Photo credit: Izzie Erickson

Viral donut shop Saint Honoré is shown with a line out the door of customers, excited to try their donuts. Saint Honore was founded by Lin Jerome and Alexandra Lourdes in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jelly donuts, apple fritters, old-fashioned and donut holes are the classic kinds of donuts that usually pop into mind when thinking of the doughy delicacy. However, Saint Honoré does donuts differently.

The TikTok-viral donut shop in Las Vegas is famous for its couture donuts, brioche dough and unique flavors. Saint Honoré first blew up for their Crème Brûlée donut, which has 6.2 million views on Instagram alone. They now have a combined following of 3.5 million followers on Instagram and TikTok. Though they became popular for their donuts, Saint Honoré also sells pizza, milkshakes and beignets.  

Lin Jerome and Alexandra Lourdes are the owners of Saint Honoré. The entrepreneurs own two other restaurants in Las Vegas together: 3 Little Chicks, where they sell chicken, sandwiches and salads, and a coffee shop, Cafe Lola. 

When I arrived at Saint Honoré, I was shocked by the long line of donut lovers that went out the door. During my hourlong wait, I noticed all of the cheesy smiles across customers’ faces as they left the store, excited to try their custom-picked box of donuts. 

Inside, the line continued as I got closer to the donuts, and I was surrounded by dark blues, gold, marble tables and their signature grass wall.

As my dad and I finally made it to the front of the line, we saw the vast amount of donuts to choose from; we were overwhelmed with all the options. I ended up picking the Crème Brûlée donut, Pistachio Dubai Chocolate, Birthday Cake and the Candied Hazelnut Nutella. The box of four donuts cost a total of $25 dollars, which is much more expensive than a typical box of donuts.

Outside of Saint Honoré, there is a seating area for customers to enjoy their treats. We sat outside under the wooden pergola to try our desserts.  

The birthday cake donut was the only classic donut that I ordered. The perfectly golden brown cake was dense and sweet, mirroring a typical cake. On top was a rich icing, a ring of piped vanilla bean frosting and rainbow sprinkles. Along with the flavoring, it’s scent was also a pleasant vanilla bean. Out of all the donuts, this was the one I kept coming back to. 

As a replica of the recently viral Dubai Chocolate on TikTok, Saint Honoré released their Pistachio Dubai Chocolate donut. Dubai Chocolate is a typical chocolate bar filled with savory pistachio creme mixed with kataifi, a shredded pastry dough. Like the popular chocolate, this donut had the same filling. The dough was lighter than the birthday cake donut to compensate for the heavy filling. Overall, this was the least sweet of the bunch because of the pistachio flavoring. Dipped in a half-white and half-brown chocolate icing and topped with gold flakes and pistachio crumbs, this was one of my favorite donuts. 

I am a Nutella fan, so to say that the Candied Hazelnut Nutella donut was my least favorite of the picks is a little disappointing. The donut was nowhere near bad, it was just nothing special. It was a classic dough packed with smooth Nutella and dipped in chocolate icing and topped with candied hazelnuts. The familiar Nutella flavoring left a rich chocolate taste in my mouth minutes later. 

Finally, I tried Saint Honoré’s most famous donut: the Crème Brûlée. The top was a hardened shell of sugar that had to be cracked open before enjoying. After breaking it, I was awaited with a sweet crème brûlée inside and soft, fluffy dough like the other pastries. All the soft textures are evenly balanced with the crunchy sugar. On top of the sugar, there was a perfectly red raspberry and gold flaking on top. In spirit of the Valentine’s Day season, this pastry is temporarily being sold as a heart shape. This donut was very sweet, but I loved the creativity of its flavors and richness.

I had a great time getting to try Saint Honoré, especially with family. That said, I would not be a regular if I lived in Vegas due to the long wait time, cost and heaviness of all the donuts. However, if you have time and a sweet tooth, this restaurant is for you.