Before opening this small laneway store, Anthony Ivey (ex-Market Lane) and Sinye Ooi made an educational pilgrimage to the USA and Canada, and we are the happy beneficiaries of their research. Short Stop Coffee & Donuts, with its blond wood, white tiles and navy blue packaging forming an elegant setting, may be small but it’s steeped in know-how. It offers doughnuts in flavour combinations as inventive as quince and mulled wine, mandarin and dark chocolate and sticky date and gingerbread. The signature Earl Grey and Rose cake is utterly gorgeous: Earl Grey tea leaves are flecked throughout the batter and the rosewater icing is subtle and fragrant. Herbal and floral, this memorably cakey doughnut will linger in your memory. Their peanut butter and milk chocolate doughnut is another dead-set winner.