If you’ve been following my twitter account you’d know that 2 days ago I got a sneak peak at the first Dunkin Donuts store to open in South Africa, and more importantly, got to try their world famous donuts. You’re probably wondering if the donuts really are all it’s cracked up to be. Well, read on and I’ll tell you.
But first, can you guess of all places where they decided to open their first store…..? Right here in the Northern Suburbs in Goodwood! Us Northerners are super chuffed albeit a tad curious at the choice. I got a chance on Tuesday to ask their Marketing and Communications Director, Rozanna Kader a few questions. So, Grand Foods, a division of Grand Parade Investments, holds the master franchise agreement for Dunkin’ Donuts and BURGER KING® in South Africa. So it made sense to house it in the same building as the recently opened Burger King. They are planning to open no less than 290 Dunkin Donuts stores in South Africa over the next 10 years, with 6 more coming in Cape Town by the end of the year. The roll out for Johannesburg and Durban will start next year. The first branch is certified halaal and they plan to do the same for all their branches. Another sweet little tidbit, is that they are planning to add the Baskin-Robbins ice cream franchise to the mix and will be opening the first outlet in the Goodwood location as well.
For opening day which was today at 12pm, they had huge activities planned and great prizes for the first 100 people in the queue. Check out some of the madness in these pics.
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Queues started early for a chance to win 1 of 100 donut and coffee vouchers
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Moegammad Isaac & Abubaker Harmse queued from 11am the previous day and were the lucky winners of a years supply of Dunkin Donuts and coffee.
The Dunkin Donuts branch is going to be heaven for the kids. They have an awesome play section upstairs. A large jungle gym, a climbing wall and even a bank of video games. Upstairs is bright and colourful and seating is plenty. Downstairs has a less playful but more comfortable seating area with more of a coffee shop style. Everything is self service, and downstairs it’s decent enough to take your laptop and park for a while with a coffee.
But on to the main event, the DONUTS! Yes, it is so worth it. There are so many flavours and they are just so pretty you want to spend some time just looking at them first before wolfing it down. My first taste was of the Rocky Road, which is chocolate glazed, topped with marshmallows, biscuit crumble and more chocolate drizzled on top. And oh, did I mention there was chocolate inside too? It was a hard act to follow, and maybe I should not have set myself up with it. The lemon meringue is a fresher flavour and the strawberry went down a treat with my little one. At the opening today, I got to try the Boston Creme, which is their signature donut. It comes chocolate glazed and filled with a custardy cream, yummy. We also tried the toasted coconut topping which is filled with apple. Not too sweet and also delicious.
Where to begin?
The energetic crew at Dunkin getting their positive vibes on before our tasting.
To add to their repertoire they have savoury options on the menu as well. Toasted sandwhiches, wraps and bagels. Great for breakfast. I tried the croissant with pastrami, mozzarella and gherkins. The croissant needed some love but the overall taste was quite good. I’d go there for a quick breakfast. They stake their reputation on their coffee and the cappucino I had was pretty decent. It’s a round a mellow flavour, not too strong. I even managed it without sugar. They have some very interesting looking hot and cold coffees including the Iced latte and Frozen Dunkachino.
So how’s this gonna break your bank? At R14 a doughnut, it’s not that cheap. But it really is a treat. You can get half a dozen for R70 and a dozen for R125. A small coffee starts at R12 and a cappucino at R20. The average price of filled sandwiches, bagels etc. is about R30.
There’s so many flavours here still to try, and the proximity of this store means it’s pretty much tickets for my waistline…..
Find them on the corner of Frans Conradie and Joe Simon Street, N1 City, Goodwood.
I was at the opening and it was definitely worth the wait. And as you mentioned, we are spoilt for choice. It took me a while to decide which ones to get. Worth a visit
Got to agree Firyal. It’s a real head scratcher trying to choose.