Dunkin Donuts is a brand which for some needs no introduction, being huge in the US and even large…read morein some countries around Europe and the rest of the world, including The Netherlands but in the UK, it doesn't seem to have taken off with only a few branches in locations including Leeds, Liverpool, Barnsley and London. This branch of Dunkin Donuts is located inside St John's Shopping Centre in Liverpool.
People visiting this place hoping for a slightly quiet coffee will be happy to know, this is a store in the mall rather than a mall kiosk, despite it being located right next to, and perhaps even being classed as the Food Court of St John's, it does has its own store and small amount of seating with plug sockets.
The store doesn't have free wi-fi, but it's pretty much easy to connect to St John's wifi with your name and email, it worked pretty well in the store and the shopping centre wifi was actually decent, unlike some which are just terrible.
The store was quite quiet on my visit, and they only seemed to have one member of staff working - there was only a small queue but this could have been handled better as my server seemed to take the order, and then prepare it, for example getting out the doughnuts chosen from the stand, where they had a decent selection (nothing gluten-free though!) or making the drink.
Having previously visited Dunkin Donuts once before, while in the Netherlands I had good impressions for this store, and I ordered the same drink as I did while in Amsterdam
- A Large Cold Brew with Vanilla Syrup and Milk.
This also tends to pretty much be my regular go to order when drinking coffee including at Starbucks. My drink cost £3.25, which included no extra charge for milk and a £0.50 charge for vanilla syrup, which was worth it as it added sweetness and flavour to my beverage.
My overall drink quality was satisfactory, I would still rate it below Starbucks in the pecking order though but it was a good alternative, at an average price, my drink did cost 5p more than Starbucks but the standard Cold Brew was cheaper, as I did have to pay for flavouring syrup which is free as I'm a Gold Member of Starbucks Rewards. The drink was also slightly cheaper than the price I paid when I visited Dunkin Donuts at Amsterdam Centraal Station, the only other time I've visited the chain.
The staff member working didn't seem friendly enough, although he was the only person behind the counter at a time so did have quite a large and busy role to do, meaning there was less focus on friendliness and customer interaction.
They seemed to stock most items in store, although they did run out of caramel flavouring syrup and I didn't see anywhere around the store a list of flavourings offered which would have been a bonus, as I was basically going into the store adding vanilla syrup, not knowing if they offered it (although any coffee shop worth its salt would have vanilla syrup) or how much the syrup would be.
Overall, this is a decent place to grab a coffee or a donut in St John's Shopping Centre, although I feel it would be better located closer to the One complex, the location is still decent and it's fairly close to Liverpool Lime Street Station too, which is Liverpool's main train station for journeys to other major cities, with Liverpool Central being the main station for Merseyside journeys, but Dunkin Donuts at St John's is decent and warrants a three-star rating!
