In case you haven’t heard, Tim Horton’s the mega chain from Canada, has taken over some Dunkin’ Donuts locations. My Canadian friends were all dying to hear my thoughts on it. I devised a genius plan. I was going to buy the same doughnuts from Tim Horton’s and Dunkin’ Donuts and do a side-by-side comparison of some staple flavors. To top it off, I was going to do it blindfolded!
When I arrived at Dunkin’ Donuts 370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017 I was disappointed in their selection. I asked, “is this all you have?” Yup, by 4pm, they are out of Boston Kreme and Bavarian Cream, as well as Apple N’ Spice or Apple Crumb. It looked kind of sad and pathetic, but I picked up the four that I thought would be available at Tim Horton’s, the jelly, plain glazed, marble frosted, and the chocolate glazed cake doughnut, bought an iced coffee for my friend for keeping me company and we were on our way.
Tim Horton’s 47 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 opened this week, not far away. We saw a short line of about 6 or 7 people when we arrived. Five minutes later, I chatted with the lady in front of us about how the line had not moved and there’s three people behind the counter. I noticed that the doughnuts on display looked a bit more enticing, but still, a rather sparse variety. I realized that I wouldn’t be able to do much of a side-by-side comparison, because they had Boston Kreme and Apple Fritter, but no jelly or marble frosted (or similar). They didn’t even have plain glazed, so I bought the sour cream glazed.
As the line moved at a crawl, more people came in behind us, so the TH staff attempted to re-organize the line, managing to confuse the heck out of everyone by making the front of the line closer to the door and the back of the line closer to the register. Each new person that came in went to the front of the line thinking it’s the back. When it finally got to my turn, the story managed to go from bad to worse.
It is really hard to do justice to the severity of how bad the customer experience was. Two women try to talk to me at the same time, one trying to take the order while the other tries to ring me up. One women seems to try to run the show, snapping at her co-worker, and snaps at me constantly to rush my answers. Literally, as I list the doughnuts, she keeps snapping, “what you want? and…and…” As she grows impatient with me, she is exhibiting such attitude in her voice and rolling her eyes at me, but ironically, she does not understand a thing I am saying, continuously getting the order wrong, to the point where the co-worker starts rolling her eyes and my friend starts to try and help explain differently. Eventually, the co-worker is yelling at her because she cannot understand the simple things I am saying, “one blueberry fritter, one sour cream glazed…” I still went home with the wrong Timbits. I ask for a bag to carry it all in. No bags.
Again, I’m not sure you can understand how terrible this experience was. You had to be there! I am sort of shocked since I was told by Canadian friends that Tim Horton’s was known for the quality of customer service. Lon and I also noted particularly good service over-all when we were in Vancouver. Perhaps, it can’t be replicated here.
Getting to the products, I already know I don’t like DD coffee. I did years ago but my last 4 attempts failed miserably. I find it very acidic now. Yesterday, I tried a TH iced coffee and it looked like murky water. My friend looked at it and said, “it looks watery.” I took a sip, confirmed that it was and awful tasting, and threw it out.
Lon and I sat down for the doughnut tasting. The Chocolate Cake Glazed Doughnut was the only one I managed to get from both places. Both of them were bad, neither tasted like chocolate, but Lon thought the DD one was edible while the TH one had a weird taste to it.
For Dunkin’ Donuts, the Plain Glaze and Marble Frosted were both dry. The doughnut part of the jelly doughnut was better, a bit fluffier, but pretty skimpy on the jelly. Ehh.
For Tim Horton’s, The Apple Fritter is not identifiably apple. It’s more like cinnamon coffee cake, a very dense one, not at all like a doughnut. The Blueberry Fritter doesn’t taste much like blueberry either. It’s dry and dense and tastes like bread with glaze. The Sour Cream Glazed was tolerable to Lon, but too sweet for me. The Blueberry Cake doughnut ended up being the best one. It was moist and tasted like blueberry, although it was an artificial taste.
You’ll notice in the pic above that the Boston Kreme doughnut is stuck to wax paper. Once you removed it, most of the chocolate came off. Then we cut it open and saw that there was no cream at all. There was a hole but they forgot to fill it. Pathetic!
There was also a plain cake Timbit that Lon thought was edible, but overall, we were severely disappointed.
This was a very week challenge of Tim Horton’s vs. Dunkin Donuts. Home team won by a narrow margin, but really they both loose because we’ll never buy doughnuts or coffee from either one again. They both suck!
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This is unfortunate. I’ve had to go to Toronto for work a couple of times and always looked forward to Tim Hortons. Although I’ve haven’t tried the TH in NYC yet.. it sounds unpromising.
Hopefully, they’ll get their ducks all in a line SOON! Thanks for the review!
I think I’m going to be a donut taster when I grow up. It should be a real job
I remember passing by the TH on 33rd street yesterday and then I thought, I’ll just wait till you review it. Good thing I didn’t try any.
My boss brought in Tim Horton donuts and another attorney brought us dunkin donuts, so I tried both boston cremes and didnt like either. I actually spit out the Tim horton one…. -=(
I’m biased because I’m a huge DD fans. My personal favs are the glazed, chocolate glaze and hands down the jelly donut. I would suggest another taste test, but this time go to DD early in the morning for the best and freshest selection (it’s been my experience that the morning rush takes the best of the bunch). My experience with TH’s donuts has been mediocre. They tend to be on the dry side.
Came here from Tastespotting.
Personally I’ve never been a fan of anything DD. I am a fan of local bakery donuts over chains any day. However, my daughter’s exboyfriend was Canadian whose family relocated to the Chicago area for his senior year of high school. He always swore by Tim Hortons and brought her some TH hot chocolate mix after he went back to visit family. I will say that it was better than most mixes, but not as good as making it from scratch. (Still miss that young man. Wish they had met when they were older and not highschoolers. He was a great kid.)
I’d say wait a couple months, let the place get the kinks out and try it again. Many places seem to have a rough start both in product and especially service. If it’s still not better after some time to work out the kinks, then it is probably a good bet it won’t get better and may not be your taste.
Hmmm. I’m Canadian. I’m a Tim Horton’s addict. Here’s the thing – I don’t eat donuts. Tim Horton’s is all about the coffee. Not the iced coffee!! That’s new and they have not come close to perfecting it. I’ve thrown out my fair share of TH iced coffees, but sometimes they get it right. But the point is, at Tim Horton’s it’s all about the hot coffee.
I’m really disappointed in these donuts. I grew up with Tim Horton’s & I can’t say that I recognize their donuts in these descriptions. I’ve heard that the NYC locations are getting flash-frozen goods, and it appears as though the quality is suffering. Go to Niagara Falls. If not for the falls, then at least for the donuts.
I am Canadian too. I agree with Sarah, the above poster, Tim’s for me is more about the coffee. Simply the best I have ever had and I’ve had coffee from everywhere. There donuts to me bring back childhood memories, so they will forever be a favorite because of that.
They just opened one near work across from Penn. I pass it every weekday and from the look of the line I’ll be continuing to pass it every weekday.
I went over to Tim Horton’s myself on Monday. There were these tall, attractive, corn fed girls — whom I imagined were visiting from Canada — trying to guide these middle aged women who were not fluent in English — I though the main benefit of an economic contraction was that people with good language skills started working retail — to provide customer service. I went in the afternoon, and they had few types of donut on offer. I got the blueberry cake, which was all right. But, yeah, I wouldn’t've wanted to be there when they were busy. It took a lot of back and forth to determine what the donut options were (no signs) and that I could get decaf only with coffee, not the capuccino. And then confirming, paying, understanding where the napkins were, it was all difficult. The Americans were feeling the stress, and seemed to be a little aggressive toward one another, although deferential to their Canadian overlords.
I suspect they tried to launch these stores at low pay with little money — Reise’s involved, and they’ve done bad things to the other brands they host.
Tim Horton’s is definitely taking over the East Coast. I just wish there were more independent doughnut places to compete with these giants. I remember getting a glazed doughnut from our local doughnut shop every Saturday morning as a kid and thinking it was the best treat ever.
Hmm. I’ve had Tim Horton’s all of twice, while visiting a friend in Toronto, but both times it was okay – nothing impressive, but it was all right. Your experience sounds just impossibly bad – I’m not sure I’d go back!!
As a tried and true Canuck I can say that Timmies is not my favourite. I will drive forty minutes for a fresh donut at a not so local bakery. I feel about equal about TH and DD. These are low paying jobs with the expectations of head office breathing down their throats. You just have to expect fast food to be more fast, less food.
I grew up on Tim Hortons and their boston creme doughnuts! I don’t know why all the media is making it sound like Tim Hortons has just arrived in the US. They have had stores here for over 20 years! In WNY they are all over, literally. The coffee, when fresh, is actually really good. I have never had a watery coffee there and have never spit out anything either. I can only assume that TH took these stores over very quickly and hired a bunch of people who can not handle the job and/or did not train at all. Here, the drive thru lines are in the road every morning and the workers move extremely fast. Come to WNY and try TH, you will have a totally different experience. Also, I went to one in KY (shocked to find one there) and they moved very slow and looked confused when I said “double double.”
Honestly, we miss DD only because they were all over the East coast. Well, the Northeastern coast. No DD here in Los Angeles. Then we moved on to Krispy Kreme after our days in North Carolina. LA has pretty gross donut chains. We could definitely give Tim H’s a try.
I’m from Buffalo and we have a lot of Tim Horton’s locations here, and they’re all superb. Most people I know mostly just like their iced cappuccinos – it’s the reason to go to Timmy Ho’s. But I’ve heard that the coffee is very good, and the few donuts I’ve had, especially the Timbits, have always been wonderful.
So I agree with the above commenter(s?) that advised not to discount the chain yet – I would imagine that they’re just all new employees that need to figure it out, or something similar.
The Tim Horton’s stores I go to in central Canada are always clean and cheerfully staffed with non-idiot workers who serve you quickly (less so on every count here in the Maritimes). I’m sorry you didn’t get to experience that. The food is generally pretty decent for the price.
I have, however, noticed a BIG decline in the quality of TH doughnuts sometime during the half-dozen years. When I was young, the chocolate glazed used to be cakey and delicious; now, they are bread-like and weird tasting. I don’t know exactly what caused the change–baking centralization? An attempt to make lower fat doughnuts? Regardless, it was pretty dramatic.
I fnkind the DD iced coffee in city vile & have thrown out more than I’d like to admit. And yet, the DD iced on LI is drinkable if a little weak. don’t think they double brew.
^find. typing while holding a 2 yr old
I’m in the Buffalo area and TH’s are everywhere while DD’s are starting to sprout up a bit more. I tend to agree with other posters about TH, they’re ALL about the hot coffee. To me the donuts are an afterthought, although imho the pumpkin spice cake doughnuts in the fall are to die for! I also agree they will never compete with most true donut shops, but your best bet is to go earlier in the day (mornings) for freshness.
I come from a restaurant background and can attest to the fact that you simply can’t judge customer service the first few weeks to a month, too many kinks and undertrained staff that are still learning!
I’m from Toronto and there are Tim Horton’s everywhere! The service isn’t so great because there is so much pressure on the workers to work fast, but it just makes it more confusing. It’s really hard to have good quality food when everything is so cheap. For the price, it isn’t so bad because you get what you pay for. The food has definitely become more processed and lower in quality to accommodate the low prices. I have to admit though that compared to other coffee/donut chains at about the same quality of food, it is a better value.
We performed a similar scientific comparison of Dunkin Donuts vs. Krispy Kreme, when the first DD opened in our town. You can find it here:
http://www.danray.net/2008/08/24/dunkin-donuts-vs-krispy-kreme
I am in Canada. Saskatchewan specifically. I love Tim Horton’s coffee not because it’s particularly great coffee but because it’s familiar. Something about the taste. Kind of like when growing up yyou loved your mom’s meatloaf and miss it now even though you know in your heart that there are better ones around.
It is all about their pricing structure which is very reasonable. Anyone expecting a boutique coffee for 1.50 is a harsh critic indeed.
But the donuts suck big time. It is because they are par fried, frozen, trucked to the stores, and baked. Yes I said baked.
But I mean if you are in midtown New York and a hamburger is going to cost you 20 dollars with fries, you could do worse than 20 Timbits and a coffee for under 5.
Quite a few years ago, I spent a year abroad, just travelling around. We landed up in Ontario, and stayed with my aunt, uncle and cousins for a week or so. My eldest cousin was about seventeen at the time and had just got his first car, a huge North American behemoth called ‘The Pig’. His main pleasure in life was cruising around in The Pig, and on the principle of ‘when in Rome…’ we joined him one evening.
One of the local meet-up points was at a Tim Horton’s, after it’d closed. We’d sit on The Pig’s fender and just hang out, in the way that teenagers the world over have always done and always will do.
Inevitably, a police cruiser arrived and started asking questions. There was a suspicion that we were up to something, but they didn’t know what. We weren’t up to anything. We were moved on. It was all so cliched, straight out of, say, American Grafitee.
That’s just about the sum total of my Tim Horton experience. I nearly got arrested in their car park for nothing at all.
Thanks for all the great feedback!
Sarah and Jen, I promise, I will give the hot coffee a try (on a not so hot day).
Adrienne, I’m sure it’s better in the morning but you really shouldn’t sell crappy product regardless of the time of day. In HS, I literally ate a dozen DD douhgnuts every Friday after Tae Kwon Do class. It was around 5pm when I’d buy it and they were good. That was over 10 years ago and they’ve just really declined in quality.
Ion Freeman, I agree, I was thinking the same thing about Riese being involved.
Sophia, I’m totally with you. It’s so hard for local shops to survive here in the NYC.
Margaret, that was the really sad part. They were so slow and seemed to have no idea what the heck hey were doing. Big chains usually have structure and training.
Meagan, the media blast is because they just came to NYC. I’m sorry if I was unclear. I’ve been talking to more people about it and the rumor is they just used to the same employees form the DD locations that they took over so that would explain why none of them knew what their products were. =/
Cassie and Rachel, I’ve heard about how great it is elsewhere but sadly, I don’t think they can replicate it here. The cost of living is high in NYC and the pay for these places is low. You just can’t get quality staff.
Debkb, I have industry background as well, and while I’d be more lenient with a real restaurant, mega chains shouldn’t be cut any slack. Consistency is #1 priority and they should have their opening skills down by now.
Dan Ray, very nice. At least you were able to get some to compare side-by-side. Although, it really wouldn’t have mattered I think since I really disliked all of it.
Anonymous in Saskatchewan, when you have lived in NYC as long as I have, you know where to get great food cheaply and Timbits are thankfully, not my only option. Oh and 1.50 coffee is abundant too.
Thanks again everyone!
I think it’s pretty funny that you expected a friendly and courteous staff at a tim horton’s in NEW YORK. Maybe Canadian’s are friendly but for the most part new yorkers working a min wage job aren’t.
Melanie, I didn’t really expect it to be wonderful, just not as bad as it was. I actually thought TH might bring in some ringers for the opening weeks, so I was surprised to see that they did zero training.
Maybe it’s all regional? I used to eat DD in NYC and always that they were good enough, but now I live in Chicago and I hate DD doughnuts. They all taste a little like plastic to me out here. I started eating at Tim Horton’s on trips to Buffalo, and now I literally dream about waking up to Tim’s coffee and their glazed sour-cream doughnuts. The sour-cream batter makes it an entirely different breed of doughnut, and the light, sweet glaze gets stuck in the doughnut cracks. Mmmm… I hope they have these in NYC.
Tim Horton’s can’t get to WI fast enough! I lived in BC for two years and am now a TH junkie. The coffee is outstanding!
Thats so sad… I have to get a Timmies blueberry fritter at least once a week.. ohhhh man theyre good! And I love the sour cream glazed as well. Dunkin donuts is pretty gross… I’ve never had a good donut there. But ya, I’m Canadian so maybe they aren’t putting the same effort into the American stores? So sad… we drive to Florida every year and the last thing we do before crossing the border and the first on the way back is get a box of donuts and a whooolllleee lot of coffee because nothing (especially in the southern states) compares. Oh and time shouldnt make a difference because I’ve had Tim’s donuts at 2am that were just as tasty….
just want to say i’m from canada and have had both TH and DD…
the pictures you have of the TH donuts look gross!! that is not what TH donuts look like. They are chucked wildly into the box, and the boston creme should not give away it’s chocolate!!!
i think there is an issue with that location, and even though i love TH i would not go to that one again, i would even write to TH main office to tell them about the deplorable product and service, i’m sure they would compensate you in some way.
Shelly, I just saw that the TH in Union Sq (where I live, at least until March) just opened. I will give them one more shot in that location because I do love doughnuts! Fingers crossed!
As I am from the southeast and have traveled all 48 states extensively I have to tell you Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are the best. DD and TH’s are very dry. If you ever try Krispy Kreme you would pay to have them shipped to you and never eat another dry doughnut again in you life.
Kathy, I tried Krispy Kreme years ago and while I enjoy the plain, it’s very sweet, kind of too sweet, and I can barely finish one. However, when eating say Doughnut Plant doughnuts, I can eat about 6 at once. (overshare?)
TH is crap. I’m a Canadian but a west coaster. TH was, until 10 or so years ago, an eastern phenomenon and I’ve never really understood the attraction. The coffee doesn’t appeal to me. The donuts used to be alright, but then they started flash freezing the half-baked product and shipping it across the country from Ontario. It’s not nearly as good as it was initially. I avoid TH whenever possible. Surely you can do better in NYC!
D, we do have way better in NYC. Stick to Doughnut Plant and Peter Pan, and you can’t go wrong.
I must say that the American Tim Hortons restaurants are a poor representative of the real thing. I’ve worked at Tim Hortons here in Canada for 2 years and I’ve never heard a single complaint about any of the things I served. I lived in a town that was a tourist hot spot, so we had people from all over Canada and the USA come in while I was working, and we never got negative feedback. If you want the real deal you have to come to Canada for it.
Jeff, I have heard that several times, that the US locations aren’t the same as the ones in Canada. Next time I’m in Canada, I will give it a try there.
Timmie’s locations now have pre-done baked goods. I am pretty sure they used to make their goods in-store but have gone the way of getting frozen product now.I know I remember I used to see a huge monster sized floor sized mixer in the back years ago. I just order their steeped tea, maybe the chili or sandwiches. The coffee gives me a stomach ache. The lattes are all right. Hot chocolates are great. It’s like McDonald’s. You know the quality is terrible, but you still crave a Big Mac every once in a while.
It’s the 18% cream they use in their coffee…and the paper cups.
Don’t know much about DD and I go to Timmies for the coffee and the breakfast don’t eat donuts but used to and they were good. Tim’s is waaayyy busier than MC Ds and both DD and Tim’s are more about coffee than donuts also neither is in California go figure.
I was dissapointed when they got rid of the regular doughnut places around town and all the corporate doughnut chains took over. I mean, the selection sucks. Who wants to eat plain doughnuts all the time, and boston creme?!?! c’mon, I want a custard doughnut if I’m going to eat one at all. and what’s up with only having one kind of jelly?! Jelly doughnuts are awesome, but you got to have some variety. I mean, they got a “french” chocolate doughnut that is just a glorified timbit. The only thing they have that is even any good is the chocolate cinnimon role, but it would still be better if it had nuts on top of it. The coffee is good, but what happened to the good old doughnut?!?!
Excuse me, but I love Tim Horton’s and for all you people in Canada that say they don’t like their donuts go kill yourself! Your not a true Canadian if you don’t like the taste of Tim Horton’s donuts! By the way, Dunkin’ Donuts SUCK! And Tim Horton’s Ice caps are the best, if you say you don’t like Tim Horton’s try a Ice cap, you will love it after tasting it!
Your comments on the customer service do not make sense. The employees at the Tim’s you went to were American, same as the Dunkn D. You then state that your Canadian friends talk about the quality of service you get from Tim Horton’s is supposed to be good. You do see where I am going with this do you not?
Not sure what you’re saying Jeff but yes the employees at Tim’s in NY, I assume are Americans. Americans can give good and bad service. It just depends who these companies hire and how they train them. I don’t get your point about our Canadian friends…you’ll have to clarify.
To be fair, it had just opened. What store is perfect on it’s first week? Tim Horton’s, no matter where always has a little trouble. My cousins can vouch (?) for this when one opened in there town.
And I agree with Jeff. The service quality in Canada is ‘better’ because well, Canadians are known for being extremely nice. If that makes sense.
Wow you are so negative.
It’s really an unfair test. I live in canada but I go to the states all the time and when I saw Tim hortons in America I went in but the Tim hortons in canada is by far better