About 83% of the world is filled with coffee drinkers; which makes places like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts hot spots for a quick drink on your way to work or school. Even if coffee isn’t your beverage of choice, you probably have checked these cafes out at least once in your life. And the reason is not because of the coffee, but the assortment of fancy drinks and desserts that accompany it. Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts fans all have opinions on which place they prefer, but we’re going to find out what coffee place is truly superior by comparing the menu options, reviews, pricing, and quality of each place. 

Menu Options

Obviously menus don’t show every option you could choose because you can always personalize your order to have exactly what you want, but they each have a similar variety of options. But guess what, if you wanted to find out the prices on the online menu, you can’t. Both of the menus have nutrition facts along with your drink of choice, but no price. If you want to find out the price you need to actually go to each place or Google it. Anyways, The Dunkin’ Donuts menu consists of food and drinks and a special nutrition selection. The categories they have for food are: donuts, sandwiches and wraps, bakery and snacks, and ddsmart which has some healthier options for food. For drinks they have three categories: cold drinks, hot drinks, and frozen drinks. 

The Starbucks menu online seemed to have more options when it comes to drinks. Their list of categories for drink includes: hot coffees, hot teas, hot drinks, frappuccinos, cold coffees, iced teas, and cold drinks. Dunkin’ Donuts does have some of these options within subcategories of their three main categories; however, the one big thing missing from the drink section of Dunkin’ Donuts menu is Frappuccinos. They do have some frozen drinks but they aren’t quite the same. Starbucks is famous for their amazing frappés and interesting combinations they make with it. This automatically makes the drink selection for Starbucks better than Dunkin’s. For the food options Starbucks has: hot breakfast, bakery, lunch, snacks and sweets, and yogurt and custard. Which is close enough to the same options that Dunkin’ Donuts has. Starbucks does have some pretty good options in their sweets selection, however, they do not have donuts, which is the main treat Dunkin’ brands themselves on. 

Reviews

There were both good and bad reviews to both Starbucks and Dunkin’ donuts. However, I noticed there were more complaints focused towards the price of Starbucks’ items plus the quality decreasing over time, and the quality of Dunkin’ Donuts’s items in general. The following 1 star reviews show some of the specific weaknesses of each business. 

Starbucks

I have been a loyal customer of Starbucks for over 15yrs. Lately I have noticed my venti blond has a blah taste. More like cheap gas station coffee. It wasn’t just me, I asked several family members what they thought. They verified it was gross coffee! What happened!? I even tried several other Starbucks. Same problem. Really Starbucks! Do you think we won’t notice when you hike the price of your coffee and cheapened your product? I guess another good thing has bit the dust. I can make my own gross coffee at home????

Sharon of Grand Rapids, MI
 Verified Reviewer
Original review
Oct. 1, 2019

Starbucks used to have the best Hot Chocolate around, but I stopped into their St Ann Missouri, store for a Hot Chocolate today, it has been a couple years since I got one, alas it was a crappy brown water waste of money, not the rich, creamy, chocolate it used to be, I Will not be going back for any of their overpriced garbage anymore….

Bert of Saint Louis, MO
Verified Reviewer
Original Review
Nov 23 2019

Dunkin’ Donuts

 The biggest problem with Dunkin’ is their quality of a coffee after it’s made and keep in mind this happens at 90 percent of the Dunkin’ Donuts in Ma. They never mix the coffee so it taste correct or even stir or shake it to mix the sugar ever so all your sugar and flavor is in a pile at the bottom of the cup. Then causes a mess trying to mix it in a car or truck while driving or parked and a bunch of napkins so it doesnt spill everywhere. It’s always a disaster getting coffee from dunkin’ this has been going an on going huge issue and hence why paying an extra dollar or two for Starbucks is better. For one it’s always made correctly, stirred correctly or shaking so it taste correct and there’s no pile at the bottom of whatever flavor and sugar you had them put in it. So problem list is.

Jordan of Westport, MA
Verified Reviewer
Original Review
Dec 16 2019

I bought the 2 for $4 bagel and cream cheese sandwiches based on their commercial which made them look delicious. There was barely any cream cheese on them! I called and complained to their manager who assured me they would remake them properly. The 2nd ones I received had even less on them than the 1st ones! I emailed their corporate office and was told someone would get back to me and no one ever has. Very disappointing!

Belinda of Brighton, MI
Verified Reviewer
Original Review
Nov 12 2019

Prices + Quality

Over the weekend I took a trip to visit both Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks on the same day. They were relatively close to each other, but I stopped at Dunkin’ first because it was slightly closer to my house. I ordered a small caramel iced coffee and a plain bagel because it was something I knew they would offer at both places. A bagel with cream cheese at Dunkin’ would have been $2.09 if they were in stock, but sadly I did not receive a bagel from Dunkin’ Donuts. The coffee however was $1.99 and delicious. When I ordered the coffee they gave me the option of adding cream or sugar and I decided on cream because in the past, the sugar I’ve had in their drinks collected at the bottom and was too much. It was very sweet anyway with just the cream and I enjoyed my Dunkin’ Donuts coffee very much. My brother ordered a christmas donut (glazed, green frosting, with white snowflake sprinkles). He said he was disappointed that there wasn’t much of a selection for a place that specializes in donuts. He was even more disappointed when he bit into his sweet christmas treat and said “it tastes like cardboard with frosting on it.” Overall, I had a good experience with the coffee I chose at Dunkin’ but neither me nor my brother had a good experience with the food we had ordered. 

On my second round of coffee and food, it was time to try some Starbucks. The place was a lot busier, so it was harder to find an open seat, but we eventually got a small table for three in the back. I ordered a small caramel iced coffee and a plain bagel, like I did at Dunkin’ Donuts. They gave me a delicious, warm bagel that was only $1.57 with the added cream cheese. Significantly cheaper than the bagel I would have received at Dunkin’ Donuts. My brother ordered a special tall Christmas frappe for $3.95 which I have tried before and it is amazing! The coffee that I ordered took longer to come than the frappe and there wasn’t even anyone else in line. When it came they gave it to me without cream or sugar and it tasted terrible. I asked them to put in cream, so they put in some milk and gave it back to me. After I tasted that it wasn’t much better than the first time I tried it. So I asked if there was a way they could make it sweeter and they told me they would add more caramel, and so they did. Even then it was too strong with the coffee flavor, and I prefer my coffee more sweet, so I gave it to my mom. The coffee was $2.65 which is a lot more than the drink I got from Dunkin’ Donuts and I didn’t even enjoy it. 

Overview

Overall, both cafes have their ups and downs. Also everyone has different preferences, so depending on whether you like sweet coffee or strong coffee you might like Dunkin’ more than Starbucks. Or if frappes are your go-to drink instead of coffee then Starbucks would be a better option for you. They both have many differences on their menus but they also have a lot of the same things. They are both equally delicious and disgusting. But if you’re looking for a nice tasty donut, I suggest you go to Krispy Kreme.