Nareo Donut in Taman Paramount
Doughnuts, doughnuts, doughnuts. How dull our breakfast runs and how much more bitter our coffees would be without them.
While we’ll argue about the types of doughnuts that reign supreme – dense or airy, sugar-glazed or sprinkled with sugar – there’s one thing we all Malaysians can agree on: a good doughnut is one that’s not too sweet.
With this consensus in mind, we headed to a new doughnut cafe in Petaling Jaya, Nareo Donut, to bring you this review.
Pillowy doughnuts in a serene cafe
Within the sunny suburban neighbourhood of Taman Paramount, tucked among a clutter of buzzing kopitiam and modern eateries, is Nareo Donut. This newly-opened doughnut cafe dishes up balls of fried sweetened doughs that have been circulating on social media.
After years of kneading and frying doughnuts in Sutherland Street, the founders of Nareo Donut who hail from Melbourne, Australia, poured their knowledge, experience, and heart into this cafe in Malaysia.
The cafe itself has an impressively airy interior that’s undeniably Nordic, from the simple wooden furnishings to the sleek pristine countertops.
What immediately caught our eye right away was the array of fluffy doughnuts displayed beguilingly behind a glass container by the counter, each a gorgeous spectacle in its yeast-raised magnitude as well as its eye-catching presentation.
There was a decent handful of doughnut flavours, which run the gamut from cannot-go-wrong classics such as the Boston Cream and Cinnamon Sugar, to ambitiously creative ones such as Coconut Kaya and Mandarin Yuzu.
We tamped down our excitement enough to decide on our orders, and dove into the billowing treats when served.
Here’s our verdict
Though we were ready to order one of every flavour on the menu, we narrowed our order of doughnuts down to four doughy delights: Matcha Cheesecake (RM12), Mandarin Yuzu (RM12.50), Tiramisu (RM12), and Coconut Kaya (RM11).
When faced with a filled “Bomboloni” doughnut, we’re going to expect the fried orbs to be loaded with cream that’ll ooze.
This wasn’t necessarily the case for the Matcha Cheesecake doughnut we had. But we weren’t disappointed, as the filling tasted exactly like its name promises – matcha cheesecake. Luscious and velvety, the filling held its integrity as we cut into the doughnut. The flavour of the matcha was amazingly robust and straddles the sweet-bitter line wonderfully too.
Now this one has an ooze factor that’s commendable – the Mandarin Yuzu doughnut. We had been eyeing it since we saw it on the menu, and its presentation made it all the more tantalising – a softball-sized yeasty fritter crowned with a beautifully-torched meringue.
But once we took a bite, our thrill was cut short. While the yuzu cream was tangy and sweet in all the right ways, the generous mound of meringue tasted strongly of eggs that overwhelmed every bite we took – even after we scraped it off.
We then moved on to the Tiramisu doughnut – and boy, it was this heavenly.
Covered with chocolate ganache beneath a snowfall of cocoa dusting, the doughnut cuts open to reveal a lone ladyfinger biscuit soaked in espresso and engulfed in a silky ocean of mascarpone cream.
Every mouthful was so gratifying, we didn’t want the experience of chomping on this doughnut to end.
Our next pick was a flavour with a local twist – the Coconut Kaya doughnut. We wanted to love this one, but the kaya filling was a tad too sweet and we couldn’t taste much of it. We thought that the doughnut could do without the glaze topping, as it added to the cloying sweetness, but the toasted coconut flakes were a nice touch.
Chomp on sweet doughnuts at Nareo Donut
We had our favourites and we had our expectations – but all in all, Nareo Donut is an honest place of passionate bakers churning out fresh doughnuts that will add some sweetness in every patron’s day.
An advice: head to Nareo Donut with an appetite and indulge in some fluffy sugary doughnuts – be it filled, frosted, sprinkled, or glazed.
Address: 37 G, Jalan 20/14, Taman Paramount, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Opening hours: Tue-Sun 9am-6pm (Closed on Mondays)
Contact: Nareo Donut’s Instagram
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Photography by Jia-Ju & Ainna
Cover image adapted from:The Smart Local Malaysia