Bernie Beigne

While walking to the metro station after our visit to Lester's, we noticed a huge lineup for donuts at Bernie Beigne.  Not only that, we watched where they took freshly fried donuts and hand-dipped them into glaze.  Then they hung them for all to see in the window.  Wow, if that wasn't a call of the wild for some donuts!  We proceeded to get in line for our chance to grab some of these highly-sought after fried dough rings.  We ended up getting a half-dozen only because these donuts were pretty large.

Of course we had to get the classic Glazed Donut that we saw majestically hung for all to see in the front window.  Well, I'm glad to report these were as good as they looked.  The donut itself was soft and airy, but at the same time, had a good chew.  There was a good flavour where it was lightly sweet but also had some balancing amount of salt.  As for the glaze, it was definitely there with sweetness, but enough of it had dripped off that it wasn't overly sweet.

Coated with a bright red glaze, the Strawberry Donut was not really our favourite.  Let's start with the positives first.  Same as the glazed donut, the base product was really good.  However, the strawberry glaze was too artificial-tasting, so it was quite sweet and strawberry candy-tasting.  Now, this is my own subjective opinion.  I can totally see this being completely acceptable to other people, especially children.

Now for 2 donuts that had the same glaze in the Maple Donut and the Maple Bacon Donut.  Of course the maple glaze was sweet, but it came with the territory.  Nice aromatics and an unmistakable essence.  With the addition of a whack load of fairly lean bacon, this totally transformed the donut.  The salty smokiness really elevated the flavours where it completely balanced the sweetness of the maple glaze.  Of course maple bacon is such a complimentary combination that has breakfast vibes.

Now for 2 fruity creations, we started with the Lemon Meringue Donut.  This one they totally nailed it with the same soft fluffy texture with an appealing bite.  Inside, we found a considerable amount tangy lemon curd.  There was enough in every bite.  On the outside, there was some lemon glaze topped with torched meringue.  There was some smoky sweetness to go with the airy creaminess of the meringue.

One of the more under-the-radar donuts was the Apple Spice.  It featured an apple pie-like filling that was sweet with a touch of light tanginess.  On top, we had some frosting glaze with an apple crumble-like topping.  Classic combination that provided that apple crumble experience in a donut.  Overall, I liked the donuts from Bernie Beigne.  They were light, but still retained a chew.  The dough was seasoned well and the flavours popped.

The Good:

- Impactful flavours (lots of toppings)

- Nicely textured yeast donuts

- Donuts are large

The Bad:

- Most are pretty sweet, but I'm sure many people like that