“I have doughnut opinions, but I’ll eat any doughnut.”

That’s the response I got during a conversation with a friend of a friend about making a list of the best doughnut shops in the Birmingham area and around Alabama.

When the team here at AL.com got the news that we’d be listing the best spots in Alabama for popular foods, my first choice was doughnuts (well, after ice cream). My love of doughnuts dates back to my dad taking us through the drive-through at Dunkin’ Donuts before he dropped me off at preschool. I’m long past my preschool days (and my days of liking Dunkin’).

Like my friend’s friend, I have plenty of doughnut opinions, but I’d had only been to a couple of doughnut shops in the Birmingham area. So I made a of new places to try and familiar places to revisit. Then, I took a few trips — some with friends and fellow doughnut enthusiasts. We covered quite a few miles and tried quite a few doughnuts, spanning the city of Birmingham and out to Center Point and Pelham.

Before you read, I’ll vaguely address the elephant in the room. With all due respect, I had to pick five doughnut shops for this list, and one of the most popular shops in the city isn’t on here. Remember, just because that shop isn’t on this list doesn’t mean it won’t appear on the top 10 statewide list.

I know y’all are going to fly into a tizzy. At least have a doughnut while doing it.

5. POP DONUTS

Pop Donuts 1819 Center Point Pkwy, Center Point

Travel down Center Point Parkway and you’ll find Pop Donuts nestled into a strip of shops in the Martin Building (if you use landmarks as your guide, look for a big green sign).

Pop has been in business for more than a decade. Doughnut shops are community businesses and it’s easy to see why at this shop. When we visited Pop on a Thursday morning, the shop was having a little bit of a rush. Among the lineup of customers: An elderly couple coming in for coffee (“Give me the biggest apple fritter you got!) and a man cheerily ordering for his daughter (”You know what my kid wants, right? We come in here all the time!”). When a woman in scrubs ordered a dozen, the friendly staff put the doughnuts in a colorful box with the message “You Deserve Doughnuts.”

Pop focuses on the classic doughnut flavors. The menu includes glazed, chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry iced as well as cinnamon rolls, and bear claws. The shop opens at 5:30 a.m. and closes at 2 p.m. every day, so it’s best to be an early bird. Pop starts selling out of its most popular items— the apple fritters and doughnut holes— around noon.

Also, a reminder: There’s a three-dollar minimum for credit cards.

Order this: Try a classic chocolate frosted doughnut.

4. SON’S DONUTS + POPS

351 Rele St, Birmingham, www.sonsdonuts.com

Donuts are already a sweet deal, but there’s something particularly satisfying about a doughnut fresh out of the fryer. If you play your cards right, you’ll be fortunate enough to be in the doughnut shop at the exact moment the staff puts out a tray of hot, newly fried doughnuts.

But what if you could get hot, fryer fresh doughnuts every time you went into the doughnut shop, instead of leaving it up to chance? That’s the premise of Son’s Donuts and Pops, the doughnut shop that cooks miniature doughnuts fresh to order. Once patrons place their order, they can watch the doughnuts get dipped and sugared through the window at the counter. Son’s recently relocated from Avondale in Birmingham to a bigger shop in Mountain Brook, and the bigger digs mean customers can get a 360-degree view of the mini doughnut-making process.

Here’s how it works. Customers choose from a menu of mini glazed, sugared, and seasonal miniature doughnuts (You can’t order a single doughnut — options are a set of four for $5, 8 for $10, 12 for $15, and 25 for $30). Then, Son’s staff drops the dough (made fresh daily from the shop’s house-made dry mix) into the hopper. The hopper drops the dough into the fryer, then the fried dough goes through the conveyor belt.

The result: a slightly crispy, golden-fried mini doughnut ready for the accents. Once the doughnut is fried, the staff adds fixings including glaze and sugar. Other toppings include cream, jams, salted caramel, and Son’s sauce — lemon passionfruit curd, made in-house.

Order this: Try one of the seasonal picks — A lemon sugar mini doughnut with strawberry elderflower jam.

3. FULTONDALE BAKERY

Fultondale Bakery, 1214 Decatur Hwy, Fultondale

If you’re a doughnut enthusiast, you’ve likely seen the maple bacon — a doughnut topped with maple frosting and bit of bacon. It’s a staple you’ll find right along with the glazed and chocolate frosted.

But the maple bacon delight almost didn’t make it onto the menu at Fultondale Bakery. In fact, the staff was initially hesitant to make them. For one, they thought the pastry looked unappealing.

“The bacon didn’t even look cooked on one doughnut I saw,” the bakery’s cake decorator Mandy Reynolds told us during our visit. Customers were making requests for the popular doughnut style, so the staff took their time to develop a recipe that worked. The result: A doughnut topped with bacon crumbles, instead of pieces of bacon strip. “It gives you more per bite of doughnut, so it’s just a better taste. It’s a little bit of salty with every sweet bite,” said Reynolds.

In April, Fultondale Bakery celebrated its 50th anniversary. Jewell Hines opened the shop in 1973, and five decades later, the shop is still family-run with Hines’ daughter Judy Dobbs leading the charge, joined by her sister-in-law Pam Hines. Two team members come in overnight to start making the doughnuts and the rest of team filters in around 4 a.m. to finish the work and put on the accent pieces — glaze, frosting, sprinkles, and nuts. The bakery opens at five o’clock in the morning. The shop specializes in all of the classic doughnut flavors, and the glazed doughnut holes and cinnamon rolls tend to sell out by 7 a.m., followed by the apple fritters, so it’s best to be an early bird if those treats are your favorites.

Here’s another reminder: Fultondale Bakery only takes cash and checks as forms of payment. Reynolds told us the policy lowers overhead costs, and Judy Dobbs is happy to keep operations a little old school, especially when it comes to their customers. One of the shop’s favorite patrons is a military veteran who comes in every day. Instead of charging him for each order, the shop tallies up his doughnuts and gives him a tab at the end of the week.

“We love to build a different kind of relationship with our customers,” says Reynolds.

Order this: The maple bacon doughnut

2. THE HEAVENLY DONUT CO.

4911 Cahaba River Rd Suite 105, Birmingham, theheavenlydonutco.com

Heavenly Donut Company’s motto is:” Life is better with donuts.” Walk through the shop doors and you’ll see they mean it.

A table along the right wall of the shop holds doughnut-themed books, toys, and bath bombs. Doughnut mylar balloons and decorations line the wall. But the shop’s centerpiece, naturally, is the massive case of doughnuts. Heavenly divides the pasties into tiers: $1.30 for glazed or iced, $1.50 for doughnuts with toppings (such as M&M’s or sprinkles), and $2.00 for premium doughnuts (such as the maple bacon, French Toast, and doughnut of the day). Specialty items, including apple fritters and cinnamon rolls, start at $3.00. Kolaches are $4.25. Beignets—offered only on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon— start at $5.49 for a four-count.

And Heavenly’s icing on the cake — or, well, doughnut: A drive-through open 24 hours from Tuesday at 4:00 a.m. to Sunday at 2 p.m.

We ordered three doughnuts on our visit: French Toast, raspberry-filled chocolate frosted, and blueberry doughnut holes. The blueberry doughnut holes, the staff told us, are a mixture of yeast and cake. For us, the star of the trio was the French Toast, topped with cinnamon sugar and topped with maple icing, nut-free granola, and powdered sugar.

Order this: If you prefer simple toppings, try the M&M doughnut. If you want one of the shop’s premium doughnuts, try the French Toast.

1. DONUT JOE’S

3199 Lee St, Pelham, donutjoescoffee.com

Travel down Highway 31 and you’ll eventually get to Donut Joe’s at the intersection of Pelham Parkway and Lee Street. Housed in a small white building with a green roof and orange and white striped awning, the cozy doughnut shop is a refreshing break from the monotony of the strip malls along the interstate. Inside, you’ll immediately see pops of color. On the walls: posters of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and signs with vintage graphics sporting messages such as “DRINK COFFEE— Do stupid things faster with more energy.”

Donut Joe’s massive case holds more than 20 types of doughnuts. On our visit, we tried three. First, we ate a glazed croissant. The treat is different from the Cronut, pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s 2013 creation that ignited a summer of hours-long waits outside New York pastry shops and copycat recipes around the country. But the glazed croissant is just as delectable. Instead of a flakey texture, like the Cronut, the croissant is soft, sweet, and pleasantly chewy.

We also tried the old-fashioned sour cream cake donut with caramel and pecans. Cake-like doughnuts tend to run a little dry, but that’s not the situation at this shop. Donut Joe’s cake doughnuts have the moisture and sweetness of actual cake on the inside with a slight crisp on the outside. Our selection was topped with thick caramel frosting and fat, flavorful pecans.

Fritters are one of Donut Joe’s most popular items, and there’s actually a fritter schedule— a rotating menu that tells customers what days they can expect the shop’s different flavors: apple, peach, and blueberry.

Our final choice― the apple fritter— boasts a sweet glaze and a slightly crisp crust on the outside. On the inside, the apple mixture and swirls of cinnamon folded into the dough makes the pastry sweet and moist.

Order this: If you’re in the shop on the right day, try the peach fritter.

More on Alabama’s Best Food:

Alabama’s best meat-and-three: Our Top 10

Alabama’s best hot dogs: Our Top 10

Alabama’s best ice cream: Our top 10

Alabama’s best burgers: Our Top 10

Alabama’s best pizza: Our Top 10