star dust donuts and searching for sea shells in imperial beach

Jake and I have driven by Star Dust Donuts probably 3 or 4 times now and every time it was closed.

They have crazy inconsistent hours:

But one magical day in early December, Star Dust was open!

Jake, the kids and I were heading down to Imperial Beach to collect sea shells for a present Jake was making for his mom for Christmas. Since we were going right by, Jake suggested we check and see if Star Dust was open and when I saw that it was, I did a little happy dance in the car. Finally, we could try it!

There wasn’t a whole lot of donuts left… so I just got one of each.


They had: Buttermilk Twist (.94 cents), Old Fashioned (.94 cents), Carmel Pecan Rolls ($1.59), Chocolate Iced with Nuts (.94 cents), Chocolate Raised (.94 cents) and Cinnamon Rolls (.94 cents).

They cost a little more than what you’d get at a regular donut shop, aren’t really fancy looking and pretty basic.

But man oh man, were they good! The buttermilk bar and the old fashioned were probably my favorite of the bunch – just simple, crunchy, melt-in-your-mouth donut goodness. The donuts tasted fresh and perfectly crisp. Very yummy.

I don’t have any other photos of the donuts since my camera died later! Probably from all of the photo taking I did at the beach.

We went as far south as you can go – all the way to the end near the Tijuana Estuary.

The sun was still up while we went to collect shells. The beach was pretty empty and it was pretty chilly that night – but the sky was beautiful.

The kids had fun collecting shells and playing around in the waves.

The sand here is kind of weird since it’s very grainy and there’s tons of broken shells all over the sand. But we did manage to find some pretty and in tact shells.

I liked how the beach made us feel like we were totally alone down there and stayed until a little past sunset looking for and collecting shells.

Jake’s plan was to collect shells from different beaches around town – we ended up getting shells and taking photos at Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla Shores, Ocean Beach, Imperial Beach and Coronado. Jake took the photos and different shells we collected on a large canvas and made a beautiful collage for his mom and presented it to her on Christmas. A gift from the heart!

Hopefully we’ll find another reason to head back down to Imperial Beach – even if it’s just to see if Star Dust Donuts is open again for those tasty, simple old fashioned glazed donuts!

Star Dust Donuts
698 Hwy 75
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
(619) 424-6200

Stardust Donut Shop on Urbanspoon


6 thoughts on “star dust donuts and searching for sea shells in imperial beach

  1. Hi CC – I felt lucky that we finally went when it was open! It was like the stars aligned or something. I hope we catch it open again sometime, they were really good donuts.

  2. We live in IB and it’s still hit-or-miss finding them open–but worth it when you do! Ah, the luxury of having a little self-owned/run shop that you can open when you want to…

  3. Happy New Year! OH man, Mary… I grew up going to Stardust and I’m so happy you got to try them! The glazed and the cinnamon rolls are my faves. Now I have to try the buttermilk bar…oh looks so good.

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