Mister D’s Doughnuts, Napier

Street sign outside Mister D’s:

We had no doubt at all. Who can resist a doughnut?

My family and I had a lovely afternoon tea at Mister Ds. We were there for one specific item on the menu – DOUGHNUTs. I have heard a lot about the Mister D’s doughnut experience, and even my friends from out of town have been raving about them. These doughnuts have generated a lot of interest because they are not just ‘doughnuts’; they are special doughnuts, and it is a doughnut experience with a difference. The doughnuts are served with plastic syringes packaged with a choice of fillings. The filling choices are custard, jelly, or chocolate, which you then inject into the middle of the doughnuts.

Lets get straight into the photographs. Here is my doughnut with two syringes of fillings, custard and jelly:

Here is my brother filling his doughnut, showing us how it is done. He has been here before, so he should be an expert (whereas this was my first doughnut experience here).

The doughnuts were served warm, and the jelly melted into the doughnuts. I tried all the flavours(!) and prefer the custard and jelly.

We walked in off the street into the warm restaurant. It was 3pm and the place was busy and noisy.

When we walked into the restaurant I was aware that we might look slightly dishevelled, as we had just finished a long walk over Napier Hill, and the doughnuts were our reward after all this exercise. [We had just trotted along Chaucer Road South and done the Chaucer Road South steps and anyone who has experienced this walk will know you don’t actually ‘trot’, you huff and puff your way along, as with most of the Napier Hill walks, it’s a hard slog sometimes.]

Thank goodness the restaurant is unpretentious (so it says on the website) and fortunately a table was available. We were served very quickly and our waiter was very professional and attentive with filling up our glasses. Later on, I read that Mister D’s won best front of house service a couple of weeks ago at the local Hawke’s Bay Hospitality Awards. I am not surprised at all. At the same awards they also won Outstanding Chef and Outstanding Established Restaurant.

I can thoroughly recommend the doughnut experience here. We had lots of fun pumping the filling into the doughnuts and lots of fun eating them in our fingers, trying not to drop any of the filling which was oozing out the sides of the doughnut.

To accompany our doughnut we had teas and coffees. My coffee was absolutely perfect, the right temperature and a creamy flavour. It’s been a very long time since I had such a nice coffee. It was so nice I looked about to see which brand they use, which is the Coffee Supreme brand. Across the table from me, the tropical tea was a beautiful delicate peach colour, and the drifting steam carried a fruity aroma. Apparently it tasted great. Sitting next to me, Mum was enjoying the lemon, honey, and ginger tea. In fact she enjoyed the tea so much that even though it is now several weeks later, she is still talking about it!

The experience was over too quickly, …..But, I’ll be back!

Mister D, 47 Tennyson Street, Napier. www.misterd.co.nz