In Las Vegas for a conference, I found myself with not a lot of time to go exploring for donuts, but just enough time to find some donuts on the strip. PinkBox Doughnuts was surprisingly the only donut place located on the strip. It has three locations in Vegas, all of which are 24 hours, which also was helpful when trying to fit it into my conference schedule.
After locating it on Google maps, I had a good understanding of where it was, and I set out to find it my last morning in Vegas. Actually finding it was more of a challenge. Maybe it's the fact that everything in Vegas is trying to get your attention, signs are big and bright and your eyes never focus anywhere too long. I was expecting PinkBox to have a giant sign with a flashing arrow pointing at the donut case. Instead, the signs for PinkBox were rather underwhelming. If you're trying to find it yourself, it's located in the area of Park MGM, across the street from CVS, next to Fat Burger, inside Boulevard Food Court. Those landmarks are far more noticeable than PinkBox's signage. Once inside the food court, PinkBox is located to the right. While you are under roof, the food court still opens to the outside and the smells and sounds of the strip seep in (this will be important later).
As I mentioned earlier, PinkBox is open 24 hours a day, so I was concerned I would show up when the donuts weren't the freshest. I arrived around 9am on Friday and the cashier was loading the case with new donuts. All the donut varieties were fully stocked, so I actually hit it at just the right time. PinkBox sells a variety of super cute, instagram-worthy donuts to classic, donut place standards, and as you can probably imagine, you're going to pay more for the specialty donuts. My box of four, which included a glazed ring, cheesecake, cronut, and unicorn cost $15.64. But again, it's Vegas, alcohol is cheap, food is not.
The glazed ring ($1.95) was light and fluffy - the kind of donut that collapses when you bite it. It had a pleasant neutral flavor, not overly sweet, and just the right thickness of glaze. I will mention though it ended with, what I'd like to call, a hint street flavor - which can best be described as dirty street exhaust. I know, that doesn't sound appetizing, and it kind of ruined the glazed ring for me. And no, I wasn't eating on the strip, I was inside my hotel room, so this flavor was actually from the donut.
The cheesecake filled donut ($3.50) was the definite underdog of the four I purchased. I mainly picked it because I thought the nice white spiral on the chocolate icing would make a good picture. When I bit into it, I was expecting it to be filled with a super dense and heavy cheesecake filling that would overpower the donut, but instead was hit with a super light and airy cream, with just the right about of the sweet cream cheese taste. Don’t expect it to be a piece of cheesecake surrounded by a donut. It’s more the idea of cheesecake perfectly encompassed by a donut.
The cronut ($ 4.50) was exactly what you’d expect from a cronut - flakey, glazed, but really not worth the price (unless they are charging for the fact that it's a more time consuming donut to make). I’ve had far better cronuts for half the price. It also seemed greasy and heavy. If you're coming to PinkBox and looking for a good donut experience, I 'd say skip the cronut.
Prior to tasting the unicorn donut ($4.50), I expected it to be nothing more than a decorated novelty. You get it for the Instagram, not necessarily the taste. After eating it, I can say, it’s what I expected. Overly sweet, but fun. Biting into it reveals that it’s actually a pink donut....covered in glaze and topped with icing and sprinkles and glitter. It coats your mouth and gives you that I want to brush my teeth feeling, but it does make an adorable photo.
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