Brits Try LA’s Most Iconic Donuts, From Donut Man to Randy’s

From Glaze Sweats to Fruit-Filled Chaos, LA Donuts Win Them Over

We first discovered these two on JOLLY’s YouTube as academy students, but now Max and Armand are all grown up and in our neck of the woods — LA and the San Gabriel Valley — trying some of our local favorites and weekly treats because, well, we are spoiled like that.

The mission sounds simple enough: take somebody who insists he is not a huge donut fan, drag him through three iconic stops, load him with enough glaze to alter his body chemistry, and determine which American donut actually deserves the crown.

Donut Man Starts With the Fresh-Fruit Heavy Artillery

First stop is Donut Man, where the pair immediately clock the shop’s famous fresh-fruit donuts. They order original glazed, fresh strawberry and fresh peach — and before the tasting even properly starts, Armand is already questioning the sheer weight of the things.

The original glaze gets the first real approval. It is lighter and fluffier than expected, and one bite sends Max straight into nostalgia mode: “This literally tastes like childhood.”

Then come the fruit donuts, which turn the back of the car into something between a tasting room and a minor produce incident. The peach is messy, sticky and much better than they expect, with Max insisting the fresh fruit makes the whole thing feel more balanced. Armand is less convinced about the word “balanced,” considering the amount of syrup involved.

The strawberry — saved for last because they call it the shop’s most iconic — is even more chaotic. Strawberries leak out, fruit hits the floor and somebody ends up with glaze in his hair. By the end, one of them is threatening to start “sweating icing glaze.” That is commitment to the tasting notes.

Bob’s Brings the Fritters — and the First Real Letdown

Stop two is Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts at the Original Farmers Market, where the sugar crash has already begun. The video notes Bob’s as dating to 1970 and the Farmers Market to 1934, so naturally the tasting becomes part donut run, part accidental Los Angeles history lesson.

Apple fritters are sold out, so blueberry steps in. The verdict is immediate: sweet, oversized and essentially a deep-fried blueberry muffin. It is good enough to revive the glaze sweats, which at this point have become their own recurring character.

The honey buttermilk glazed donut does not fare nearly as well. Despite being introduced as Bob’s favorite, they call it the blandest thing they have eaten all day and compare its texture to sponge cake with icing. The inevitable line follows: maybe Bob simply is not the Donut Man.

A bonus chocolate old-fashioned rescues the stop. They like its unusual texture and hint of cinnamon enough to leave Bob’s on a much happier note.

Randy’s Delivers the Giant Sign and the Bacon-Mapped Finale

For the last stop, there is no mistaking the destination: Randy’s Donuts and that giant rooftop ring. The order starts safely with glazed raised donuts and the pink sprinkle number that immediately gets labeled the “Homer Simpson donut.” Then somebody decides the day has not been American enough yet.

Enter the bacon maple Long John. Armand’s reaction is basically the headline: “Only in America you put bacon on a donut.” The smell gets compared to breakfast, then to coffee with bacon bits in it, which somehow begins as praise and ends with nearly everyone agreeing it is horrible.

The classic glaze wins back the room. In fact, Randy’s original glazed gets called the best glaze of the day, edging out Donut Man in that specific category. The pink sprinkled donut closes the official tasting with something reassuringly familiar: exactly what they imagine an American donut should taste like.

Then the Donut Crawl Turns Into Something Much More Personal

Just when the sugar marathon looks finished, Max adds one final detour. He brings the group to the house where he grew up, revealing that he had kept the stop secret for the entire trip. The reveal adds another layer because Max later went to school in London, where he and longtime friend Armand de Lambilly were classmates at The Fulham Boys School before viewers came to know them through their appearances with Korean Englishman and JOLLY. Suddenly the childhood comment from that first glazed donut lands a little differently.

He points out the hedges his mother planted and stands outside his old home taking it all in. After thirteen minutes of glaze, strawberries, fritters, bacon and jokes about starting a donut-review channel with ten subscribers, the video quietly circles back to where that first bite took him: childhood.

Watch Max and Armand Try Donut Man, Bob’s and Randy’s in Los Angeles

The full tasting runs from Donut Man’s fresh strawberry and peach donuts through Bob’s Coffee and Doughnuts and Randy’s, before ending with a surprise visit to Max’s childhood home.

Source: ARMAX / YouTube. Images: ARMAX / YouTube.