cartems donuterie

so not worth it.... yes, i would pay $3 for a donut if it were exceptional...
these donuts are not. i was so excited when we finally made it to the place before their 3 o'clock closing time. the donuts were sub par at best with a greasy ring around the outside of each. barely any pronounced flavours. rip off, not worth a return.
if i were having a donut craving, i would go out of my way to the place in upper lonsdale.
$5 for half a dozen of yumminess and donut perfection.

i love this place so much!! the variety of flavours are great (savoury ones were best!!) and the staff was super friendly. the environment was bright and clean, defintely coming back.

apple fritters!. i only got to try one donut an i went with a pretty safe choice - the apple fritter. but it was absolutely delicious! it was very flavorful and had a thick layer of glaze on top. the dough was thick and satisfying and had chunks of baked apple folded inside. hopefully i can visit next time i'm in town and try a few new flavors!

ah man, this place is so good! the concept is simple - great coffee and amazing donuts. among the best coffee i tried in vancouver. the walnut maple donut was unreal!

went here friday around 5:30 pm , and obviously the cream-filled london fog weren't available, which we really wanted to try, so we made a compromise :(, we got the smoked maple walnut and the citrus something. liked the smoked maple more, but overall both were good. got drip coffee too, but not sure if it's coz it must have been 'dripped' long time ago or something, but wasn't that great. hence, the -0,5 for the coffee. but would be willing to give better rating if the london fog turns out amazing :d


edit: on our second visit here, we went here as soon as it opened on a saturday morning. (we had to wait a few mins while the door was closed) . couldn't get the london fog still. need to go again. but the second visit was worth it as well :)

i travel places to explore something in sweet and i landed here and gave it a try. i had some chocolate filled donut. it was soft and fresh. the aroma urged me to try more and more but diet is somy i need to take are off.

i am a donut fan and must say this place impressed me.

great work!

because the donuts are not made on-site, and rely on the delivery from the kitchen on commercial drive, the availability changes constantly. that means you may not always be able to buy your favourite donut, but it also means whatever you get is freshly made and delivered, and is still yummy by the bite. fresh donuts – availability varies throughout the day

after sandwiches at finch’s we wandered down the street to cartems donunterie, they recently (not really, but in my head) moved down to pender street and i had been wanting to try them since their days as a pop up shop. what we ate  (going clockwise, starting with the bacon one)  canadian whiskey bacon – whiskey! bacon! maple! o, canada! this was the first time i’ve had a bacon donut where i feel like the bacon legitimately made it better instead of just being a gimmick the earl grey – an earl grey infused donut, topped with an earl grey glaze and rose petals. this donut was amazingly moist and the flavours were spot on. it was my favourite! the dark knight – chocolate cake donut topped with brownies and nuts. a chocolate lovers dream! apple pie stuffie – i’m convinced there was around half an apple shoved into this! unlike what you would expect in a stuffed donut there were actual huge chunks of apple in here. i couldn’t get over it! unfortunately i felt the apple filling wasn’t sweet

wonderful donuts. people are acting like they have forgotten what a doughnut is: it's fried in oil people! given that, these are the best darn donuts i've ever tasted. the earl grey is especially wonderful...a new taste sensation compared to all the "usual suspects" at other places. yes, they are heavy and crumbly because of the dough used, but they're also moist and melt-in-your-mouth because of it. by no means a health food i consider them an occasional luxury... and what's life without a little indulgence?

check out the review of cartems donuterie in the blog post below.

finally had a chance to visit cartems on my way to work early one morning. it was around 720 and clearly they had been busy with racks on racks of fresh goodies. ordered a dozen to share so got a sampling of all on offer. standard flavour as expected but the seasonal ones were excellent - root beer float was nice and tasted as promissed. $3-$4 per donut is a little steep when compared to the $1.50 max at tims so likely won't be doing the $36 dozen again.

right in the middle of the downtown east side, you’ll find this donut pop-up shop. the hype for this store has been amazing. you really have to follow them on twitter @cartemsdonuts for operation hours and statuses. it’s not uncommon for them to sell out of the most popular flavours within hours. and it’s not uncommon for people to wait 20 minutes in line for a donut. ah, but these are not ordinary donuts, these treats are handmade daily using one local ingredients. the donuts are then fried in organic coconut oil for extra flavour. they also come in vegan and gluten free varieties. their flavours are also unique. take for instance their best seller, the london fog donut –  a cake donut lightly infused with earl grey tea and topped with an earl grey glaze. or their maple bacon bourbon, which really should be tried to be believed, and yes,that is real bacon pieces on top of the donut. now locally-sourced quality ingredients equal a better quality product that costs more. a dozen donuts

other than lucky’s, i think of cartem s when the topic of donuts arises. even though lucky’s is considered to be a “side project” of 49th parallel, they still produce some pretty solid donuts, like the pillowy tiramisu ! this then begs the question… lucky’s or cartems? after chatting over some subs at finch’s , sharonmhfung and i strolled into cartems as it was along our way. there’s a pretty wide variety of donuts – more than lucky’s, i think. after minutes of debating between apple pie or london fog, a kind stranger helped me settled on the latter. the whiskey bacon sounded pretty good too… next time perhaps :) the london fog stuffie ($3) had a light cake texture, with an airy and slightly spongey vanilla bean cream filling. the cake itself was infused with earl grey tea, as was the glaze, yet the tea flavour remained quite mild. while i can’t really compare cartems to lucky’s head-to-head since i’ve eaten different donuts at both places, i’ll say that i currently prefer cartems. i f

so over-rated! greasy, heavy and not worth the hype. both my doughnuts broke into three pieces and sugar, and crumbs everywhere! i think the hype is that they use all locally sourced ingredients, which i respect. but nothing is good there. sigh, vancouver...too easy to be pleased.

dumb idea bad product. these are touted as "healthy" - they are not healthy in the least. why would you want to buy a healthy donut anyway? they are supposed to be sinful, that is why we like them so much.

i don't see how this will ever become more than a pop-up resto. i'm sure they cannot afford to pay rent for more than a couple of hours a day even though they charge a premium for their underwhelming product.
this will end up in the waste bin with all the other vancouver hippy idea's that will never have a valid business model to sustain them. this is clearly a passion - not a business.

the donuts do not taste healthy (which is a good thing) and clearly they are not healthy (please see note above). they do not have a good texture and all and all the chocolate ones that i tried all tasted the same.

not worth the bother. go to a regular restaurant that doesn't sell out in a couple of hours because why would you bother waiting for these?