You can’t go to Portland without stopping at Voodoo Doughnuts right outside of Chinatown. Your friends will have told you about the crazy flavors, and you will have smelled a distinct doughnuty aroma from the Waterfront Park by the river. As a doughnut enthusiast, Voodoo naturally made it to my list of things to eat in Portland. But it wasn’t until towards the end of the trip that we made it over.

An idea that came to mind when I entered Voodoo was that it had a “cult following”…lots of interesting clothing and posters decorated the pink walls under bright fluorescent lighting. The antithesis of Blue Star Donuts was a treasure trove of “keep Portland weird” and ridonkulous doughnut flavors – check out this *rotating* display case:

This plus the chalkboard menu of flavors made for quite overwhelming decision-making. Luckily, we had some time to mull over the choices and take a look at the options, since we did not arrive to a line hugging the side of the building, like you’d typically see on a weekend afternoon.

We walked away with the iconic large pink box, and three doughnuts: Caramel Delight (West coast’s version of a Samoa), maple-glazed old fashion, and a mango tango filled doughnut.

Voodoo does not claim artisanally made doughnuts, and neither do their prices. We left with only $5 less than we entered with. I’m glad we did eventually make the trip over. We didn’t exactly go crazy with the flavors, as we could have opted for “Arnold Palmer”, “dirty snowball”, or “butterfingering”. This is likely in part because we couldn’t decipher many of the flavors from the names alone. The doughnuts we did try were very sweet, too much for even my sweet tooth. But my favorite was the Caramel Delight with its crunchy coconut exterior and soft cake interior.

Visiting Voodoo is definitely an experience, and one worth having. But the doughnuts, however famous and wacky, are not on my top 5 list.

Stay tuned for a few more Portland spots you’ll want to check out on your next trip over!