Pam's Donuts and Chinese Food, Temecula

Road trip! Road trip! Road trip!

Well, a drive up to Temecula can’t really be called a road trip, but today’s trek to Temecula was the Donut Man’s first visit to a donut shop outside of San Diego County. I met my good friend Big B, himself a great donutologist, who came from the opposite direction to meet me halfway for a nice breakfast this Saturday morning at Pam’s Donuts and Chinese Food, which is located just off I-15 at the Winchester Avenue exit. We got there around 9:45 a.m., and it was rather quiet inside. Big B had just run a road race and I came straight from the gym, so both of us had a good appetite.

The selections weren’t anything special, as I didn’t see any varieties that could be considered creative or unique. No crullers, no bear claws, no Boston crèmes—so Pam’s got low marks on variety and innovation from both of us. Big B gave them an above average rating for taste, but I considered the donuts just average. Big B liked the raised donuts best, although he mentioned that the chocolate icing was rather bland and the maple not sweet enough. I agreed with him on that, although for me the best was the coconut cake donut, which had a better, fresher taste to it than the raised donuts, which hit me as somewhat stale. The crumb cake was also decent, but the old-fashioned with chocolate icing was just “Eh.”

The staff, however, was very nice, and the tables inside made for a nice atmosphere, as we were able to relax and chat about what we’ve been up to. Even with bland donuts like these, hanging out with a friend made the drive to Temecula well worth the trip!

And what about that Chinese food? Inside Pam’s, there are two displays, one for donuts and the other for Chinese food. I hoped to grab an egg roll on my way out to take home for later, but the folks at Pam’s said that since business was usually slow on Saturdays, they didn’t serve any Chinese food that day. 

Big B gave Pam’s higher scores than I did, as I was rather disappointed with the selections that were available and rated them below average in that regard, and just average on taste. They did, however, score well on customer experience, but that’s only worth 10 percent of the Donut Meter score, while taste is worth 60 percent, variety 20 percent, and innovation 10 percent. Thus, Pam’s earned a Donut Meter score of 66.0, which ranks as one of the lower scores on the list. Hey, at least this place isn’t in San Diego County.

Updated Donut Meter Scores:

1.              Peterson’s Donut Corner, Escondido — 94.0

2.              Donut Haven, Hillcrest — 82.7

3.              Super Donuts, Carlsbad — 82.0

4.              OB Donuts — 78.7

5.              Heavenly Donuts, Del Cerro —78.0

6.              Donut Touch, Mira Mesa — 76.8

7.              Foster’s Family Donuts, San Marcos — 68.0

8.              Pam’s Donuts and Chinese Food, Temecula — 66.0

9.              Leucadia Donut Shoppe — 62.5