Tasty’s1511 E. 2100 South463-0700U-Discount: NoThree-and-a-half out of five plates (food)Three-and-a-half out of five stars (ambiance)$0-10

Few people know that you can make doughnuts out of a vegetable.

Well, to be exact, out of a vegetable bi-product.

Tasty’s, Sugar House’s pre-eminent doughnut-ery, proves that it is more than possible to construct a doughnut from a vegetable product few would even think capable of yielding a decent doughnut, much less a delicious one: enriched potato flour.

Isn’t potato flour usually used as, like, a cornstarch substitute in sauces and stuff-or else to make some sort of pasty mashed potatoes or bland, flavorless latke rip-off? The whole idea of using potato flour in cooking doesn’t sound all that appetizing, right? But in the case of doughnuts, it seems that Tasty’s stumbled upon something remarkable and, arguably, revolutionary.

On the whole, these doughnuts are softer, fluffier and moister than their more traditional brethren. (And, FYI, they don’t taste at all like potatoes.) Whereas traditional doughnuts’ texture is something akin to biscuit texture, these most closely resemble a fluffy cake. Biscuits can be fluffy, sure, but they’re almost always denser than cake and more cumbersome for the jaws and tongue, which revels in poking its way through baked goods like some sort of underground mole.

Now, would a mole rather burrow through soil or?er?clay?

My point exactly.

Tasty’s doughnuts come in several different flavors and are dressed smoothly in a variety of glazes and toppings. The main flavors are plain, chocolate, chocolate fudge, blueberry and buttermilk. The glazes include plain, chocolate, blueberry and maple syrup. And then there are the toppings, which include colorful sprinkles, chopped nuts, shredded coconut and toasted coconut. But you could always eschew anything fancy, including glaze, and opt for classic powdered sugar.

The simple glazed and the fruity double-blueberry doughnuts are my personal favorites, largely because they don’t try too hard to be breathtaking or loaded with embellishments-they just are what they are, and that’s sweet, simple and satisfying. Their glazes-plain on the glazed and sweet, sweet purplish blueberry, complete with little chunks of that delectable morsel-fruit on the double blueberry-have just the right amount of sweetness and moisture to lubricate the doughnuts’ fluffy flesh and make your mouth water, which, I guess, only adds more lubrication.

A well-oiled machine can never be too well oiled. I think.

But a few other doughnut varieties aren’t quite as pleasing. The chocolate glaze doesn’t have enough chocolate flavor in it, which leaves one wondering if they added brown food coloring to make it look so chocolaty. And the chocolate doughnut with a chocolate interior is probably the most disappointing. It’s drier than most of the others and decidedly lacks depth of flavor-yeah, it tastes cocoa-ish, but in the vein of hot chocolate made with water and cheap powder from a packet. Just a little too bland to be a success.

Other baked goods prepared at Tasty’s include bismarks, longjohns, cinnamon rolls, muffins, croissants and bagels, which are all tasty but suffer the same range of deliciousness as the doughnuts: some are ideal, others just unsatisfying.

Tasty’s interior exudes energy and trendiness-it’s clean, crisp and modern, with high ceilings, metal furniture and a rich burgundy-ochre color scheme. There’s even a cozy upstairs loft sort of eating area, which is a fun, more secluded place to munch, dine or gorge.

Though it is a bakery first and foremost, Tasty’s also has elements of a caf, deli and coffee shop. The coffee is pretty average, but the sandwiches, salads and soups measure up as consistently sub-par. They may use fresh vegetables, but the overall lack of flavor and creativity just makes them humdrum and only semi-enjoyable. The best part of the sandwiches is their potato-flour bread, which is soft and fluffy, but can’t make up for the bland, sometimes not-yet-ripe and often sparse fillers that sorely detract from the sandwiches’ potential.

It’s Tasty’s official policy to give a free doughnut with every sandwich, but at $5.19 for an 8-inch sandwich and $5.99 for a dozen doughnuts, it would probably be more worth your money-and more pleasing for your taste buds-if you just got a dozen doughnuts instead.

Sure, it wouldn’t be the healthiest meal, but it’d give you one hell of a sugar high.