Cafe Knotted, a South Korean pastry chain boasting over ten locations in Korea since 2017, just opened its first U.S. location in Westfield Century City. Following a rise of Asian cafes popping up in the greater Los Angeles area, Knotted also serves trendy, Instagram-able desserts and drinks — with a specific focus on cream-filled Korean donuts.
Their grand opening weekend took place on Apr. 12-13, 2025. Knotted offered their first 100 customers their pick of exclusive merch, a free milk cream donut, a second free donut of the customer’s choice and a buy-one-get-one chocolate chip cookie deal. To drum up more hype, the location also offered a raffle for two BLACKPINK VIP Concert Tickets and served an exclusive Banana Kick donut after BLACKPINK’s Jennie revealed her favorite Korean snacks were Banana Kicks, a banana-flavored corn snack.
Aside from donuts, Knotted also offers cookies in flavors ranging from matcha white chocolate to miso toffee. They also boast a selection of croissants and danishes, both sweet and savory. Specialty drinks and typical lattes are also offered. The particularly buzzworthy corn latte with a cream top and a chestnut tiramisu latte, the flavor popularized by Netflix’s Culinary Wars, are both available.
But back to the topic at hand: Knotted donuts, on average priced between $4 to $4.50 with the most expensive Dubai Chocolate flavor coming in at $6.50, are neat and compact, about the size of a palm. Their most popular flavors are the original milk cream and the strawberry cream. Each donut is fried until golden brown with a pale yellow ring in the center, a picture-perfect dessert.
I ordered the following donuts: original milk cream, fresh strawberry milk cream, fresh grape milk cream, matcha, tiramisu and Boston chocolate glazed. The donuts, tinseled with sparkling fine granulated sugar or rich cocoa powder, promise a life-changing first bite — and for those who are accustomed to the typical American yeasted donut, this is certainly revelatory, at least a bit.
But were they worth waiting in a line that crawled through two hours to serve about one hundred customers in that span of time? No.
Granted, the dough is different than what one might expect. While American donuts are soft enough that your teeth sink immediately through the dough, Korean donuts offer a hardier bite, reminiscent of a very tender bread bun. Asian desserts also tend to be less sweet than their counterparts, and this rings true, the cream fresh and light without sitting greasily on the tongue. But if there was one word to encapsulate the entire donut, it would be “subtle.”
The milk cream was simple and executed well, but you can’t expect much more from the strawberry and grape donuts that follow suit. Despite their appearances, the only fruit in the fruit donuts were the slices studding the outsides, meaning that one donut had at most one-and-a-half grapes or less than a whole strawberry. (Definitely not worth the extra 50¢ upcharge.) The matcha custard was so subtle that while pleasant, it was indiscernible from a simple vanilla filling.
The standouts were the Boston chocolate glaze and the tiramisu. The Boston presented a nice contrast between the tasteful custard interior and the thin layer of chocolate on top, by far the most complimentary flavor profile. The tiramisu was filled with a coffee-flavored custard and piped with a mascarpone dollop. While it called for more mascarpone to truly make it resemble its namesake, the acidity of the coffee was well balanced against the slightly sweet dough.
Cafe Knotted does it simple, and it does it well. They don’t promise to blow your mind, but if the lines in Korea are purportedly out the door, you may as well save on an international flight and line up at Century City — or better yet, wait a few weeks for the internet hype to die down. In comparison to other artisanal donuts that may clock in at almost two dollars more per piece, Knotted is an on-par spot to get your aesthetic Instagram story in.
The buzz and hours-long lines snaking through Westfield represent a small piece in a greater shift in LA’s cafe scene: the welcome of Asian tastes ushered in through matcha lattes, painstakingly assembled desserts and curious flavors to the American palate defined by its mish-mash of culture. Could Knotted have opened doors in California eight years ago and expected the same sell-out success on opening weekend? The short answer is no. The long answer is that we welcome Knotted’s presence here in Century City as it joins a space already thrumming with big-name Asian chains such as Din Tai Fung, Haidilao and Momofuku.
If you’re in the area and the line doesn’t seem like too much of a hassle, snag yourself a Cafe Knotted donut and take a bite that will transport you right to the viral dessert scene of South Korea.
