Today, I went to a place called Federal Donuts. They specialize in the following things, listed in order of my interest:
1. Donuts
2. Coffee
3. Fried Chicken
Apparently they have awesome fried chicken. Maybe one day I will go back to try it, but I hear the lines are epic. But mostly, I wanted to try the donuts. Let me tell you about my experience.
When I walked into the small space, I had a good feeling about the donuts when I saw this: 
I trust donuts!
Dollars to donuts, it was an extremely pleasant visit. When I walked in, I asked the friendly counter girl "what is going on here?" and she explained that they had a variety of "fancy" donuts ($2 ea), and you could also order donuts to be fried to order for $1.25. Whaa? Awesome. So the ordering began, and before you know it here is what was in front of me:
Whew! Time to get to work. Here's one of the spiced "Appolonia" donuts. 
Here's the creamsicle "fancy" one. 
and here was the figgity fig fig. I think they called it "double fig" but clearly I have made my decision. Figgity fig fig!
But the basis of everything--the place from whence it all begins--is the plain donut. They are fried to order.
They have an interesting, smooth finish. But once you take a bite, you can see why this place is so freaking popular. It's delicious. It tastes like hot, doughy goodness. It's simple, and in its simplicity, it is great. It's assertively, but not aggressively, greasy, and somehow manages to have a feathery texture. It's a good donut to begin with, but the fact that it was fried to order, just for you, makes the experience so much richer.
Let's have another one of those, shall we?
The fancy donuts are also very good--flavorful, and I appreciated how the donuts themselves seemed a bit denser (I am a dense donut lover) and enjoyed the creative but not over the top flavor combos. But really, I think that the hot fresh donuts are the way to go. Or at least get one of each, so you can see it all for yourself.
I got there pretty early, and it wasn't too crowded and they still had plenty of donuts. But I hear that they DO sell out, so try to hit them early or during off hours (I am thinking the weekend is probably pretty insane). And let me know if you try the chicken, but it might take me a while to move past these donuts to anything else!
Federal Donuts, 1219 S. 2nd Street, Philadelphia; online here.