Since it opened three weeks ago, Mister Donut has been called a gastronomic wonder and an eyesore, depending on the commentator's point of view.
A line begins to thread its way out of the store and onto the sidewalk long before the store has opened for business. Even though bright yellow signs inform would-be doughnuts eaters that their wait could last several hours the line never dissipataes. It just gets longer.
PHOTO: GAVIN PHIPPS, TAIPEI TIMES
On the advice of an associate at the office, we indulged in a slap-up meal before joining a snaking 90m line at exactly 12:19pm on Monday. With over 100 people already eagerly awaiting their chance to purchase sugary sustenance the wait was on.
The rain and wind dampened any camaraderie that may have developed between those standing in line and mobile-phone companies were racking in mega profits as giggly adolescent girls and bemused teenage boys passed the time informing their friends of their "fashionable" whereabouts.
When asked why on earth one would want to stand in the rain to purchase something as mundane as a doughnut, one bedraggled chap shrugged his shoulders and refused to comment. A 17-year-old girl chuckled and said "because my friends said [doughnuts] were good" while another youngster whose pronounced girth resembled a doughnut idiotically replied, "It's the new thing to do. Eat doughnuts. Yeah!"
After almost four-and-a-half hours and half-a-packet of smokes we finally crossed the threshold at 4:15pm, only to be greeted by a female employee who acted as if the entire queuing activity had been one big game.
The long-awaited sight of a cabinet filled with a colorful array of 30 varieties of glazed, jelly filled and cake doughnuts, was no compensation for our miserable four-hour ordeal. Shame, then, there were no double Valium doughnuts on offer.
Having purchased a mixed bag of 30 doughnuts brought the goods back to the office for ingestion and analysis. The final verdict? While praise for fortitude was unanimous the same cannot be said for the doughnuts themselves. Comments ranged from, "These aren't as good as Dunkin' Donuts" to "they're a bit chewy aren't they?" and "they'll do."
All of which adds up to two things: If you like so-so doughnuts, wait until the fashionable popularity of Mister Donut wanes. Do not, whatever you do, stand in line for hours outside any Mister Donut branch unless you want to go nuts long before you've eaten your doughnuts!
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