6 Dunkin' Donuts Breakfast Sandwiches, Ranked From Worst To Best

Back in 2019, Dunkin' Donuts shocked the world when it changed its name after nearly 70 years to just Dunkin'. The reason was pretty simple: The chain wanted people to know that it wasn't only about donuts anymore. Beyond the donuts and coffee, Dunkin' now offers a whole array of foodstuffs, including a line of breakfast sandwiches that provide savory options for those who want a little bit more than straight-up sugary sweetness in the a.m.

But which breakfast sandwich should you get? It's a more complicated question than it seems. At first blush, the fact that Dunkin' focuses on a handful of styles suggests that it should be simple. Each item, though, can be ordered with your choice of bread, ranging from bagels and English muffins to croissants. The chain also offers "all-day" sandwich options, but given that these are available during breakfast, and breakfast is also served all day at most locations, the distinction between the two categories is difficult to parse.

This is where I come in. To determine which Dunkin' breakfast sandwiches are the best, I have conducted a scientific sandwich study, devouring one representative example of each type. So which is the top of the crop? And are any good enough to justify the name change, or should the chain just go back to donuts? Let's refresh the classic Dunkin' slogan because "It's time to make the breakfast sandwiches."

The Dunkin' website menu lists the sourdough breakfast sandwich under "Signature Sandwiches" rather than a "Breakfast Sandwiches," even though it literally has "breakfast sandwich" right in its name. That should tell you a little bit about how confusing this one was for me, starting with the bread itself.

The sourdough is the signature ingredient that separates this from the other breakfast sandwiches, and it was actually pretty good. There was, however, an awful lot of it. As a result, the entire sandwich felt much more like a full, adult-size meal than the other choices. This wasn't some dainty English muffin you can hold in one hand while you steer your car with the other on the way to work (not that you should do that, of course). It was a big load of bread with a thick chewy crust that took some working on. Gnawing on the bread became the biggest part of the eating experience.

There was also a commensurate amount of egg, with not one but two of the already large egg patties used on the other breakfast sandwiches piled here in a Venn diagram. As a result of the vast tracts of bread and egg, the cheese and bacon both got lost, even when I deliberately searched them out. It wasn't dry at least; in fact, if anything it veered a bit towards soggy, as it was packed hot into the box, so moisture from the steam ruined the toasted sear.

If you spend a few moments checking the internet for its opinion of the Dunkin' grilled cheese, it won't take long to find numerous complaints over how it's made. Many disgruntled customers have reported receiving sandwiches that aren't grilled at all, just cold cheese between cold bread.

That's not cool. It also wasn't my experience. No, I got something a bit stranger when I ordered a grilled cheese (which technically isn't a "Breakfast Sandwich" but a "Signature Sandwich" that happens to be sold all day, including for breakfast). Mine had been thoroughly grilled but clearly wasn't assembled until after being cooked. The cheese itself, which was nicely melted onto one slice of the bread, had a hard sear on it. It wasn't melted to the other side, though, meaning the top slice was just a free-floating piece of toast.

Oddly, this turned out to be a blessing. There just wasn't enough cheese for how robust the sourdough bread was. However, when the top slice fell off, I tried eating the remaining cheesed-up slice as an open-faced sandwich. I still would have liked more cheese, but eating it this way actually elevated the experience by improving the cheese-to-bread ratio. If the amount of cheese were doubled and the sandwich was made correctly, this might not be the best grilled cheese around, but it would probably be pretty good! But as it is, you're rolling the dice.

Now here's a classic fast food breakfast sandwich: sausage, egg, and cheese on an English muffin. Dunkin' puts its own small stamp on this ubiquitous menu option by making it with turkey sausage, but otherwise this is pretty much the same sausage, egg, and cheese you can get for breakfast almost everywhere (see: 

And that's totally fine. Sometimes you just want the familiar, and this delivers. It's true that the turkey sausage I had was very lightly seasoned, so it didn't necessarily give me the spicy kick a stronger option might have delivered. But it did have a pleasant (albeit faint) turkey flavor that blended well with the egg, cheese, and muffin.

Maybe a little too well. While each of the ingredients was nice enough, especially the soft and fresh English muffin, the overall result was pretty bland and unremarkable. There just wasn't much contrast anywhere in the sandwich, both in terms of the middle-of-the-road flavoring as well as texturally. A fluffy muffin packed with a fluffy disc of egg and a plump rondel of turkey sausage made for a bite that was nicely soft but very one-note. The sandwich could have definitely used something crunchy, savory, sweet, or ... well, pretty much anything would have helped. Instead, it was a perfectly edible and completely forgettable, a boring breakfast that I likely wouldn't have even remembered eating 10 minutes later if I hadn't been taking notes.

Making a sandwich with a bagel is a tricky proposition that can easily go wrong. Unless they are both well-made and well-prepared, bagels can easily overwhelm a sandwich by being too dense, too dry, too chewy, or too hard. Even a good New York bagel needs sandwich fillings that can stand up to it.

Luckily, I got a good bagel when I ordered the standard bacon, egg, and cheese at Dunkin'. It's true that there was a lot of egg, which could have led to a textural and flavoral samey-sameyness. But there was also an ample amount of cheese, adding a needed richness and unctuousness to the sandwich. And the bacon was key. Though its flavor notes weren't very strong, taking a back seat to the cheese, the saltiness and light crunch gave just enough contrast to make each bite well-rounded.

It helped very much that the bagel itself (which was a plain one, though Dunkin' also offers sesame and multigrain options) was both fresh and soft, making each bite easy, filling, and satisfying. I could have maybe wished for a little more bacon, but then again, that's true of almost every situation in life. As it was, I was pleasantly surprised and definitely satisfied with what I got.

And now, the wonderful world of the croissant. Unlike the turkey sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich, which was delivered on an English muffin, the version with the regular sausage came on a croissant. Like choosing the road less traveled, the croissant made all the difference. No shade to the noble English muffin, but the croissant I received was buttery and flaky. It was also slightly overcooked, not quite burnt but edging toward it. Oddly, this actually enhanced the pastry, adding a bit more crunch to the texture and a hint of char that undercut its normal sweetness.

Those textural elements made a nice contrast to the robust disc of egg, which threatened to otherwise overshadow the mildly seasoned sausage. While the sandwich was perhaps a bit egg-forward in its flavors, the (under)seasoning of the sausage also meant that the cheese had more room to shine, which it did. True, more from the sausage would have been a nice counterpoint, but the result was a sandwich that felt rich and unctuous thanks to the bounty of cheese and egg. It was also quite filling despite the lightness and airiness of the croissant itself. Overall, it was a yummy experience that I enjoyed, only knocked a little by the slightly underwhelming nature of the sausage.

The name "Maple Sugar Bacon Sandwich" doesn't convey exactly what you're getting when you order it, so let's make it a bit clearer with some plainspoken language. This sandwich is exactly the same as the sausage, egg, and cheese on a croissant except the sausage is swapped out for some maple bacon.

That seems like a minor tweak, but when I tried it, swapping out the sausage for bacon corrected pretty much every minor flaw of the former sandwich, which I found was let down by the bland patty. By contrast, the maple sugar bacon was both more flavorful and had a more complex flavor profile, mixing sweet, salty, and a satisfying umami bomb. It also provided textural contrast with the softness of the egg, while the saltiness cut through the richness of the cheese.

As with the sausage, egg, and cheese, my maple bacon sugar sandwich had a croissant that was slightly overbaked, just short of being burnt. But I didn't mind this, as the hint of char over the sweet flaky pastry gave the croissant its own flavor complexity as well. Taking everything together in one composed bite was a medley of flavors and textures that harmonized together beautifully. I was left satisfied both with the meal and with the knowledge that I now knew exactly what to order the next time I sought breakfast at Dunkin'.

To make this as fair a representation of an average Dunkin' breakfast experience, I began by ordering the base version of each sandwich with no alterations. Though each of the breakfast sandwiches can be ordered with any combination of filling and bread, I chose the "normal" version as indicated on the Dunkin' menu. This included sub-variations as well, such as with the bagel, where I ordered the plain one rather than wheat or sesame seed.

I also sampled each sandwich exactly as it was made to preserve the integrity of the experiment; for example, I'm not sure the grilled cheese was made properly, but that's what I received when ordering it. Rather than order another one that might have been better prepared, I judged what was actually given to me as a true example of what you might receive at any given Dunkin' outlet.

Once I had all six sandwiches, I then ate each in turn while still hot, assigning scores for taste, texture, mouthfeel, and nutrition. I added these sub-category scores together for an overall total score, which, when cross-referenced against the scores of the other sandwiches, provided the final rankings for each. Enjoy.