Donuts Time Cafe is seven minutes from Mercer’s West Windsor campus–on Rt. 33 in Hamilton–and it is the perfect destination for a snack in between classes. They serve all kinds of flavored coffee, “fancy” doughnuts, breakfast doughnut sandwiches, and will also take custom orders as well.
Amra Solayman and his wife–aka “Mr. & Mrs. Donut”–opened the store in September of 2014. And it’s not your typical Dunkin’ Donuts.
Donuts Time is the kind of place where they remember their customers’ names when they come in the door. Also, the handmade doughnuts come in a variety of flavors you are never going to find at Dunkin, like: fruity loops, Girl Scout cookie samoas, maple bacon, and the most popular Reese’s Peanut Butter. Solayman says this is his favorite, too. Asked why he started the shop he smiles and says, “I love a good doughnut.”
He says inspiration for the doughnuts come from the flavors he and his wife already know, also from websites and other doughnut shops.
Describing the process of coming up with a new doughnut, Solayman says it goes like this; “I love to eat cheesecake, [so I think] how would I put that into a doughnut form?”
In addition to the unusual flavored doughnuts–which are made right behind the counter where the customer can watch–they also have breakfast doughnut sandwiches including the bacon, egg, cheese, ham and the essential New Jersey pork roll version. Putting these together in between doughnut halves gives that classic sweet and salty punch.
If you’re not there for breakfast, but looking for a cool down on an unseasonably warm October afternoon, you can try their doughnut ice cream sandwiches. Once you are addicted to those, you may want to order one of their giant donut cakes for your birthday.
With 4.5 out of 5 stars on TripAdvisor.com, most reviewers call it a hidden gem. Critics on the review site, like “She L” from Hamilton say, “The donuts are prebaked. There are ‘base donuts’ upon which flavors are built into. Order a donut and it will be created out of the microwave.”
Solayman addresses this saying, “we bake and process doughnuts three times
a day, one around 6am, again around noon and lastly around 3pm.” Then they are decorated to order. Nothing about this happens in a microwave, so “She L” can go back to Dunkin’ for her industrial doughnuts if she wants, but we at The VOICE will be sticking with Donuts Time.
Currently, Mr & Mrs. Donut are working on their Halloween menu. You can find the shop across from Texas Roadhouse on 33. It’s open Mon-Fri 6:30am-5:00pm and Sat+Sun 7:00am-3:00pm. Go check them out!
