I had high expectations for the Big N’ Toasty. For one thing, the sandwich looks incredibly appetizing in all of its many, many commercials. For another, I like the usage of the “N” – it’s less formal than an ampersand, more fun than an “and,” and less algebraic than a plus sign. In-N-Out, Rock ‘n’ Roll, Salt-N-Pepa: I love them all and they all use an “N.”
And yet, the best-laid plans of mice and men (mice n’ men?) often go awry. The Big N’ Toasty was a definite disappointment. Let’s break this down piece by piece.
The Toast: The Texas toast is really supposed to be the major draw here, and while it was thick, fresh, and flaky, the toast’s defining quality was unfortunately its incredible greasiness. You’ll need as many napkins to eat the Big N’ Toasty as you would to get through a bucket of fried chicken. I actually skipped eating the very center of the sandwich because it was simply soaked through with butter, and my hands were so greased up that I wasn’t sure I could even hold the sandwich in place anymore.
The Eggs: The Big N’ Toasty features two peppered fried eggs. While I could see that the eggs had speckles of pepper and were otherwise a visual departure from the eggs found in every other DD breakfast sandwiches, I couldn’t actually taste any difference. If anything, I would say the eggs in the BN’T were more rubbery and artificial-tasting than the regular eggs.
The Bacon: Before I offer any criticism of the bacon in the BN’T, let me just say that, in my mind, bacon is the undisputed king of breakfast meats, and even a subpar serving of bacon beats the hell out of ham, sausage, or, god forbid, Canadian bacon. Some people might describe bacon as the Michael Jordan of breakfast meats; I prefer to think of Michael Jordan as the bacon of NBA players.
So while I imagine ham and sausage still would’ve been worse choices, I felt mightily letdown by the bacon in the Big N’ Toasty. There are supposed to be “four slices of Cherrywood smoked bacon,” but the four slices were more like two normal-sized strips cut in half. Given the bulk of the sandwich, there were more than a few bites where I tasted little-to-no bacon. Furthermore, I found the bacon to be too soggy, which was perhaps amplified by the excessive grease of the toast. I’ve had much better bacon experiences with Dunkin’ Donuts’ regular sandwiches in terms of bacon taste, bacon texture, and bacon-to-rest-of-sandwich ratio. Granted, the crew at my local DD may have been having an off-day with their bacon cooking, but that would only explain away the taste/texture and not the overall amount of bacon.
(By the way, I just set a new The Impulsive Buy record by using the word “bacon” in a single paragraph ten times. TIB: Where Amazing Happens!)
The Cheese: Just standard fast-food American cheese. Nice and melted but nothing special.
I feel like I’ve been a touch too harsh on the Big N’ Toasty up until this point. If its appearance in commercials weren’t so food porn-y, or if it were just named the Big AND Toasty, I probably wouldn’t have been so disappointed. On the whole, the BN’T makes for a sizable breakfast at a reasonable price, and since Dunkin’ Donuts previously hadn’t served anything on toast – Texas or otherwise – I appreciate the additional variety. If you feel compelled to give it a try, just make sure to temper your expectations and grab some extra napkins.
(Nutrition Facts – 1 sandwich – 580 calories, 320 calories from fat 35 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 125 milligrams of cholesterol, 1370 milligrams of sodium, 41 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 4 grams of sugar, and 26 grams of protein.)
Item: Dunkin’ Donuts Big N’ Toasty
Price: $3.29 for the sandwich, 4.99 with medium coffee
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Dunkin’ Donuts
Rating: 4 out of 10
Pros: Thick, fresh, and flaky toast. Sandwich is big and reasonably priced. Using an “N” instead of “and.” Bacon, always. Entering the TIB record book.
Cons: Incredibly greasy toast. Eggs were rubbery, not peppery. Skimpy and soggy bacon. Food porn-y ads that inflate expectations.
They have been gradually closing all the DD’s in my town, to the point now that I think I have to drive 20 miles if I want to go to one. I like their donuts but not enough to burn over a gallon of gas to get them, so I likely will not ever be trying this. Sorry it was disappointing though, the picture looks pretty tasty.
Blech, looks nasty. For my 580 calories, I’ll take an egg mcmuffin and two hash browns.
Wow, that is huge!! They dont have dunkin donuts near me in the UK…if at all i dont think.
Dunkin’ needs to do what everyone (okay, only me) wants them to do. A breakfast sandwich that’s uses two of their donuts as buns.
Well that’s just disappointing.
You’re not being too harsh on the Big N’ Toasty. I, too, was lured in by ads and coupons and I was similarly disappointed. I’m not sure how they managed to screw up toast. Maybe the bread was deep fried? I was satisfied with the amount of bacon on my sandwich (could have been more, but what can ya do?), but the real problem was that the bread threw off the whole balance of the sandwhich.
I like how you started this off…I just read about “ampersands” for a few. I <3 learning something new each day!
I had this at my local DD and it was a touch too greasy, but mine wasn’t soaked in butter. I found it quite tasty. Whatcha gonna do?
Hello everyone, I have had the sandwich on 3 seperate occasions and everytime i was impressed. The critic who had this sandwich must have been one of the very few who have had it made incorrectly for them. This sandwich is pure love between to pieces of delicous tasty tost. Please for thoes of you who have not experienced true happiness, please go out and do it today. It will change your life, one bite at a time lol
lol
but seriously, its amazing.
Purely out of curiosity, how much does DD pay for blog comment shills, anyway?
I just had a big and toasty from the Trenton train station and
It was SOAKED in butter. That’s why it’s toasty. I was very disappointed. The reason I finished it even though I hated it was bc I’m pregnant and I eat everything 😉
i just gotta point out: what americans call “canadian bacon” doesn’t actually exist in canada. (okay, actually it does. we call it “ham”.) real canadian bacon (which we call “peameal bacon”, despite the fact that it involves no peas) is stupidly delicious. like, meaty bacon. win.
I suspect LY is a plant for DUNKIN’ DONUTS. Either that, or I wish I knew which Dunkin’ actually knows how to make this breakfast sandwich right. Clearly, there is only one. I could not agree more with the article. Nice work Jasper!
The toast is the killer. It’s very salty.. too salty. It’s a messy sandwich but worth a try. Saying that, I’ll most likely never eat one again. Or will I?
One more thing. I you eat in your car.. in the dark, you’re gonna make a mess.
I agree that this sandwich was a bit too greasy and too salty.. but pretty good- for the price. What on earth do you people expect for only about $3.00/ea?!?!
The sandwich for $3.29 was only fair. Toooo greasey as indicated above. At one location they only put in one (1) egg. That was the only reason I pulled up this web site. I wanted to know how many eggs are supposed to be in the Big N Toasty.
I somewhat strongly disagree with your rating, first off you should try the sandwich at more than just one franchise, the bacon is not the best but depending on time of day and franchise maybe they could have make it crispier and hotter, second the eggs may vary but it should me made hot.
Lastly, since the texas toast comes with american and cheddar, you can try the big n toasted with cheddar instead of american.
Give it another shot, and for under $4, I think its a steal.
I just came back from a DD close to where I work and this sandwich is very tasty. Variance is great from store to store. My bread is actually not buttered and hardly toasted, but I like the sandwich and the eggs definitely have a peppery taste.
Wonderful sandwich.
Not greasy.
Delicious.