Timbits, obviously.

Deez Nuts

@44 in a Row: Wasn't Tim killed in a horrible car wreck? Not sure I'd want Timbits :-P

Coffee, and a Boston cream would be a good start. And they have excellent breakfast sandwiches.

And Tim's isn't just for breakfast. Great soups and sandwiches other times of the day, too.

2nd'd on the Timbits. They're like a little bit of heaven.

Those doughnut bites, and the chocolate chip cookies. last time I was in Canada every time we saw a Tim Hortons we stopped sand loaded up on cookies.

They have them all through Michigan, and they are not that impressive. Their cappucino/expresso etc. is all the instant variety. Their donuts are on the level of a mass produced Dunkin Donuts style, and their shops are meh.

Large double double and cruller

A large regular (that's one cream and one sugar), a sour cream glazed donut, and a turkey bacon club on whole wheat toasted with no tomato. At least, those are my favorites. Being Canadian I pretty much have a Tim Hortons IV hooked up beside my bed (ok not really, but that would be awesome)

We heard the same sort of thing when Krispy Kreme first showed up here in the Northeast. Four years later it's all but disappeared (yeah I know where the remaining ones are!). Good luck to Tim Horton's, hope you last longer than KK. Dunkin' Donuts is tough competition 'round these parts.

meh - it's not Krispy Kreme.

@Δεν βρέθηκαν λέξεις: Agreed, on my "list of things I miss about Canada", Timmy's is right near the top.

BTW, congrats to NYC for finally seeing the light and not paying $6 for overpriced, oversweetened and overhyped coffee.

I'll be back in 10 minutes...

Pretty soon they'll be everywhere, and then the cult will be over and everyone will hate them (or at least pretend to hate them to be cool), just like Starbucks.

Honey cruller. Whenever I'm in Canada, I have to get a few throughout my trip.

I'm a fan of the French vanilla Capp. It's ridiculously cheap and though the quality may not be that great, it's addictive.

Tried their Boston Creme and coffee at Pearson International. B. F. D.

The Timbits, they are delicious. Maple dip doughnuts are good. Also, get a "double double"--it's what everyone in Canada drinks; a coffee with two sugars and two creams. The term is in Canadian dictionaries, believe it or not.

We had Tim Horton's here and there in Maine when I lived there. Never actually got around to eating there, but my GF's mother, whose Canadian, swears by them up and down.

if available, chicken stew in a bread bowl. Also, if it is cold out, their chili is awesome.

@balthisar: Coffee and a Boston cream? So basically, what you'd get at the Dunkin' Donuts locations most of these Tim Horton's are taking over?

Good for you NYCers. :) They closed the only Ann Arbor location at the end of last month :( I'm not sure why either, they always had plenty of customers

We here in Buffalo have had Tim Horton's for years. Or Timmy Ho's as we call them here in Buffalo.

YES!!!!!!

It doesn't matter what you order. Dunken Donuts and Krispy Kream (HURL) got nothin on anything Timmy's sells. All the starbucks here are envious of the lines that Timmy's forms. We canadians stand proud as a nation, that we have the best coffee around, from all the lands! And, in Calgary at least, you can make almost $20 an hour selling the coffee that is so tasty and good. It's rediculous!!! The chicken stew, oh that tasty tast chicken stew. I wish I could still eat it, damn allergies! And it used to come in a bread bowl. Oh those were the days...

Oh, i seem to have drooled on my keyboard.

Good luck against Dunks - 'round these parts (Boston suburbs), it's Dunks or death.

@josephbloseph: They have lots of other donuts. They also do regional sandwiches and donuts. Way better than Dunkin and cheaper.

Don't forget to ask for a Gretzky (9 sugar 9 cream)

@scoosdad: They will last plenty long, they have been in Western NY for many years and have run Dunkin darn near out of business. NYC watch out.

I used to go there a lot, even though I'm not a coffee drinker. I haven't been there (except upon request by someone else in the car with me) for a couple of years. They pushed me away when they gave up on fountain drinks and changed their hot chocolate machines for whatever putrid fake-chocolate machines they have now. They also shrank the donuts significantly and no longer make them fresh (they are trucked in)--LOL that their catch-phrase "Always Fresh" applies ONLY to coffee, nothing else at all. Gross. They also charge way too much.

For my donuts and soda, I go to Coffee Time or another local shop. That way I get stuff baked fresh there and tasty fountain drinks (or at least hot chocolate that doesn't taste like ass).

This in a city with over 1 Tim Horton's per 10,000 population.

Notice how they skipped the New England market, except where they're already entrenched? They've been in Maine for awhile, but they totally skipped Dunkin' land.

@Gene Gemperline: That would be a good thing, although I am not impressed with either company's donuts.

DD FTW!

The owner of those dunken franchises in NYC has been arguing with dunken corporate for years now, ever since the news showed a clip of a rat in one of his restaurants. The relationship was tense, so he dropped the franchise and moved to tim horton's.

Tim's donuts are nothing special, cake-based like dunken donuts, and decent. They do have very good coffee. TH is a _big_ deal in canada.

@gqcarrick: I've never eaten at one, but as I remember, the exterior leaves one to believe that they are pretty run down. Or maybe I am thinking of the Arby's with the big sign. (It's been a while since I have been back home).

Alternate Headline: "Donut Chain Expands (NYC Waistlines)"

I thought the hole doughnut fad died when Krispy Kreme tanked back in '04?

In a world of obese people, the guy selling the deep-fried cake covered in sugar glaze will always be popular...

@ThinkerTDM: Must be Arby's because all the Tim Horton's lcations are all brick buildings and very nice inside.

There is a distinct difference in Tim's here in the US and Tim's in Canada. If you ever have the chance, eat at a Tim's in Canada. MY GOD IS IT GOOD.

@gqcarrick: Dunkin has had the same issues with trying to beat KK down here in the South. We love our glazed sugar intake too much.

Best of luck to TH though, I wouldn't mind trying it next time I'm up in Manhattan.

@scoosdad: Krispy Kreme had the misfortune of showing up in New York at the height of the Atkins craze while continue to push their donuts, all while being dreadfully mismanaged. Dunkin has taken the focus off the donuts and put it on their coffee drinks.

Great...now NYC will be littered with Tim Horton cups, just like Canada is.

A double Double coffee and a Honey Cruller or Blueberry fritter will get you hooked for sure.

I welcome our new Canadian overlords and hope they will take over the rest of the country soon.

@DWalk: Have you ever been in a Starbucks? Very few people order Frappuccinos, which is the only Starbucks item that matches your description. Most other SBUX items are unsweetened and cost $2-$3.

@shepd: Most Tim Hortons' make their doughnuts on site, there are obviously some in gas stations and the like which don't, but most of the normal stores have a full kitchen. I also don't see how you're saying they charge too much, I can't think of another place that would be significantly (ie., more than ~10 cents) cheaper. Go get a coffee and a snack at a starbucks or second cup and then try to tell me that Tim Hortons is over priced.

That being said, I don't really understand why people love Tim Hortons so much. Yeah it's alright, but it's not really anything special, Dunkin Donuts and Coffee Time are basically the same thing. It's just been ingrained in our culture that there's nothing more quintesentially Canadian than stopping at Tim Hortons.

I hate to be a naysayer but I live in Canada and although I am not a coffee drinker their donuts leave a lot to be desired. I am pretty sure a couple of years ago, In order to cut costs, they stopped making their donuts fresh in each location. They are now shipped frozen (pre-baked perhaps) and are finished baking in the restaurant. The office where I work has donuts every Friday. We purchased our donuts every Friday for years from Tim Hortons. When they switched, we noticed a difference in their freshness. They taste like day old even though they are baked "fresh throughout the day". We have since started buying our donuts at a local bakery and they are by far a much superior product.

Tim Horton's is not anything special. The only people who think it is somehow better than the typical chain donut place in the states probably gets all excited about drinking Molson Canadian or Labatt Blue.

@kylere:
Agreed. Tim Horton's Doughnuts are pretty run of the mill. I think its one of those "absense makes the heart grow fonder" things, which Canadians miss when they can't get it. I myself miss Ponderosa, which is actually a pretty horrible steakhouse.

Just order coffee -- double double if you want to sound nicely Canadian.

The doughnuts at Tim Hortons have become crappier and crappier over the last few years and are no longer even vaguely good.

@mizike:

Apart from the coffee, Tim Horton's menu is grossly overpriced. Their other beverages, when in a gas bar, are actually cheaper to buy from the gas bar's cooler. And their donuts are creeping ever closer to $1 each with tax. Last time I was there, subway was cheaper for sandwiches, as well.

As far as the dounuts no longer being fresh:

[en.wikipedia.org]

David Swick reported in the Halifax Daily News on September 19, 2003, that Tim Hortons donuts were to be remotely factory-fried and shipped, frozen, to Tim Hortons outlets in Atlantic Canada, where they would then be reheated at the push of a button.

Further investigation into this shows that this is why the donuts have "shrunk". The thing is that the places that were making their own were making them bigger than the corporate standard. Once they had to switch to this method, they had pre-sized donuts that were smaller. If your TH donuts shrank in 2003/2004 it was because that TH no longer makes them there, but instead trucks them in and reheats them.

Here's a blog post from the time. They were also sued by franchisees who were pissed off, I don't know what the outcome was.

TH donuts suck horridly now. I've never had a decent one since the change. Gross.

I know, it's a Canadian institution, it can do no wrong and I'm a horrible Canadian for complaining about it. It's like saying Canadian Tire "money" is a scam because if you lose it and return an item, they deduct it from what they give you back, despite it officially being just a coupon program.

As far as comparing them to Starbucks or Second Cup, I can't. I've never been to either because I don't drink coffee and neither serves anything I would drink (except a glass of tap water). But I like donuts and soft drinks. And neither of them should be priced like TH prices them.

Cheese. Croissant.