Review: Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew at Disney Springs
Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew is a new counter service restaurant at Disney Springs serving sandwiches, fries, beer, and alcohol in addition to the doughnuts. In this Walt Disney World dining review, we’ll share food photos and how this bakery stacks up to the competition over at Universal Orlando.
The hand-crafted confections at Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew are made from scratch daily in limited quantities, with a maximum order of two dozen per person. The menu features both classic donuts and gourmet creations, with the most popular donuts available year-round and others rotating seasonally.
Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew is located between Splitsville and the AMC Theater in the former home of Pop Gallery near the exit of Orange Garage at Disney Springs. The West Side is the last component of the colossal transformation of Disney Springs, with Everglazed being the latest piece of the puzzle following Jaleo…
The intimate design of Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew purports to be a spin on a classic donut shop, featuring graphic pops of color, iconic signage, and an inviting outdoor seating area dubbed the donut garden.
Before guests enter the sweets shop, they can catch a glimpse of a culinary experience unfolding through the windows of the working show kitchen where the donuts are fried, glazed, and piled high with toppings.
Let’s start our review of Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew with a trio of the doughnuts…
First, the Peanut Butter Explosion: Chocolate Iced Donut, Peanut Butter chips, crushed Reese’s Cup and Chocolate Peanut Butter frosting.
We previously derided Voodoo Doughnuts for its options with gimmicky toppings, and the same generally holds true for all gourmet/trendy doughnut shops. One of my exceptions is Reese’s Cups (two others are bacon and Cinnamon Toast Crunch). While we’d stop short of calling this an “explosion” of chocolate and peanut butter, it’s a good mix. The toppings don’t overwhelm, making it a good option if you want something indulgent–but still want to be able to taste the doughnut itself.
Next, Nutella Bella: Nutella crème-filled, Chocolate Iced Donut and crushed Hazelnuts.
We’re huge suckers for Nutella, and think the flavor of this is generally delicious.
The bigger issue we had is the opposite of most gimmicky doughnuts–there wasn’t enough filling here.
If we could have this same doughnut with about double the filling, it would be an ideal Nutella doughnut. As it stands, this is a very good chocolate doughnut with hazelnut texture, plus a few bites of the center that were mind-blowing.
Our last doughnut is the Purple Glazed Ube–the lone vegan option on the menu. Ube is ubiquitous in Asia; it’s a yam similar to sweet potatoes. In the last couple of years, it has become trendy in the US thanks to its eye-catching purple color.
Despite the vivid appearance, ube is fairly mild. The flavor of this doughnut is consistent with that, and you get a light earthiness and savory quality that offers a subtle enhancement to the base yeast and cake.
That’s fine with us, as the core doughnuts at Everglazed can speak for themselves. The ones we bought were all airy, fresh, and tasty.
They’re not going to revolutionize the doughnut world, nor will these become anyone’s new favorites, but they’re solid. They’re the best doughnuts at Disney Springs and the tastiest quick service snacks on the West Side, so there’s that.
Double-dipping, we also ordered the Reese’s Nitro Cold Brew: Peanut Butter and Vanilla syrups, Chocolate drizzle, crushed Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups topped with a Peanut Butter Explosion Donut.
This was good but very sweet. We’d only recommend it if you specifically want a cold brew coffee with a doughnut on top. Anyone wanting just a doughnut or just a cold brew, should look elsewhere. On the Disney Springs cold brew front, the options at both Starbucks and Gideon’s Bakehouse are superior.
Moving to the savory snacks, we first opted to order the Loaded Fries topped with Chili, Queso, Bacon, Scallions, Tomato, Cilantro, and Sour Cream.
We were apprehensive that stepping out of the bakeshop’s wheelhouse would yield less favorable results. The exact opposite was true: this was better than the doughnuts! The waffle fries held up well under the weight of the toppings, which were all high-quality, delicious, and came together perfectly. We’re big fans of the loaded fries over at Chicken Guy, and these are on par with those–albeit a larger portion size for $1 more. We’d recommend this.
For our final item, we ordered the B&G Burger featuring two Patties, American Cheese, Ketchup, Mayo, Lettuce, Tomato and B&B Pickles. (We added a griddled glazed donut bun for $1 extra.)
This was fantastic. We feared that this would be an unmitigated disaster of clashing flavors and over-the-top decadence, but it worked. It really worked! Against all odds, the sweetness of the doughnut melded beautifully with the patties and toppings and coalesced in one fantastic burger.
It may not look appealing via photos, but the B&G Burger really was the totally unexpected highlight of what we ordered. I’d liken it to a Culver’s ButterBurger or Shake Shack ShakeBurger on steroids, with the sweetness amplified but not to an overwhelming degree.
The biggest downside here is price: $14. This is more expensive than even D-Luxe Burger and, like that, also does not come with sides. We’re going to side-step the question of which is better, as they’re incredibly different. Even with that hefty price tag, this burger is the most compelling reason for me to return to Everglazed.
As for how Everglazed Donuts compares to Voodoo Doughnuts, it’s pretty much a toss-up on taste alone. We wouldn’t give either an incredibly enthusiastic recommendation. One is the doughnut champion at Universal, the other is the doughnut champion at Walt Disney World. In both cases, that’s partly a result of meager competition.
If forced to choose at this point, I’d pick Voodoo Doughnuts on taste alone, and that’s primarily because of their seasonal options; we’ve enjoyed several of these and they’re usually delicious, inventive, and fun. We haven’t had that same opportunity yet with Everglazed.
Most of the effusive praise in our Voodoo Doughnuts Review revolved around the value for money. With Everglazed Donuts, the price is noteworthy for the exact opposite reason. This is something we seldom fixate on in reviews of new restaurants at Walt Disney World since prices normally increase and there’s insulation for many guests in normal times via the Disney Dining Plan. However, we’d be remiss not to address it here.
Doughnut prices at Everglazed start at $4.50. The more inventive options on the “Funky Bunch” menu are $5.50. The discounted price for a dozen doughnuts is $60. We’ve become fairly numb to the Walt Disney World pricing surcharge over the years, but this is absurd.
Try to explain it away or rationalize it however you want, but Everglazed Donuts is overpriced even by Disney standards. It’s understandably more expensive than real world locales like Dunkin’ or Krispy Kreme (by a lot!), but it’s even significantly worse than its closest theme park competitor.
We praised Voodoo Doughnuts for its options starting at $1.50, which offer tremendous bang for buck. In fairness, the equivalent options there are in the $2.50 to $3.75 range, or $29 for the premium Fryer Flyer dozen. That’s less than half the price of Everglazed Donuts. And that’s the most expensive dozen at Voodoo–there are also options under $20.
Much has been made of Everglazed’s font feeling very Dunkin-inspired (to put it charitably). To me, the oddest part of that typography emulation is that it invites comparisons that are ultimately unfavorable. Dunkin’ is beloved by Americans as a cheap place to grab coffee and doughnuts.
Everglazed evokes the familiar chain…but then hits consumers with preposterous pricing. The attempt at leeching off the goodwill of Dunkin’ is destined to backfire. If anything, Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew should’ve forged its own image as an upmarket and chic boutique bakery (or whatever) to justify its price points.
Ultimately, we really wanted to love Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew. We hoped it would be Walt Disney World’s answer to Voodoo Doughnuts at Universal’s CityWalk; a snack spot we could hit up regularly before doing a movie at the Disney Springs AMC Theater. To be sure, some of its menu did impress us; the doughnuts are decent or better and the B&G Burger is downright delicious.
Unfortunately, there’s no getting past that pricing for us. Literally nothing we ordered, even the items that we praised, offered commensurate value for money. Nothing is that good, unique, or high-quality. It’s actually a sharp contrast to Gideon’s Bakehouse, another recent addition to the dining lineup at Disney Springs. Whereas Gideon’s is also undeniably expensive, they make unforgettable cookies that are worth every penny–something we’ll revisit with regularity. On the other hand, the only memorable thing about Everglazed is the $45 we dropped there. The doughnuts are totally forgettable, and something we’re fine never doing again. So to answer the titular question, no victory over Voodoo Doughnuts for Everglazed.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you eaten at Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew? Which doughnuts did you order? Try any other menu items? Thoughts on the good and bad? Excited to try this bakeshop at Disney Springs, or will you save your stomach space for Gideon’s Bakehouse or doughnut budget for Voodoo? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Just a note regarding Dunkin. You keep using the word “cheap”, but Dunkin’s prices started increasing several years ago (maybe they are owned by Disney, lol). I live in upstate NY and Dunkin’s are everywhere, so I stop in to grab coffee if I didn’t have time to make it at home. A large black coffee at Dunkin is now $3.70!!! That is on par with Starbucks. Actually, I think that is MORE than Starbucks. Dunkin is in no way “cheap” anymore. I think they love that people still consider them “cheap” because then people will stop in and pay crazy prices out of habit, not even realizing that those prices are not cheap. I now get my coffee from a local chain of convenience stores…the coffee is better and easily half the price.
All that said, I can’t wait to try Everglazed. Even though your review wasn’t an endorsement, I always try someplace once to formulate my own opinion. We tried VooDoo several years ago during a trip to Universal and, IMO, it was “meh”. We were in Universal for several days and tried to get Voodoo the first two days but the lines were insane. We got up early the third day to beat the long lines. I was really hoping the taste would live up to the hype, but it didn’t. We purchased several “plain” donuts and several “specialty” donuts and most were ok with only one being really good. I’m glad we tried it, but I won’t be getting up early for VooDoo again.
PS – the donuts at Dunkin also aren’t cheap anymore. There is a local bakery by my house that makes incredible donuts and charges less than what you would pay for a donut at Dunkin.
I live in Massachusetts, the home of Dunkin, and a large black hot coffee is about $2.50. I’m not sure what your local franchises are doing, but Dunkin is “cheap” coffee compared to Starbucks unless you are comparing speciality drinks like lattes.
As far as Everglazed, a box of donuts for $60 is beyond mind-numbing…
Tom, I’m looking for some clarification. In your Voodoo Donuts review you described yourself as a bit of a donut snob. But in this review you seem to speak positively of Dunkin’ Donuts. Do you think Dunkin’ makes good donuts? Because if you do I will have to question your “donut snob” credentials; when in comes to major US chains Krispy Kreme is by FAR the superior option 😛
Much like McDonald’s, I think Dunkin serves a role: an efficient and inexpensive place for breakfast. The extent of my praise here is that Dunkin’ is beloved by Americans because it’s cheap. I wouldn’t consider their doughnuts to be great, but certainly good for what they are.
‘Doughnut snob’ was poor wording. As with burgers, I have high standards for the expensive “gourmet” options, but don’t think I’m above the cheap comfort and fast food varieties, either. (To the contrary, I actively dislike when people are snobby or dismissive of certain styles of food, so I’m really not sure why I didn’t pick a more apt term.) Does that make more sense?
Totally makes sense! Just as long as we agree that the only thing Dunkin has going for it is it’s cheap and everywhere lol
dang tom you werent kiddin about knocking out all the donut shop reviews in rapid succession LOL!!
Ha, the only reason the Voodoo Doughnuts review hadn’t been published because I was literally using it as an excuse to keep buying doughnuts there. It had been 90% written since last June!
Blue. Star. Donuts.
Here in Orange County, California we have immigrant-owned and operated family donut shops ubiquitously. Within 2 miles of my house are 3 that have awesome donuts with the most expensive less than $2.00. On our last trip to Universal in Florida, we wanted to understand the Vodoo donut obsession and stopped by. Not a single person in my family thought the donuts held a candle to our local shops.
The lower crowds this year allowed me to do something I hadn’t done before–actually acquire Voodoo Donuts, which usually has a line comparable to a popular theme park ride. I wanted to like them more than I did, but both times I was disappointed as the donuts seemed a little stale. I tried Everglazed this week. They tasted great like donuts at Dunkin’ Donuts used to decades ago, before they went healthy or something and lost their appeal. Krispy Kreme is still good and cheaper, but their donuts not as large or decked out in toppings as Everglazed. I’d rather get donuts at Everglazed than Voodoo or Dunkin’s, but if I was close to a Krispy Kreme and budget minded, I’d go for those.
I had the B&G Burger and it was good, but extremely messy and their napkins are inconsequential and inefficient. They really need thicker napkins at that place. I was on staycation, so I took the donuts back to my room and put them in the fridge. That was on Monday night, and what was leftover still seemed fresh on Wednesday morning, when I checked out. Any of their deluxe donuts should last for at least a couple of snacks, rather than trying to eat it all at one sitting.
Thank you for this review. When we first looked at the menu on the Disney site, I told my granddaughter that there’s no way I’d pay that much for a donut. After reading your review & looking at the photos, I now know there’s REALLY no way I’d ever go there! The donuts looked like a heart attack waiting to happen & the hamburger (even though you said it was great) turned my stomach when I saw it. There’s just something so wrong about a hamburger on a donut! And all of that was before I got to the $60 for a dozen part! I don’t care how good they taste, they aren’t worth $60. I’ll save my money for where I usually get sweets from – Amorette’s over near the World of Disney. Their pastries really are worth the money! (Better than the pastries in France at Epcot)
Have you ever tried off-property options, DG donuts or Donut King? How does the taste compare?
Holy cow. I just checked out the FB page for DG donuts. They look incredible! Definitely adding them as a stop for our summer trip.
We have not, but holy cow DG Donuts looks fantastic! My only regret in seeing those doughnuts now is that we’ll have to wait ~11 months until the Christmas options are back!
The price is ridiculous, and the cold brews look sickeningly sweet. We might try the loaded fries, or spicy fries (I think I read that on their menu), and maybe a donut just because we are in the area, but Voodoo has a way better value. We would rather get cookies and cold brew at Gideon’s. We are on the West Coast, so going to VooDoo donuts in Portland has been a staple for many years and is very well known, but it seems like now you can get maple bars with bacon pretty much anywhere.
I can get a lobster dinner at the Boathouse at DS for less than a dozen doughnuts at Everglazed.
That REALLY does put the price at Everglazed in perspective! (And made me LOL, so +1, friend!)
You could literally take a luxury Uber from/to the Everglazed Donuts place to the nearest Dunkin Donuts (2.1 mi, 8 min, $9 each way), buy a dozen donuts and 6 medium coffees ($35) and still be cheaper than a dozen donuts from this place. And the taste / quality difference is not going to be that much different. Sorry, this place is a HARD pass from me.
Just put a Tim Horton’s in the Canada pavilion. Boom. Problem solved.
Wolverine: Oooooh, TimBits.
That is a great way to put it in perspective! I think that alone will keep me from ever going to Everglazed.
Wolverine.. they would also have to import the cream as the dairy in the USA does have a slightly different taste, but could you imagine the line at RUTR time?
Yeah, hard pass. A dozen donuts at Sweetwater’s in Kalamazoo is still only $10.99 by the way.
So now I need an answer to the all-important question you raised when this place was announced: DOES the outdoor doughnut garden actually look like an archery range?
$60 for a dozen donuts!? There’s a lot of things that I’d prefer doing with $60 at Disney than eating a dozen donuts.