This English-style pub on the Chicago-Evanston border serves doughnuts for weekend brunch only, but they are particularly delicious specimens, served warm in a paper bag, rolled in cinnamon sugar.

The owners of Smack Dab try to make food that everyone can enjoy, regardless of dietary preferences, and that goes for their vegan mini-doughnuts, made fresh daily. There’s a rotating assortment of glazes and toppings, but cinnamon sugar (“cinny shug”) is always a reliable standby.

Naturally a New Orleans-style cafe would be obligated to serve beignets, and naturally Junebug Cafe obliges. They’re served fresh from the fryer, buried in powdered sugar, and rival anything from the Big Easy. There’s a second location in Noble Square.

Aya Pastryprovides baked goods for shops including Passion House Coffee, Intelligentsia, and Gaslight Coffee Roasters. The doughnuts are creative, but the winner might be one based on the Girl Scout Cookie sometimes known as a “Caramel deLite” (but everyone knows it’s really a Samoa).

Chicago’s first all-vegan doughnut shop, Liberation Donuts is open daily with 12 fried dough options with names associated with animals and their rights. Options include Beach Cow (chocolate cake doughnut, vanilla glaze, flaky salt) and Balaclava (plain cake doughnut, sweet tahini glaze, pumpkin seed baklava). Half of proceeds from the Total Liberation lemon poppyseed doughnut will go to an animal rights or humanitarian organization that rotates monthly.

In addition to a classic selection of doughnuts,Firecakesoffers seasonal flavors including apple cider, churro, and Irish creme. Doughnuts also serve as the base for ice cream sandwiches, which come adorned with toppings such as toasted coconut, candied peanuts, and chocolate shavings. Firecakes also has locations in Lincoln Park and suburban Oak Park and Naperville.

Hogsalt Hospitality’ssweets spotis among the most popular in the city. Creative specials, such as dulce de leche and honey bun cake, are offered daily alongside favorites like the old fashioned. Arrive early because there’s usually a line and once everything is sold out, Doughnut Vault closes for the day.

The bakers at this West Loop virtual bakery are not afraid to experiment with flavors. The menu changes frequently, but expect the unexpected: lime Tajín, Cool Ranch Dorito, Arnold Palmer. (There are also more conventional flavors, like strawberry shortcake and coffee hazelnut.) The doughnuts are available for pickup or delivery only, or at local coffee shops, including Metric Coffee and Botanical Cafe.

DineAmic Hospitality’sdessert windowattached to Bar Siena attracts customers with Instagram-friendly treats. The bomboloni — Italian filled doughnuts — are loaded with custard and jam fillings. A popular option is adding house-made gelato to the mix to create a sandwich.

Whether it’s pistachio-Meyer lemon or buttermilk old fashioneds,Do-Rite’sgot it on the menu. As a bonus, the shop carries gluten-free and vegan options as well. There are seven locations in the city and suburbs.

This Pilsen spot boasts that it serves the best churros in the Midwest. They come with a variety of fillings — strawberry, chocolate, guava, cajeta, and more — and also in vegan and mini variation. They’re also available frozen for heating up at home.

This Hyde Park newcomer serves some of the best beignets in town. They’re served warm so they have crisp exteriors and soft pillowy insides that melt in the mouth. But even after they’ve had a chance to cool, they’re still excellent.

A South Side staple since 1984, thisold-school bakeryfocuses on Lithuanian and Polish goods. The shop’s cases are lined with dozens of breads, cakes, and other Eastern European delicacies including paczki. These traditional Polish doughnuts are available with fillings that range from raspberry and custard to rose hip jam.

D&D’s Placeowners Devell and Lolita Brittmon honed their dough-frying skills under the tutelage of Buritt Bulloch, the founder of beloved South Side spot Old Fashioned Donuts. That influence is apparent when looking at the lineup, which includes Texas-sized glazed and chocolate doughnuts, and golden-brown old-fashioned cake doughnuts. The giant apple fritters are a must-try as well, loaded with chunks of fruit and pecans.

Go big or go home at the legendaryOld Fashioned Donuts. The Texas doughnuts are large enough to fit around an arm while the fruit-studded apple fritters are just as hearty, so bring an appetite or several companions. Owner Buritt Bulloch, now in his 80s, opened the shop with his late wife Mamie in 1972, and he still makes the doughnuts every day in the store’s front window.