The local barista and chef here each spent three months working at the Tokyo mother ship to bring Haritts' service standards back with them, as well as to master the laborious process it takes to make one of their fat doughnuts. It takes two hours from the time they begin, 'till they fry the dough.

A visit to the calm and thoughtful Harrits on a quiet afternoon is a nice respite on a busy day. The delicately sweet, puffy, chewy, not-too-greasy doughnuts are worth the calories, too

The forming of the rings is also done by hand here, with not a dough cutter in sight. The result, after they're tossed in a vat of hot canola oil, are bready rolls that are fluffy with a beautiful honeycomb structure on the inside, but firm to the bite.

The doughnut flavours differ daily, so check their Facebook page to see if they'll be making your favourites before you head down. The benefit of the brand being owner-run here is the flexibility to play with flavours, which it has done previously, offering doughnuts filled with Singaporean faves kaya, orh nee (taro paste) and Mao Shan Wang.

From the look to the service, Haritts exudes a quiet and understated elegance. The doughnuts sit in a wooden cabinet under the cashier, until they're bagged in brown paper envelopes and handed to you when you order. The best seats in the house are at the counter adjacent to the cashier, where you not only get the mall's air-conditioning to cool down with, but a great view of the team cooking up the doughnuts intermittently until their last fry at 4pm, and making coffee on a gorgeous matte white Synesso machine in minimalist white-tiled, black powder metal interiors.

The only drawback is the pong of oil that might leave you with a memento of your visit here. If those seats are taken, you'll have to settle for the outdoor ones along the perimeter of the mall — it's warm, and there's the frequent rumble of buses that echo off the overhead bridge just outside its space. Still, it's a nice perch to people-watch the Japanese expats and civil service types who sneak out of the office to grab a snack at Haritts.

This simple, unadorned bagel-sized roll is the antithesis to the garish, in-your-face sugariness of American-style doughnuts that defines the category. A light dusting of a special sugar made for doughnuts from Japan offers a fleeting, almost ethereal sweetness that fades pretty quickly on the tongue. What shows up next are the bread-like flavours to accompany each firmly bouncy bite, coaxed that way by the special kneading technique passed on from the Japanese. Plain doughnuts never tasted so good. 

The Earl Grey offering is coloured a little darker than the most of the other options here, because they've poured brewed tea and thrown in the leaves into the dough. A burst of bergamot and floral fragrance blossoms on the palate when you crack into it, and the Earl Grey adds a background note of bitterness to the powdered sugar coating on the outside. Yum.

The brand’s most popular item. A crumbly ring of salty and tangy cream cheese hides in one half of the doughnut. If you enjoy cheesecakes, you’ll like this, although we personally aren’t too crazy about the mushy cheese filling.

One of the unique offerings made just for the Singapore outlet. Other flavours include Mao Shan Wang and Orh Neee (yam paste). Unfortunately, this wasn't available the day we dropped by.  

Cinnamon is dusted on with the sugar around this ring. They've exercised a very light hand here, so the spice shows up only as an accent. The raisins are a bit of a disappointment though — we prefer the satisfaction of sinking our teeth into juicy fruit between dough, but here they're chopped it up into small morsels, so they get kinda lost between bites.

The puffy orbs are conveniently wrapped and displayed on a pretty shelf. 

The balm we needed on a hot day (what's pictured above is a Long Black, which was decent too). Here, they've opted to use a Vanta blend by Homegrown Coffee Roasters, who roast out of a shophouse in Katong. It sips through the paper straw with notes of nutty dark chocolate, which makes it a great complement to the doughnuts.

A visit to the calm and thoughtful Harrits on a quiet afternoon is a nice respite on a busy day. The delicately sweet, puffy, chewy, not-too-greasy doughnuts are quite yummy too, especially when eaten fresh (the best time to go is at noon).

#01-08 Havelock II, 2 Havelock Rd. Open daily. Mon-Fri 10.30am-7pm; Sat-Sun noon-7pm. Last orders at closing. www.facebook.com/haritts.sg.