Order a scone in London and you’ll get a crumbly baked biscuit with clotted cream and jam. Order one in Utah and you’ll get something completely different: a puffy piece of fried dough, golden and hot, dripping with honey butter. The Salt Lake Tribune once described Utah scones as hot, greasy, golden brown and sometimes the size of a Frisbee.
What is a Utah scone?
A Utah scone is deep-fried yeast dough, usually served with honey butter or powdered sugar. A British scone is baked, made with butter, and served with clotted cream. Tasting Table compares the Utah version to a beignet or sopapilla, and notes that nobody knows for sure where it came from. One theory links it to Native American fry bread.
Whatever its origin, it’s a Utah comfort food, the kind of thing you get at a family breakfast spot or a county fair. Here’s where to find a good one.
1. Penny Ann’s Cafe (Salt Lake City and beyond)
Come for: a classic scone with honey butter at a breakfast institution.
Penny Ann’s is one of the Salt Lake Valley’s favorite breakfast spots, with a string of Best of State awards from 2015 through 2025. Its scones come hot with honey butter, and the Salt Lake Tribune put it on its list of places to get a Utah scone.
Where: 1810 S. Main St., Salt Lake City, plus Taylorsville, Draper, Sandy and West Bountiful
Hours: Daily, 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. See pennyannscafe.com
2. Chubby’s Cafe (Riverton and Herriman)
Come for: scones dusted in powdered sugar.
Chubby’s started in Pleasant Grove in 2010 and now has locations in the south valley and Utah County. Its powdered-sugar scones have earned a spot on Utah Style and Design’s list of places to find Utah scones.
Where: 1276 W. 12600 South, Riverton, and 12271 Herriman Main St., Herriman, plus Utah County locations. See chubbyscafe.com
3. Sill’s Cafe (Layton)
Come for: scones as big as a dinner plate.
A short drive north of the valley, Sill’s has been family-run since the 1960s, and it’s famous for enormous scones with honey butter, served all day on the breakfast menu. One reviewer described them as the size of a dinner plate, and that’s not much of an exaggeration.
Order: a scone with honey butter, or try the fruit compote fritters.
Where: 335 E. Gentile St., Layton
How to eat a Utah scone
- Eat it hot. A Utah scone is at its best right out of the fryer.
- Go heavy on the honey butter. That’s the whole point.
- Share. Some of these are big enough to split.
Hungry for more Utah classics? Try the best fry sauce in Utah and Ruth’s Diner’s mile-high biscuits. More Best Of guides here.
Details in this guide draw on reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune, Tasting Table, Utah Style and Design and Fox 13, plus each business’s own website. Hours change, so confirm before you go. Top photo: Sarah Stierch, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.