you know they’re making them fresh. There were only about 5 or 6 people in front of us and it took us about 15 mins to get up to the front then another 5 – 10 mins for our cronuts to come out.
THE CRONUTS ~ I was so excited for them after the long wait and once we finally sat down to eat… disappointment :(. If you check out my pics, they’re a lot darker than everyone else’s earlier pictures; they were pretty burnt this time around. They were super greasy and the grease was seeping out of the bottom of the box… yuck! And it’s a rare occurrence on desserts but honestly, I felt like they weren’t very sweet… in a bad way. Like they barely sweetened it at all and they felt more like bread than dessert-​like pastries. As far as flavors here’s what we tried:
— Peppermint Cocoa: The topping was good just because it was the only sweet element of the cronut.
— Coconut Wasabi: Can’t taste the wasabi at all unless you lick the green part by itself but then that’s just gross.
— Strawberries n Cream: Would have been really good if it was sweetened.
SERVICE ~ wasn’t that great either since they were pretty busy and stressed out… they just rushed us along and never even gave us a simple thank you throughout the whole process.
Overall, there’s no way I’d wait that long again for what I was served. But hopefully they will work out the kinks being a new business and all, and maybe I’ll give them another shot if the line’s not too long. All I can say is that… they have potential.

Love Crodough!!! I’ve tried every single flavor and they are all good! Wish I can eat one everyday!

Addicting! Just thinking of it makes me salivate, I love crodough! It’s the best thing to hit Hawaii! Especially since I’m not a donut fan this is way better! Amazing different favors to chose from! You just need to check it out for yourself!
Also, follow their IG: crodoughhawaii for updates, and check out their website for new flavored and coupons!

Croissants: Good. Donuts: Gooood. Cronuts: OMNOMNOMNOM!!!
OH YEAH!
+ CRONUTS!!!
+ Fresh and flavorful
+ CRONUTS!!!
+ Traditional as well as novel flavors
+ CRONUTS!!!
OH NO!
— Not cheap
— New business kinks to work out
— Slow moving line
OH MY?!
* Opening day woes…
If you haven’t heard of the wonder that is the crount, it is a donut made using croissant dough. Deep fried like a regular donut, it comes out crispy and flaky on the outside, and soft and airy on the inside. Now top that with your preferred donut topping, like chocolate and sprinkles, and you’re good to go! This is what CroDough Hawaii has managed to bring to Hawaii, and I’m glad for it.
CroDough is a brand new truck on the block. This past Saturday was their very first day of business. The first I had heard of this fabulous truck was at a recent UYE, which was very awesome by the way, when one of our fellow Unilocalers brought a box of cronuts to share with everyone. When we found out that they were soon to be opening we were sure to follow @crodoughhawaii on the usual social media outlets to get word of when they’d be going live on the streets. Thank goodness the wait was not a long one. Just a couple of days later the tweet went out! Needless to say, we tried to spread the word, and some of us managed to get down to the truck.
Unfortunately, due to opening day woes, bad luck, ill-​preparedness, gremlins, etc. their intended 9:00 am opening ended up turning into something more like an 11:00 am opening. The line formed along the sidewalk, and the wait continued. After quite a wait, the cronuts were attained! The flavors offered up on opening day were Cookie Bacon, Strawberrys & Cream, Cacao Peppermint, Chocolate Sprinkle, Wasabi Coconut, and Honey Toast. Each cronut was about 3″ x 3″ and were a couple inches high, depending on the topping/​filling. At $ 5-​$ 6 each it’s a bit pricey. Regardless of price, I got on of each. That’s just how I roll. :P
Absolutely delicious! That’s all I can say. You’ve seriously got to try them for yourselves to see what it’s all about!
I’m just hoping that the long wait, and the opening day troubles were just that. Those rowdy gremlins up to their usual hijinks. I would really love to see this new local business survive and thrive, so I hope they can put those opening day woes behind them, and become a lean, mean cronut machine!
I’m looking forward to my next cronut fix!

So there was a lot of hype for this new food truck which specializes in offering «croissant-​doughnuts» and I just had to try it out when I found out they were opening today.
The rating I would give is really more of a 3.5 star rating rather than a 4.
First off, I went to their location knowing that it is their opening day. Having a mindset knowing that helps with the frustration of the wait. It doesn’t eliminate nor excuse the business of not being prepared but it helps me prevent myself from pulling what hair I have left on my head. Nevertheless, it was definitely a negative that we had to wait about 2 hours. I don’t really expect the same experience for people who plan to come here in the future or later in the day. It was an opening event so it was expected that there would be a lot of people or a long wait. It was nice that one of the staff did come out and offer some coffee for the people in line. We were also given an extra cronut for the wait, which was really nice of them I think considering the price. The packaging came in a cute box, that took quite a bit of time to assemble as the orders are going out.
Some people in line waited thinking that this was the only place that they can get «cronuts» and that most likely added to the hype. Just to let readers know, there are two other places that I know of that serves these croissant doughnut concoction. Regal bakery in Chinatown priced at about $ 3 each and St Germaine in Ala Moana beside Forever 21 on the ground level. Sorry, not sure about their prices.
Crodough’s prices were really higher at $ 5 and $ 6 a piece but not exorbitant. There are places in the mainland which do charge about $ 8-​$ 10 a piece for them. I’m not familiar with the process of making it, but I can imagine how much work goes into making these. It is a food truck, they do not have the buying power of Regal Bakery or staff like St Germaine’s so as much as the price was a bit steep, I do take everything into consideration. $ 4-​$ 5 would probably be a better «sweet spot» as the price goes.
I ordered 3 flavors and was given 1. Coconut Wasabi, Strawberries and Cream and the Bacon Cookie. The complimentary one given was the Peppermint Chocolate.
The pastry was good although a bit inconsistent, I was not sure if they did it on purpose where different fillings had different consistency with the dough but if they did, it was very thoughtful but probably a bit too tedious to have an effective service. Overall, the cronut itself without the filing had the perfect consistency with the crunchiness on the outside and flakiness on the inside. It was oily but that was exactly what I was looking for and what is to be expected in the cronut.
As for the fillings, the Peppermint Chocolate tasted like Andes Mint Chocolate, it had a nice hint of mint and the chocolate was not mouth numbingly sweet. It had a good balance. Not the best match with the cronut, but it was free and I’ll take it.
The Coconut Wasabi sounded interesting and that’s why I ordered it, I thought that there would be a strong blast of wasabi which would be cooled down by the coconut but I was wrong, the wasabi syrup was pretty hosed down and was just an aftertaste without any sharpness at all, the coconut shavings was the highlight and matched well with the pastry.
Strawberries and Cream is underwhelming as it was just basically what you would find in a strawberry short cake put into a cronut. Classic taste matched well with the pastry.
My favorite of all was the Bacon Cookie. (surprise right?) The crumbled bacon with the sweet maple glaze (?) matched perfectly with the flaky cronut. The Salty Sweet combination worked absolutely perfectly. If I was to spend another $ 6 on a cronut it would be on this flavor for sure.
Size was about average for a typical cronut. I uploaded a picture with relation to my Costco card so you can compare. Seemed small but again, to be fair, it does have some height to it so you cant just look at a length and width of it. Heard a complaint that the website picture looked a lot bigger.
Would definitely come back for the Bacon Cookie at a time when it is less busy. Worth it? I’m sort of on the fence, probably when I have a craving for it. Recommend to try? Definitely yes.

Yesterday was soft opening day for CroDough Hawaii & their new big turquoise food truck that sells «cronuts» (translation: croissant donuts). For those of you that haven’t heard about this craze yet, a cronut is made by using croissant dough and cutting/​frying it like a donut.
I had the chance to taste one of their cronuts at a UYE I went to this past week because someone else brought them for us to sample before the food truck actually opened. I really liked the sample, so I wanted to check out their truck!
PRODUCTS:
Each one is about 3“x3“x (1″ or 1.5″); in other words, it’s square. They’re all pretty buttery (in an it-​makes-​this-​taste-​amazing kind of way). Why cronuts are better than donuts: crunch factor. You can top & flavor them the same, but the flakey, crispy, semi-​crunchy croissant layers that make a cronut are so much better.
6 available flavors & yes, those are prices PER cronut:
1) Strawberries N Cream ($ 6) — My favorite! Fresh strawberries, fluffy whipped cream & pastry cream. Definitely the messiest to eat, but the light filling flavors pair well w/​the buttery fried-​ness of the cronut itself.
2) Peppermint Cacao ($ 5) — My 2^nd favorite! Chocolate dipped w/​a mint sauce drizzled on top w/​good balance so one doesn’t outdo the other… I also just like the mint & chocolate pairing in general.
3) Cookie Bacon ($ 6) — Tasted more like maple bacon. I’m not too sure where the «cookie» part comes in, but it was still tasty.
4) Honey Toast ($ 5) — There’s a glaze on it, which i’m assuming is honey, but the filling reminded me of custard. Probably best for the person looking for a «simple» flavor.
5) Chocolate Sprinkle ($ 5) — The one that reminded me most of a regular donut.
6) Wasabi Coconut ($ 5) — Toasted coconut sprinkled all over, but the wasabi was really lacking… as in I didn’t taste any except in this one little clumped up bit of coconut shavings.
Comparison: I haven’t tried the ones from Regal Bakery that everyone else talks about, but I’ve tried St. Germain’s cronut… AWFUL. if it wasn’t labelled croissant donut I would have just though it was a double decker made w/​regular donuts, so in that sense, they’re not even worth comparing.
SERVICE:
They were supposed to be open from 9a-​12p, so my friends & I showed up around 9:30. Opening day means there will always be problems — ALWAYS — so I wasn’t all that surprised when a guy came out & told us they had problems w/​their commercial kitchen that morning, were running WAY behind & wouldn’t be open for another hr. & 15 min. or so. To their credit, they handed out free bottles of water (normally $ 1), cups of coffee (normally $ 0.25), and eventually an extra cronut per order to anyone who decided to stay & wait. The workers were really apologetic for the wait, but really grateful for the business. It seemed that the general wait time for everyone I saw yesterday was about 2hrs., including the people that showed up as we were leaving.
Problems & Suggestions:
I don’t know for sure because I was only looking through their small service window, but I think they were making every cronut «to order,» which was taking up a LOT of time. So if you ordered a Strawberries N Cream cronut, they had to pipe the pastry cream, lay the strawberry slices, pipe the whipped cream & dust it w/​powdered sugar. If you ordered Peppermint Cacao, they had to dip the top in chocolate then drizzle the mint sauce, and so on and so on w/​the other flavors. I’m not sure if that was because of their morning kitchen issues or if they had been planning to do it that way, but I do hope they find a better way to prepare. The sample I had previously tried had apparently been refrigerated from earlier that day & I thought it preserved quite well, so maybe they can look into doing something like that?
The packaging they have is AH-​dorable w/​great see-​through side panels, but for the average person, getting the box open is much too complicated or time consuming to deal with. The box flaps from the short sides both have a slit to allow it to slide over the center handle (made by bringing the box flaps of the longer sides together), then they tie a business card on to the handle w/​ribbon (w/​a knot, not a bow). So cute, but getting the knotted card off was difficult and you can’t open the box until the card comes off. We ate in/​on the car because we’re fatties, but when we finally got the box open, the side flaps were HUGE & it’s like having a cardboard cross laid out in front of us. Simpler box would save time, space & customer frustration.
CONCLUSION:
I thought the cronuts were delicious and I definitely would eat them again, but considering how rich & pricy they are, I would probably only get them occasionally.
I won’t fault any business for opening day mishaps, so I’m discounting the long wait as part of my decision because I know they’ll learn & prepare better next time (that’s what soft openings are for).

Croissant Doughnut hybrid?! Two of my favorite pastries bamboozled together!
Boyfriend and I came around 1PM. I believe a couple hours after it’s opening. We were left with a few options by time we got there, but I didn’t mind because the only one I really wanted to try was the bacon flavor. And lawd, they still had. We ended up getting the bacon, the peppermint cacao and the nice gentlemen gave us a freebee, chocolate coconut as well. The total came out to $ 11 buckaroos — $ 5/​per crodough. This is averaged priced from what I’ve seen in NY and CALI. We waited no longer than 10 minutes for our treats. I think some people ordered dozens so the wait was much longer for them.
Personally, I’m not a big sweet tooth kind of person or dessert fanatic, but I did enjoy the crodoughs! Not too sweet, has the same crunchiness as the croissant on the outside of the crodough, and the softness as the doughnut inside. My boyfriend thought it was pretty good too.
I did notice the guys preparing or handing out the crodoughs seemed very nervous. I mean opening up a mobile fast food pastry truck is no big deal, right?!? (Being sarcastic) There’s preparing, planning, baking, and hoping people are happy with the end product because they vested time and money to this effort. I applaud their efforts and wish them all the best!
Overall, our experience was pleasant — short wait, nice service, and tasty (:

Not Worth It!!!
¹⁄₅ Stars
The hype for this was not worth it; money or size wise.
My friend and I waited I line for almost two hours to get some Cronuts and it took forevers. Once we got there, only 15 people ordered before us and they already ran out of the best stuff.
The Cronuts were good, but not worth the price $ 5/​$ 6.
It was there «grand opening» but If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.
I hope to update my review for this place. They need to learn to be more prepared. They took an extremely long time in between orders.