Duck Donuts — Restaurant in Paradise

Duck donuts staff offered me a donut in exchange for a review, so I'll indulge them. They seem very popular and the guy working when I came in clearly cares about the product and wants a good experience for customers. The donuts themselves are cake style, and they are made fresh and topped right in front of you. Like, hot donuts pop out of an oven right before your eyes.

However, I felt that the process has some issues. It takes a long time for staff to prepare your donuts. As well, the donuts are covered with icing while still hot, so it gets messy and doesn't adhere well. That's a no-no for baking. The staff seemed to be having some difficulties topping the donuts, and in the process all the icings drip all over everything, so your donuts get cross contaminated and the box gets covered in icing. They are still piping hot when you get them, so everything slides off and turns into a big goopy mess.

As well, they have a Bible of toppings to choose from. It seems great, but it slows down the process, and the staff even has trouble remembering how to make each one.

The donuts tasted good... very good if you like cake style donuts, but they were a hassle to eat due to temperature and mess.

Overall, they do seem dedicated to serving quality donuts. I just think the process has flaws and they could streamline things by making donuts in batches, letting them cool, and then if they want, top them in front of the customer. Maybe reduce the number of options as well. Those may seem counterintuitive but I bet it'd make the product better and faster to serve.

3 stars for the reasons listed above. I believe they are a few tweaks away...

Waited 35 minutes for a sub-par, not very hot vanilla latte. Two dudes working, one on the donut and sandwich side, and one making drinks. Walked in with two groups already having paid for their items and just waiting to have them made/packed up. The dude making the drinks didn’t even acknowledge or make eye contact with me until about 18-20 minutes of me waiting “in line”. He poured 2 pre-made lemonades, a black coffee and a frappe within that 18-20 minutes…smdh. Once i was ready to place my order, three new groups of people were waiting in line behind me to order. I asked for a large hot vanilla latte to go. Instead of making my order right then and there after i paid, he took the other groups’ orders which added another ten minutes onto an unnecessary wait. Why didn’t he make my easy latte, then take an order and make their drinks, and so on? Why did he have to take 3 more orders before he even started my drink? The poor girls who ordered after me just wanted black coffee but they had to wait 10 minutes for that…? I ended up saving $5 by walking over to this place instead of Lavazza in the Horseshoe; they would have made it fast and hot so I’m kicking myself- just pay the extra $5 don’t go...

I was expecting big doughnuts by looking at the pictures and for the price but was disappointed by how they are actually smaller than Dunkin. They were made fresh and made to order. They were hot and gooey so had to let them cool down. Over $5 for a single doughnut is insane but with the Groupon it was worth it. $13.50 plus tax for a doughnut topped milkshake which I got and it was the worst milkshake I've ever had. It was basically just milk, I didn't taste or see any ice cream consistently. Employees need to be trained properly especially when people are spending that much money. Overall if you're getting a half or whole dozen doughnuts it's worth it because the doughnuts actually taste really good and the price is reasonable when purchased in bulk. The customer service was non-existent, I had to basically pry answers out. I'll try a different location in the future and hopefully it's better. I do recommend buying a Groupon and getting the doughnuts because you and/or your kids will really like having a fresh doughnut. After looking at other reviews I guess I must've just had a new employee who didn't really know what...