Thursday, May 31, 2007

Doughnuts @ Big Apple Donuts & Coffee, The Curve, Mutiara Damansara, Kuala Lumpur



I finally had time to make it to the new doughnut place at the Curve. Ever since they announced their opening in the papers last weekend which I totally missed, it's been packed with people that there has already been a few blog reviews. It's located behind TGIF next to the yet to open The Apartment.



According to the people who work at this place, they say the doughnuts are based on a recipe from New York. Not too sure about it since there's no mention about a Big Apple Donut franchise if I google. It looks like this could be a similar doughnut set up to the ones who are now cashing in on the Krispy Kreme fame. Guess it's a good idea to bring this in and start a trend to reap the monies before the actual Krispy Kreme arrive on our shores. Kinda reminds me of the same business model the two doughnut places in Singapore are doing at Raffles Shopping Centre and at Vivocity where people queue up for their doughnuts.



Currently the opening promotion is buy twelve doughnuts at RM17 and get half a dozen doughnuts for free. Note that for the twelve doughnuts, you can choose the various types but for the free doughnuts they only give you Glacier doughnuts which is simply glazed. If you order a drink (not mineral water) as they also serve various coffee and teas, you can also get a free Glacier doughnut.



Signages are quite sparse when it comes to the types of doughnuts they offer and when I was there, not all the glass trays at the display counter were filled up. From a piece of paper stuck at the wall of their open plan kitchen, I counted a total of seventeen varieties but I've only managed to identify sixteen varieties. The kitchen is open plan and pretty small with emphasis on the doughnut glazing machine while toppings is added by hand. This first one is called California Almond - topped with icing and flake almonds. Not bad and not too sweet.



This one is called Cool Blue as it has blueberry jam in the middle while the sides are dipped in a glaze.



This is the Banana Rama - glazed with dark chocolate on the side and in the middle a dollop of strongly flavoured banana cream.



This is the Walnut - dark chocolate glazed with chopped walnuts on top of it.



This one is the Witnut which comes with a peanut butter filling and a white chocolate topping.



This is similar to the Ice Blue except this is called Hot Berry and comes with a strawberry filling.



This is their Snowy doughnut which is just a plain doughnut topped with icing sugar.



This is the Choreo - topped with powdered oreo cookies.



This is the Cocoring which is topped with Belgian dark chocolate.



This one is known as the Green Teaser whereby the topping is green tea. The flavour is quite subtle that it's not easy to figure out the taste of the green tea.



This one is the Mango Tango - topped with mango cream and glazed.



This has a cute name - Moonraker where it's milk chocolate glazed and sprinkled with Coco Pops which they claim is James Bond favourite.

Aside from these ones, there's the Glacier, Semi-Glacier which is less sweet, Iceberg (has vanilla and cream) and Simply Cheese which I know of. The doughnuts tend to be not very sweet and quite soft. Some reckon Dunkin Donuts is better as it's bigger and has more bite to it. Note that Dunkin Donuts and Big Apple Donut is selling each doughnut for RM2 but one dozen doughnuts is RM18 at Dunkin Donuts and slightly cheaper in Big Apple at RM17 but smaller. Half a dozen doughnuts at Big Apple is RM9.50 but RM10 at Dunkin Donuts. The boxes are pretty nifty - huge flat one for the one dozen doughnuts with detailed instructions to keep it refrigerated and to warm it up for 8 seconds in the microwave.


Per an annoymous comment left on Eat First Think Later's blog, the concept for Big Apple is exactly like an Indonesian chain of doughnut company called J.Co Donuts and Coffee. Strange but their website is down but this blog, A Guide to Organized Chaos by Aidil & Shaz has pictures of the J.Co doughnuts they sampled. Check the similarity of the design of the doughnuts right down to the glass trays and labels used at the shop which is the same as Big Apple Donuts.

Big Apple Donuts and Coffee
Lot G72A, Ground Floor
The Street
Western Courtyard
The Curve
Mutiara Damansara
Petaling Jaya

Tel No: 03 - 7726 4250

(Pork free)

*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here is entirely based on my personal tastebuds and may vary for others. The reviewer also declares that she has not received any monetary or non-monetary compensation from the restaurant for writing this review.

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42 comments:

wushukid said...

so much fuzz over a small little ring thingo!! I remembered when krispy open the q is about a mile long....

Now braches are everywhere....

Coketai said...

I love Krispy Kreme!!!! I used to travelled to Los Angelas every year for business and I will sure eat a dozen and bring back a dozen. I still miss the Krispy Kreme doughnut very much....there are now in Hong Kong but I am not sure when there will be in SEA!!!

LY.Tai

Izad said...

Krispy Kremes! YUM! The queues are never short when I had them in Australia (weird that different outlets offer different, prices both in Syndey & Melbourne). Checked out their franchising info and I think I know why we don't see those in Malaysia.. I think you'd need more than just several years to see your return of investment. LOL.

Saw this Big Apple promo in the papers a few weeks ago (them giving out free donuts) but totally forgot about it till now. Will check it out for sure! :)

"Joe" who is constantly craving said...

wow..i think this is the first time you had that many pictures!..and a very detailed summary too! full ons review..yeah i luv krispy kremes..those aussie days..i heard you can actually setup a franchise but just that it involves alot of moolah..any rich takers out there? you definitely have the demand here!

Lyrical Lemongrass said...

I guess everyone's nuts abt Krispy Kremes. We always make it a point to get some whenever we go to the US. In the meantime, we'll just have to look for other options here. U've done a great writeup on Big Apple Donuts...it'll help me decide when I want to get a few. :-)

yiiming said...

somehow, KK is still nicer because they have a softer mouth feel, very springy............who can resist their Original Glazed

I would say that Big Apple is much much better than Dunkin Donuts, its good that there is at least someone in our shores offering decent donuts.............at least until KK comes in............

Big Boys Oven said...

I was told their donut premixed comes directly from US.

Started blogging! Just can't wait 1st June.
BigBoysOven

teckiee said...

J.Co site is up...but took me really long to get in.

Flower said...

Wah, my husband would be very happy. Look like a donut heaven. He's a donut kaki.

Tummythoz said...

Not a fancy donut fan. Still prefer those with a good shower of sugar. But these r so colourful.

Collecting Moments said...

Aiyo, my sis was just telling me about this place yday. She said she can barely put the donuts down. The glazed and choreo looks good!

MeiyeN said...

aikss....i just went there and grab 1/2 dozen...and have yet to try! also... with a few quarts of baskin robbins ice cream too cause today is 31st! ekekekeke

Lingzie said...

oooohh...donuts!!! heavenly yet unforgiving on the hips...but yes krispy kremes are too die for. had them in london and aussie. will definitely check out Big Apple's donuts when i'm in KL and see how they rate against krispy kremes.
Meanwhile, can some rich kind soul bring the franchise over to malaysia???

Rarebeet said...

You've given me a doughnut craving! They look really good. Hope they taste as good as they look. Regardless, I know Hunky will want to eat them all!

wmw said...

Went and got some, not that many varieties left...didn't take individual pics. Will link to this post of yours when I post mine... :o)

boo_licious said...

wushu kid - I know. They seem to start such queues. I can imagine the mile long queue if Krispy Kreme opens here.

coketai - hopefully one day it will appear on our shores.

joe - thought fair enough to feature each special doughnut.

lemongrass - hope you enjoy it!

lim - yeah, krispy kreme would be the ultimate but I guess have to settle with Big Apple.

big boys oven - congrats on starting blogging and wow, the premix is from USA.

teckiee - I still have yet to go in.

flower - yr hubby can eat as much as he wants when he returns from Perth. So many types to choose from.

tummythoz - yeah, traditional is still better I reckon.

honey star - guess you must go and try them for yrself.

meiyen - wow, sounds like you're stocking up on the ice cream.

lingzie - hope KK comes soon!

paprika - they're quite soft. My friend felt it didn't have much bite to it but I kinda like this soft type as easy to finish it quickly.

wmw - cool! Hope to see yr pixs soon.

jesscet said...

wow, donuts had never looked so good! :p i guess i love to look at them more than eat haha.. (fattening mah..)

just curious, how did u manage to take pix of so many different donuts??

Andreas said...

Hi, great review and thanks for linking me in. Tastelike, I think that Dunkin Donuts are better, seriously. Sadly, I haven't had the time to eat Donuts from Krispy. Clearly, copying business models is normal, but the main point is: What is the differentiator in the business vis-a-vis the competition. Is it the culture, a better delivery or anything else.

Hm - lucky I had breakfast - I got hungry just looking at the pics :)

boo_licious said...

jess - you just snap the different varieties individually then you will get pictures of each one.

andreas - thanks for dropping by! Read from someone who said they're the same owners as J Co hence the similarity.

Anonymous said...

donut porn!! we are so coming back to msia for Big Apple's....

and yes, they look very similar to Jco. but the oreo flavour is smthg different. you couldn't have taken better pics.....the donuts look droolsome.

laypeng said...

the pictures of the donuts look exactly like those from Jakarta's JCO shop (coz i've been there before). They are very yummy when u have them ON THE SPOT.

qwazymonkey said...

Hi All,

New to food blogging community. I agree, these donuts need to be eaten on the spot.

Big Apple's like the closest we have when it comes to Krispy Creme here! So enjoy it while they are still good. Heard they are opening like 5 other outlets before the end of the year.

boo_licious said...

jackson - had to distribute some away to family! They loved it.

shaz and adli - come come to KL to sample the doughnuts. Think Msia is getting the craze. I saw on a Friday night abt 9.10 pm they were still churning out doughnuts for a queue of people.

laypeng - yeah they are related to Jco it seems. Seems it's also nice if you heat them in the microwave if you fridge them.

qwazymonkey - welcome! Gosh, there will be an overdose of doughnuts then. You can eat the glazed ones from the fridge - just microwave for 8 secs and it tastes good.

Unknown said...

Yeah, i went to Indonesia sometimes ago and went to JCO. To my suprise everything that bigapple have is similar with JCO. the logo, the donuts (even the topping), the crew uniform, the donut packaging.
to satisfy my curiosity, i ask the JCO crew over there asked whether big apple & Jco donuts owner is the same person... and to my surprise they said "NO"...
hmmm then big apple must have really rip JCO off... or the other way around??. but then i asked them (JCO) again how long has been in Indonesia? they said 2 years already... hmm... so we know who the pirate here... arrgh ya matey.

jesscet said...

aiya, of course i know that!:p what i meant was how did u manage to take individual photo of the donuts? were they being displayed? (i never been to that shop)

boo_licious said...

andrew - yeah, looks like they ripped off JCo unless what teckiee mentioned that there are similar owners involved.

jesscet - wasn't sure what you meant earlier. I bought a huge box to sample hence I did close ups of it. I actually have pixs of the ones in the shop but not great with the reflective glass.

Lingzie said...

ok i'm still not over the donut craze...have been dreaming of Krispy Kreme donuts since i read this entry...so today i googled KK in asia and to my surprise found that KK is IN asia! They're already in Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Phillipines and Indonesia!! So...hopefully its only a matter of time before they come here!!

http://www.krispykreme.com/storelocator.html

Unknown said...

oooh those look delicious and your pictures are beautiful! how in the world did you manage to take pictures of so many donuts before you ate them all!

MJ said...

The donuts are really soft but they are really too sweet for me. The toppings are thin but we had ok service. The guy was smiling as he intro the recommended flavours.

Unknown said...

I wonder if it ethical to totally emulate one's own product. We see resemblance everywhere in here, the logo's (see the font there, and the picture concept), the uniform, the store layout, and mostly the product...

We know well that J.co is emulating KK, but it goes only as far as the kitchen concept (open kitchen). So let us ask once more....is it ethical in any way....?

Roclus said...

COPYCAT!!! COPYCAT!!!
Ever heard of JCo Donuts and Coffee???

khikomunitas said...

just simply click this link

www.jcodonuts.com

and u will know that California Almond real name is Al Capone and it's already being trademark for J.Co Donuts & Coffee...

Please Mr. Hardy or who ever you are from Big Apple Donuts, ask forgiveness from J.CO!!

Rifqi said...

boo_licious-> you're truly a copycat person. Even you stole the J.co's logo. Shame of you.

Tourmaline Jo Bear said...

hi, just fyi, there's a new Big Apple Donuts outlet at Ara Damansara Niu Ze Xui shopping boulevard... and thanks for the review, u made me eager to try the donuts now.

shopaholic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
shopaholic said...

hi... juz some stories from friend of mine. j.co donuts and big apples' owners were partners in indonesia, where big apples' malaysian n j.co's indonesian... somehow rather the j.v did not work out n big apples' owner cameback home and opened big apples...

i can make sense of the story coz if i were the real intellectual properties' owner, i should have sued big apples for the copycat.. i have yet to see j.co taking any actions...

juz my 2cents...

cheers~

Unknown said...

I agree with those Krispy Kreme lovers as I am one of the big fans of KK as well. Just loved the Original Glazed...Anyway, whenever i head to Birmingham, KK will definitely be in one of my must-have shopping list. Harrods in London too has KK outlet...oh KK...I LOVE U!!!! :)

xynzi~~ said...

wow~~ it really mouthwatering..
Yup! i think the doughnuts are based on a recipe from New York bt as I noe the founder is Malaysian, Mike Chan.

Elmi said...

i love pink panther.

Unknown said...

Sure. Nice things said about Big Apples!!, but do you know where their staffs live? Checkout No.11 Jalan PJU 7/8B Mutiara Damansara (Mutiara Homes), there are DIRTY..
the residents are not happy with this...these people have been throwing rubbish in front of their house *renting house*..all of them live in the same house!!!.

We have been calling their Managers since yesterday..FYI,they been staying there more than a year.....

"X-Big Apple Donuts lover"

Anonymous said...

yummy..
delicious !!!

The Geeks said...

Thanks for review, it was excellent and very informative.
ummm yummy
thank you :)

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