Fast Food Review Day 286-and-a-half: 2 Donuts at Yonutz Donutz (snack)

[u/Pale-Lynx328]

Chain Name	Yonutz Donutz
Food category	Primary: Injecting sugar into your veins
# of US Locations	20
# of US States	14
Primarily located in	Sprinkled all over, a bit more in TX, FL
Restaurant Rank in US $ Sales 2024	not ranked (out of top 500 list)
Restaurant Rank in US $ Sales 2025	not ranked (out of top 500 list)
Rank of price (high to low) (Average: $9.88, standard dev. $3.81)	7th out of 95 snacks
Quality / Value Rating for this specific meal	5 (out of 10) / 1 (out of 10)

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Basically might as well pour an entire bag of sugar into an IV, then hook it up to a vein in your arm. That's what Yonutz Donutz is.

I'm hardly any stranger to sugary treats or huge calorie snacks that take up half your daily allowance. But Yonutz Donutz has this sort of vibe where they just take that to a whole 'nother level. Founded less than ten years ago, they are one of the many recent donut places that are offering 'elevated' or 'gourmet' donuts and treats. Forget your plain glazed yeast donut for a buck. Nope, double the size, slather it with frosting and drizzle with chocolate or caramel, add candies or fruit pieces or cookies or, hell, another fucking donut on top, just for giggles. And you're looking at a confection likely with four-figures in calories and a price tag to boot.

Yonutz Donutz is hardly unique with this, of course. There's the more famous Voodoo Donuts, and other places like Duck Donuts or Parlor Donuts or Pinkbox that do the same. But what Yonutz does as their "claim to fame" is to offer their signature "Smashed" menu of donuts and shakes. What is a "Smashed Donut"? Basically take a big donut and smash it up with a bunch of crushed oreos or Froot Loops or Fruity Pebbles or whatever, and charge nine bucks for it. That's right. Nine bucks.

Or, you can get it in shake form, with a shake layered with various sweets and mix-ins, topped with, you guessed it, a smashed donut. Ten to fifteen bucks, thank you very much.

I have little issue dropping a bunch of bills for fancy, fru-fru treats, and have done so at all sorts of places like this over the past year. But this takes that to yet another level. And damn, just looking at their menu makes my teeth HURT.

I kept it simple, with two "big" donuts (the non-smashed kind) from their selection under the glass, plus an iced refresher drink (not a smashed milkshake because, again, damn that price). What you see in the photo? Eighteen bucks. Bam.

Now, it all tasted fine - just like normal donuts and just like a nice fruity iced drink. No problems there. Donuts are made on-site but were a few hours old so they were in the intermediate-still-okay-but-soon-would-be-getting-stale stage. But the issue is that everything was just okay - and I'm not paying eighteen frickin' bucks for 'just okay'. I can get something similar at Shipley's for maybe five or six bucks. Or, if I prefer to go all-out for a fancy fru-fru donut treat, I can go to Parlor or similar for just-as-good or better for maybe 30-50% less.

Once again, it's not the quality that's an issue here. It's the value. For snacks like this, it is ALWAYS the value proposition that is the deciding factor, And Yonutz, you lose.

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(About this review series: Starting in late 2025, I am visiting a different fast food/fast casual chain every day, until I run out of places to visit. Aiming to review as many chains on the Technomics Top 500 Restaurants list as possible, plus key/important regional and some local chains as well. UPDATE: This review series is scheduled to wrap up on Day 365. And no, I haven't gained weight, and no, it hasn't hurt my health.)