Hurt’s Donut — Restaurant in Little Rock

Update: (See attached photos with proof) I submitted a review on Better Business Bureau the same day of the incident. I also sent two emails on different days to a corporate representative and never received a response. I sent an email to another email address for the company and someone who said they were the owner of the Little Rock location responded. She stated that the she apologized for the incident and the employee was reprimanded and placed on several days of leave due to her behavior (photo attached) However, the company responded to my Better Business Bureau review the same day stating "Candace is not being truthful. Hurts is known to have wonderful customer service but we will not tolerate an angry customer berating our employees and making up falsehoods. Candace is no longer welcome in Hurts Donut, Co." (photo attached)

Is this a joke??? I literally have an email from the local "owner" stating that the employee was reprimanded and placed on several days of leave due to her behavior but now I'm an "angry customer making up falsehoods and berating their employees??" Noted. I will be filing a formal complaint and will upload proof of the incident per the response I received from the owner. Instead of trying to remedy the situation, they are now publicly acting as if it didn't happen but they privately sent an email admitted they were wrong. Is this the "wonderful" customer service" they are speaking of? Trust me, I wasn't planning on going back to this company anyway (as I stated in my initial review) so stating that I am not welcome back means absolutely nothing. Also, why didn't a corporate representative respond to my inquiries but responded to a review?? If their customer service was a great as they say, corporate would have reached back out to me in a professional manner and tried to resolve the incident. "An angry customer berating employees and making up falsehoods"?? That's defamation of character and perpetuation of a racial stereotype. They can run the cameras back and show that I was calm each time I spoke the employees and the entire 15 seconds that I talked to the manager.

Initial review: I was calling an order in for someone and the total came to more than the person was anticipating so they said to cancel it. I was still on the phone with the associate and told her nevermind they need to cancel the order and she said "Thank you for wasting my time" (I was on the phone with her no longer than a minute, not that it matters either way). I was outside when I was calling the order in (for a curbside pickup) so I went inside to speak to the manager (because wouldn't answer the phone when I tried calling back). I asked to speak to a manager and she said she was on the phone with another customer. I waited for about 15 min and asked if she was still on the phone and she said yes. I waited again and it's going on 30 minutes and she said she was still on the phone. When the male associate came the front I asked if a manager was in the back and he said no. I said the other associate said she was in the phone with a customer and he said she was on the dock talking to another manager. I asked him could he go get her. The so called manager came to the front and I explained what happened and she began explaining the prices. I told her I didn't care about the prices, I was concerned with the disrespect and being told I'm wasting their time. All she said was "sorry" with a smile on her face. How disgusting and...

This place is very unique and should be on the list of places to visit if you like donuts and are in the downtown area. That said, my visits have been all over the place. Because of that, my review should actually be a 3-star, but on the visits that’s were really good, for me they were enough to deserve a 4-star. So, just understand that I’ve had 5-star visits here, and I’ve had 1-star visits where I took one bite out of a couple of the donuts and realized they were old and stale so I threw them away.

The donuts here are just plain fun. If you normally eat 3 regular donuts, you might want to just order 1 of these. They’re huge, and they’re usually loaded with toppings so they become quite filling. I think my favorite would be the cookies and cream, but I’ve had several that were really good.

I think timing might be everything. So all the bad visits I’ve had were very early morning visits and the selection was slim and picked over each time as you could tell they hadn’t restocked for breakfast yet. I won’t go back during these times again. If it’s normal breakfast or lunch hours, you’re all good and I’d bet a dollar you’ll have the best experience possible. If the selection is slim and you can tell that they aren’t fresh and you’re the only one in the store, I’d leave and try them another time, or at least ask them if they have anything thats fresh. A fresh hurts donut can’t be beat (and I mean that), but a stale one isn’t worth an old crusty penny.

The staff has always been great and it’s a cool looking decor and atmosphere. Just writing this review is making me consider an afternoon run for a cookies and cream hurts...

I really like to say good things about small businesses so let me start with the good. My friend and I wanted donuts, and this place sold us donuts.

The girl behind the counter was friendly even though she wasn’t wearing a mask or gloves or really adhering to any kind of CDC guidelines or basic health guidelines for food service.

And the place appeared clean.

That’s basically it for the good.

As for the bad. I don’t know the schedules for when fresh donuts are made but for a place to be open 24 hours, I would hope at least that it’s more frequently than once per day. If the donuts are made one time in the morning and then left sitting in the case, they won’t be very good at 9pm.

We arrived right around 6pm. We ordered 3 donuts, and all of them were dry, and tasted fairly stale like something that had been left sitting in a case all day.

Neither of my donuts had much in the way of flavor. I had a mint Oreo and an Apple fritter. My friend had a s’mores. They cost $14 and change. You can buy 2 dozen donuts for that at a national chain where the donuts are made fresh and disposed of after they sit for a certain amount of time, and the workers wear masks and gloves.

I really wanted to like this place but the donuts are awful and the lack of basic health and safety, especially in today’s climate made that impossible. While I prefer to support small businesses, next time I’m in town and want a donut, I’ll just find a Dunkin and avoid this...