7 Vegan Dunkin' Menu Items, Ranked

When dining out a decade ago or so, vegan options were pretty slim. But nowadays, vegan eats at food and drink chains are getting better and more widely available. There are even plant-based options at popular fast food chains like Taco Bell, Burger King, and Dunkin', which allows for more people to access food when they go out. 

Dunkin' is a coffee-and-donut chain founded in 1950, which currently operates over 13,000 stores worldwide. It offers a range of vegan beverages, but I wanted to try and rank the chain's more limited selection of vegan food — which, it turns out, are varying forms of carbohydrates, including bagels, English muffins, hash browns, and avocado toast. 

For this ranking, I ordered everything through the Dunkin' app, which provides an easy experience. You can order before you get there, and either pick up your food in the store or at the drive thru. The following rankings are mainly based on taste, followed by factors of pricing and texture of the food. Check my methodology slide below for more details about how I ranked these menu items, as well as my personal experience as a vegan and vegetarian. Are you hungry? Let's begin the taste test. 

Coming in last place was Dunkin's plain bagel. It was not bad; in fact, it was fine, but the bagel was just what its name states it is: plain. Compared to the other Dunkin' bagels that had their touches of flavor, this one was basic. And because it's a vegan product, there's no egg wash as you might see with some plain bagels. The texture was soft and fresh, and it tasted adequate. It was not the most interesting bagel among the bunch, but when I applied Dunkin's avocado spread — itself a vegan product — this provided it with a pop of flavor. 

The plain bagel was better with the spread, and it would be good if you also use other toppings from home, such as vegan cream cheese, sliced tomato, or add-ons to make a bagel sandwich. But given that I was trying to use only items sold by Dunkin' for this taste test, this bagel had the least flavor of every option, even with the avocado spread. The plain bagel has 300 calories, 1 gram of fat, 64 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of protein.

Dunkin's cinnamon raisin bagel seemed a bit smaller compared to the rest of the bagels, and had a wonky shape. The only spreads I saw offered at Dunkin' was the avocado spread and non-vegan butter. Seeing as the avocado spread is savory and wouldn't pair well with the raisin and cinnamon notes, I paired this bagel with some jam that I had at home. The jam gave this bagel some extra oomph, and helped to sweeten it further. Certain Dunkin' locations might have jelly packets available for customers on request, but I did not see this spread on the app.

The cinnamon raisin dough had its raisins sprinkled sporadically; a quarter of the bagel had no raisins at all. I bake frequently, so I know this is bound to happen occasionally, but I wanted more raisin and cinnamon taste to come through. Nonetheless, this bagel had a solid baseline of flavor that pairs well with jam, and would likely be good with vegan butter or peanut butter. This was more interesting than the plain bagel, that's for sure. Dunkin's cinnamon raisin bagel has 320 calories, 1 gram of fat, 67 grams of carbohydrates, 13 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of protein.

It's fairly easy to put together an avocado toast recipe at home, but this is also a go-to vegan specialty to put on a restaurant menu. The Dunkin' version of avocado toast comes slathered with the avocado spread (made of avocados, lemon juice, sea salt, and black pepper), and everything bagel seasoning is sprinkled on top. When I opened up the container, the toast slice was pretty small, so I didn't think this was a particularly good value for the price. It would be cheaper to get a bagel and buy a side of Dunkin's avocado spread — and I would rather do that, and follow an everything bagel blend recipe to provide homemade seasoning.

On the plus side, I liked the taste of the wheat bread and the texture of its soft interior. The everything-bagel blend was fully loaded with seasonings; some of the blend fell off onto the cardboard container, but you can pour it back onto your toast if you want. On the negative side, the crust was very crunchy in a way that scraped your mouth as you bit into it. The portion was small, and while flavorsome, just wasn't a good deal in comparison to other items on this list. Still, I preferred the avocado toast to the cinnamon raisin bagel, because the bagel needed a flavor boost. The avocado toast has 240 calories, 11 grams of fat, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.

If you want to make a close alternative to avocado toast at Dunkin', just get the everything bagel and purchase the avocado spread. It's similar in flavor to the toast, and the combination is slightly cheaper, which pushed it up a spot in this ranking. A generous sprinkling of the bagel's namesake seasoning coats the top, and the bagel seemed fresh with an airy texture. 

The top part of the bagel was packed with flavor. I enjoyed the notes of garlic and the nutty taste of sesame and poppy seeds. The bottom didn't have much residual seasoning, and was effectively a plain bagel with a couple of poppy seeds stuck on it here and there. I love everything bagels, but I was surprised to find out that I preferred the next item on this list a tad more. Dunkin's everything bagel has 340 calories, 3 grams of fat, 67 grams of carbohydrates, 8 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein.

I don't usually opt for sesame bagels, but Dunkin's iteration impressed me. The chain's sesame bagel was soft with delightful air pockets. The top was loaded with sesame seeds, and the bottom portion had some sesame stuck to the sides. The amount of sesame on the bagel gave it a nutty taste, which pairs nicely with the avocado spread for a taste reminiscent of guacamole with tahini. The sesame option provided the most flavor out of all of Dunkin's vegan bagels. 

Because the sesame flavor reminded me of the notes you get from tahini, I thought this bagel was the most interesting among the vegan options. However, this bagel is even better and more interesting if you pair it with the avocado spread. This combination provided the most satisfactory and flavorsome of the bagel offers sampled, and therefore, sesame was the highest-ranking bagel. Dunkin's sesame seed bagel has 350 calories, 5 grams of fat, 64 grams of carbohydrates, 7 grams of sugar, and 12 grams of protein.

I've eaten a lot of English muffins in my lifetime, because they're small and easy to pop in the toaster for a quick meal. The Dunkin' English muffin appeared to be a bit more dense than other versions I've had. Many of the brands I've eaten in the past had more air pockets in them, while the Dunkin' version looked denser, with few or no air pockets. But looks can be deceiving. Dunkin's English muffin was soft and springy. While the exterior of the bagels became quite firm after toasting, this English muffin was soft all around. 

Although the flavor of this on its own was not too exciting, I was a big fan of the texture, and the way it transformed with a smear of the avocado spread — who's eating English muffins plain, anyway? If you're in a hurry and need some grub, I could see getting the muffin and avocado spread while ordering a vegan drink. It's not too heavy (packing about half the carbs of the bagels), but will keep you satiated. The price is almost the same as the bagels, so it's a sound option when you prefer something soft. Dunkin's English muffin has 190 calories, 2 grams of fat, 35 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.

Dunkin's hash browns are cute bite-size potato patties, and an order comes with six pieces. They look similar to Chick-fil-A's version, except the Dunkin' hash brown nuggets are a little larger. One hash brown was a bit mashed, but that didn't affect the taste. I could detect a hint of seasoning with the first taste. Upon looking at the ingredients, I learned that the recipe contains garlic powder, parsley, and onion powder, which I appreciate. 

These hash browns are a good value, and were the least expensive item on this list apart from the avocado spread. During the taste test, I didn't think to dunk the hash browns in the avocado spread, but this could make a fun way to eat the spuds — these components could even be combined with a bagel or English muffin to make a sturdy hash brown breakfast sandwich version that you can cobble together on the go. The potatoes made it to the top of the list because they had a noticeable flavor and good value. 

A relevant side note: When I ordered everything for this taste test, a Dunkin' employee forgot to include the avocado toast, so I had to go back to get it. By the time I got around to eating the hash browns, they were cold — but this still ended up being the tastiest and best item on this list. If I'd tried them when they were hot, I'm sure they'd be even better. Dunkin's hash browns have 110 calories, 6 grams of fat, 13 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

My knowledge about vegan food comes from eating a vegan diet for a year, and being a vegetarian for more than 15 years, so I'm well aware of culinary blind spots for varying dietary needs. For this taste test, I visited my local Dunkin' in the San Diego area. I ordered my food through the app, and got everything sliced but not toasted. I tried these menu items at home in the following ways: untoasted and plain, untoasted with avocado spread, and toasted with avocado spread. 

I purchased the Dunkin' avocado spreads to go with the bagels and the English muffin. The only exception was the cinnamon raisin bagel, which I ate untoasted and plain, untoasted with jam, and toasted with jam — the jam was from my home, and not provided by Dunkin'. All the bagels and the English muffin appeared soft and fresh when untoasted.

I tried all the items in the same morning to ensure freshness. I based my ranking on taste, texture, and cost, and while I may mention the appearance of some items, it didn't play a part in the overall ranking. Dunkin' also offers vegan oatmeal at participating locations, but it was not available at my local store, so it was not included in this article.

The hash browns were rather tasty on their own, but the rest of the items really needed the avocado spread, which worked wonders. I'd love to see other vegan condiments offered at Dunkin' — like vegan cream cheese or vegan butter — to make these vegan baked goods more easily enhanced with spreads. For now, Dunkin' does not serve any vegan donuts, but hopefully one day that will change.