Donut Factory @ Raffles City

12.06 PM

I reached Donut Factory @ Raffles City Shopping Centre on a Saturday afternoon. When it comes to Donut Factory, the first thing you notice is not the small shop front, but the long snaking queue.

After hearing so many reports on how the queue is painstakingly long, I was surprised to see that the queue, was in fact, unexpectedly short. Being a weekend, teenagers and secondary school students dominated the queue. There was hardly a single working adult in sight. What more on a weekday, where adults have only one hour of lunch break to spare? Would the queue have been much more shorter?

Therefore, I was curious indeed to see why people had queued SEVEN to FIVE hours just to buy donuts. Was the long waiting a thing of the past, was the fad dying a slow painful death, like the bubble tea craze?

As you probably already know, when Donut Factory first started up, the media quickly picked on it and slowly deviously exploited the donut craze, devoting pages after pages of column inches to these sugary babies.

Anyway, if you ever make the trip down, don't be like my hygiene-conscious friend, who refused to sit down on the floor. It can get very tiring, so feel free to sit down as everyone else is doing so.

Of course, there were a few lone ones who stood all the way, but unless you are the dirt-conscious type who is afraid of sitting down where thousands of the soles of shoes and heels have trodden upon, my suggestion is not to.

Also, I spotted many in the queue sporting PSPs, Gameboys, magazines etc. These people sure came well-equipped, but what beats a real-life breathing human being aka your companion to make donut queuing a more tolerable social activity?

12.30 PM

Donut Factory finally opens and there is a sudden rush forward. Before I went to Donut Factory, I've read many food reviews on how the sugary smell of the donuts surge forward to greet you amiacably while you queue (im)patiently for your turn.

Well, they were half right, the smell of creamy sugar rushed forward - but, wait a minute - it isn't coming from Donut Factory. Instead, the sweet creamy smell is coming from Donut Factory's (drum roll) neighbour, Beard Papa!

13:35 PM

After feeling kind of frustrated that the queue wasn't even that long in the first place, so why the hell was the queue moving so slowly? I went to the front of the queue to investigate.

The numbers of service staff were sufficient enough and they were all very efficient. Behind the kitchen, you can see the chef hard at work, needling a sizeable amount of dough. The donuts were churned out at the speed of a bullet train in an assembly-line fashion.

So, my questions again is this: What was holding up the queue?

Alas! It was not the quantity of people that contributed to the long waiting times. It was the quantity of donuts that each individual bought!

One group (two guys, one girl) of grown-ups bought TWELVE freaking boxes of donuts. Again and again, the boxes were folded, the donuts were chosen, and the boxes were placed aside. Multiply that by twelve times. The queue did not move for a good ten to fifteen minutes.

Assuming that every other person takes that amount of time before they whisk off with their donuts purchase, that would mean that only a meagre amount of SIX people would be served in one hour.

A-ha! smartyypants has solved the mystery of the long queues!

More pictures of the mouth-salivating donuts:

14:00 PM

We finally got our donuts, after a painstakingly long queuing process for a good two hours.

(From Top Left) Apple Cinnamon, Blueberry Glazed, White Strawberry Heart, Strawberry White Chocolate

(From Middle Left) Kaya White Chocolate, Double Chocolate, Orange White Chocolate, Glazed

(From Bottom Left) Dark Chocolate, Raspberry, Peanut Dark Chocolate, Hazelnut Milk Chocolate

The sublime donuts which my teeth sink into with guilty indulgence, injected with generous fillings such as strawberry jam and thick chocolate syrup, ozzing forward with unbirdled abundance, thereby giving you an euphoria rush. These sweet little things are enveloped within a crusty, flaky outer layer. Hungry, yet?