Donutelier Carnaby Donut Shop: Patisserie Donuts From 11am

Donutelier's Carnaby Street branch, at 50 Carnaby Street, London W1F 9QA, is a donut shop that keeps shopping hours rather than bakery hours: it opens at 11am and closes at 7pm, every day including bank holidays, or earlier if the counter sells out. Donuts run £5.75 to £7.25, built like small French pastries, and the shop is a five-minute walk from Oxford Circus station.

Donutelier began at Charing Cross Road around the end of 2022, the London offshoot of the Israeli bakery group Roladin, and in 2024 it announced a second shop on Carnaby Street, doubling its London estate. The later opening time fits the street, which wakes up with its boutiques rather than with commuters. If you want a donut with breakfast, go to the Strand or Charing Cross Road branches, which open at 8:30am. Carnaby is the afternoon stop.

The design follows the flagship's lead, from piping-bag chandeliers to a long counter where each donut sits like a pastry in a patisserie window. The brand publishes a 360-degree tour of this shop on its contact page, which is worth a look if you want to see the size of the seating area before you come. As at every branch, the chefs finish the donuts in-house, and the collection changes with limited editions through the year.

The Pistachio, at £6.75, is the one to order if you only have one. It is filled with Chantilly cream and a pistachio variegato, finished with pistachio ganache, pistachio nibs, crispy raspberries and a thin almond sablé disc that adds crunch. The Rochers Gianduja, also £6.75, is for chocolate and hazelnut people: chocolate ganache and hazelnut praline inside, a hazelnut and chocolate crust, milk chocolate Chantilly and gianduja flakes.

The Double Chocolate Sprinkles, again £6.75, is filled with milk chocolate Chantilly and topped with chocolate ganache, sprinkles and a double chocolate sprinkle cookie. It is one of only two vegetarian donuts in the collection, which matters because the shop uses fish gelatine elsewhere. Our view is that it is the least interesting of the three for adults, so pick pistachio or gianduja unless you are buying for a child.

The pastry counter is the other half of the business. The Strawberry Cream Croissant, at £7.70, is the brand's signature pastry, a croissant filled with homemade strawberry jam and cream. The Pistachio Raspberry Swirl is £6.90 and a plain butter croissant £3.80. For lunch, the Caprese Croissant at £6.40 is filled with homemade pesto, tomato, mozzarella and basil, and the Sweet Potato and Camembert sandwich on sourdough costs £3.40 for a half or £6.80 for a whole.

Drinks lean sweet. The Matcha Cloud, available in blueberry or strawberry, costs £5.60, as do the Iced Chocolate Pretzel Mocha and the Iced Vanilla Pecan, which match two of the donut flavours. Plain coffee is the better partner for a rich donut: an Americano is £3.70 and a flat white £3.90. Alternative milk and extra shots are included in the price, and there is an 85p supplement for homemade whipped cream.

Ordering ahead works differently here than at the flagship. Delivery and click-and-collect run from the Charing Cross Road store, within a 2.5 mile radius and with a minimum of nine donuts, so a Carnaby visit is walk-in only in practice. Corporate orders of 50 or more donuts earn a 10% discount. Donutelier also sells gift vouchers and runs a loyalty scheme, both set out on its website, which makes the vouchers an easy present for someone who works around Soho.

There are no reservations. Seating is limited, and the shop's own advice is that tables clear quickly or you can take your order away. Weekend afternoons on Carnaby Street are busy, so the calmest window is the first hour after 11am on a weekday. Because every donut is cream-filled and fragile, Donutelier recommends eating them on the day, within a few hours, and keeping them out of the heat. Do not leave a box in a bag while you shop for the afternoon.

If the counter has sold out, the nearest alternatives are other Donutelier shops: Soho Place at the far end of Oxford Street stays open until 9pm, and Charing Cross Road until 10pm. For a lighter and cheaper sweet nearby, Crosstown's Fitzrovia branch on Newman Street is about ten minutes' walk across Oxford Street and sells sourdough rings for £4.95, though it closes at 7pm as well.

This is not a shop for allergy sufferers. Every donut contains egg, nothing is gluten free, and many products contain nuts, with the company advising anyone with a nut allergy not to eat here because of cross-contamination. The donut collection contains milk, eggs, gluten from wheat and oats, and soy. Nothing contains alcohol. Vegans are limited to the two vegan pastries, and plant milk is available for coffee at no extra cost.

Carnaby Street is pedestrianised, so a donut here works best as the middle of a Soho walk. Kingly Court, the three-storey courtyard of independent restaurants, opens off Carnaby a minute away. Liberty, the mock-Tudor department store on Great Marlborough Street, is just to the north and worth entering for the timbered interior alone. Regent Street runs parallel to the west, and Golden Square, a quiet garden square, is a short stroll south.

From the shop, Oxford Circus station on the Central, Bakerloo and Victoria lines is about five minutes north, and Piccadilly Circus about eight minutes south. If you are coming from the Charing Cross Road branch, walking across Soho via Old Compton Street takes about fifteen minutes, which is a reasonable way to compare two flavours from the same collection on one afternoon.

Address: Donutelier, 50 Carnaby Street, London W1F 9QA. Hours: Monday to Sunday 11am to 7pm, including bank holidays, or until sold out. Phone: none published. Contact is by email through donutelier.co.uk. Prices: Pistachio, Rochers Gianduja and Double Chocolate Sprinkles donuts £6.75, Strawberry Cream Croissant £7.70, Caprese Croissant £6.40, Matcha Cloud £5.60, flat white £3.90. Nearest stations: Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. No bookings.