So, I find it fascinating that of the four new restaurants that recently opened in Walt Disney World (Sanaa, Kouzzina, T-Rex, and Paradiso 37), three of them have donuts on their dessert menus!

Donuts! With dipping sauces and everything! Interactive desserts are my favorite, and I have been called the “condiment queen.” So you can imagine how excited I am to have dip-able desserts, and the fact that they’re donuts makes them that much better. Let’s take a look at the three up-and-comers now:

Kouzzina's Loukoumades

Kouzzina’s Loukoumades
Kouzzina is Iron Chef Cat Cora’s signature restaurant in Walt Disney World, and the menu consists of many of her favorite traditional Greek recipes. One of these recipes is for her outstanding Loukoumades.

These “Freshly Made Greek Doughnuts drizzled with Warm Honey” come to the table with two delicious dipping sauces, including one that’s tart, tangy, and berry-like. Dipping the loukoumades in that sauce and taking a bite was like indulging in the best jelly donut you’ve ever tasted.

The super sweet, slightly crunchy exterior of the donut gives way to the warm, airy center (think “hot-from-the-oil” Krispy Kreme…but gourmet…and you’ll understand the texture). And that tangy berry taste from the cool dipping sauce cuts and complements the sweetness perfectly. I can almost taste them now!

(In case you want to check it out, here’s my full Kouzzina review.)

Paradiso 37 Chilean Sopapillas

Paradiso 37’s Chilean Sopapillas
Paradiso 37 is a new Pleasure Island restaurant doing its all to spice up the defunct storefronts of the space. The “tower of tequila” and fresh look to the restaurant are very appealing — I was really pleased with our first trip there last Fall — and the Latin menu is a great addition to Downtown Disney.

On the menu, the dipping donuts were titled “Chilean Sopapillas: Crispy Fritters Dusted in Sugar and Served with Chocolate Sauce.” They’re listed right next to the churros served with caramel sauce, so we just had to get them both (see my full Paradiso 37 review for the churros pic!). Interestingly, they’ve since combined the two desserts into a combo!

The Sopapillas were a nice, light topping for a delicious and relatively heavy meal. The texture and taste are more along the lines of a doughy, spongy, homemade “cake” donut hole, versus the more waxy store-bought ones. The sauces were nothing to sing about, but I could see how they’d help out if your sopapillas were dry (which ours weren’t); personally, I used the sauces more for the churros.

These are definitely worth the cost: they’re “not-too-much and not-too-little” in both price and delivery.

T-Rex Meteor Bites

T-Rex’s Meteor Bites
To get a feel for the atmosphere of T-Rex, just think “Rainforest Cafe with Dinosaurs” and you’ve got it! With so much going on around you, of course you need to indulge in a dessert that’s just as fun as the surroundings.

T-Rex’s Meteor Bites are “warm chocolate and vanilla donut holes with powdered sugar, served with caramel and chocolate sauces.” Do your teeth hurt, yet? Mine do! 🙂

These reminded me of the Dunkin’ Donuts donut holes I used to get on Sunday mornings — the powdered sugar gives them an almost waxy feel in your mouth. We agreed that we enjoyed the vanilla versions the most, and getting two dipping sauces with the order was great.

These are definitely my third favorite of the donuts highlighted on the blog today, but they’re fun to order for the table to share!

If you’re interested in even more donuts, we’ve written about a couple of other donut-ish options in Disney World: check out our posts about the beignets at Port Orleans Resort, French Quarter, and our post about everyone’s favorite theme park snack, funnel cakes! Coming soon: a look at the mini-donuts in Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon!

Thanks to Erin Foster for inspiring this post by sending along her answer to this WDW Moms Panel question!