Taco Bell – Mike Eats T.O.

Taco Bell Steak Doubledilla

I was at Taco Bell on Tuesday and saw a sign for the new Steak Doubledilla. Two times the steak, it said. So I went ahead and…ordered the cheap Tuesday special that I was planning to order. I didn’t want to spend the extra money when the Tuesday deal was still on. But I made a note to come back later in the week and give it a shot.

I stopped in a couple days later to give one a go. I’ve never had steak at Taco Bell before. I just assumed it wouldn’t be very good. But even though I never had the steak quesadilla, I’ve have the chicken variant before, so I’ll compare it to how stuffed that one is.

I got the combo, complete with nachos and Taco Bell’s “Fiesta Salsa”. I noticed something right away with the Doubledilla.

It didn’t look double stuffed, just double in size. Not what I was expecting, but I’m okay with that.

I started with the nachos. I’ve never had Taco Bell nachos before because up here in Canada, they have fries. Honestly, I’m glad we have fries because these nachos are bland as hell. I looked over at the salsa. My tomato experiment hasn’t gone well so far, but I have it so I may as well try it.

Nope. Not a fan either. It was very cold and the nachos were still warm and it felt odd. And I didn’t care much for the flavour. I wonder if I could substitute fries for nachos next time Taco Bell has a combo promotion with nachos. Seriously, I can’t get over how terribly flavourless these are.

Now for the main event. I took a piece and peeked inside.

Looked like the standard amount of filling. Well, it was time to eat it.

I mean, it’s the same as a usual quesadilla. Taco Bell’s steak is a lot better than I thought it would be. My previous experiences with fast food steak have mostly been bad (McDonald’s Steak McWrap was a huge disappointment…). This steak wasn’t tough and had decent seasoning. However, I think the cheese and jalapeno sauce came out more than the steak. The chicken quesadilla is still better in my opinion because the chicken just has more flavour.

I do have one complaint about the Doubledilla. There’s a lot of “empty space” at the ends. That always happens with a quesadilla anyways, but this was excessive. The two end pieces were maybe 40% filled and the rest just empty tortilla. Very disappointing.

It was good, but a regular quesadilla is usually enough for me. It’s only about a dollar more though, so I can’t say it’s entirely a waste of money, especially if you’re very hungry. Those empty bits though…

7/10 (The nachos get a 2/10)

Taco Bell Doritos Locos Taco Cheesy Gordita Crunch

While I was at Taco Bell for lunch today, I saw a promotion for the new (I presume) Doritos Locos Taco (DLT) Cheesy Gordita Crunch combo. I’ve never had a regular Cheesy Gordita Crunch before, but it looked appetizing enough to give a shot. Plus, the combo comes with a DLT, which I happen to like.

I had the option between ground beef, chicken, or steak. I went with chicken because it had ranch on it, and I felt ranch would taste better with chicken than beef. Normally, I prefer white meat over dark meat, but I like the way taco bell seasons their chicken, so that makes up for it. This looked and smelt great.

After biting into it, the first thing I notice was how soft the inner taco shell had become. The melted cheese from the outer layer softened it up, but it still had a bit of crispness to it. Honestly, I rather liked it. The ranch sauce was barely present. I’m not sure if it was because the chicken and cheese were overpowering it, or if they just didn’t put enough, but I couldn’t taste it at all. I was okay with that since I’m not into ranch that much (outside of cool ranch Doritos), but I can see how someone who likes ranch would be disappointed.

My only gripe would be that the DLT didn’t add to the flavour at all. To get that Dorito flavour, you need to get a good taste of the outer part of the shell, but that’s near impossible with the gordita being stuck to it. I suspect a regular Cheesy Gordita Crunch would have tasted exactly the same.

The Cheesy Gordita Crunch left me very satisfied. The cheese and thick outer shell was very filling, so even on its own, it makes for a decent lunch. I can see myself getting one again in the future. I might try the steak variety next time.

7.5/10

Taco Bell Beefy Nacho Loaded Griller

Guess who had more coupons for Taco Bell? That’s right, this guy. Similar deal to the Quesalupa, except with a free loaded griller this time. It’s not quite as good a value as the Quesalupa deal. In fact, given the cost of a griller, it would’ve been cheaper to get two tacos and a griller without even using the coupon. But I was amped up for a quesadilla, so I went with the coupon anyway. Plus, I wanted a drink.

I had four options: five layer dip, creamy ranch chicken, chili cheese fries, or beefy nacho. If you bothered to look at the title of this post, it’s pretty obvious which one I picked. Honestly, none of them really stuck out, and the only one I knew I wouldn’t like right away was the five layer dip. The beefy nacho seemed like the safest bet though. I was curious how the nacho chips would taste mixed with the beef. There was only one major problem; I don’t really like nacho cheese.

Nacho cheese is just one of those things that never appealed to me. I’m one of those crazy few people who eat nachos plain. No cheese or salsa at all. But hey, it might be better in a griller, especially with that strong taco beef to help tone down the flavour a bit. And I’d rather take my chances with that than the ranch dressing.

Quesadilla and fries down, only the griller left. It was a pretty decent size, all wrapped up tight. It looked more filled than a normal taco. This was already a good sign. With no hesitation, I went in.

…The first bite was all tortilla. Disappointing, but I also should’ve expected that. I like tortilla, but paid for the meat. Quickly, I took another bite, this time reaching down into the filling. I got a bit of everything. The biggest surprise was actually the nachos. The flavour of the nachos managed to stand out against the beef and the cheese (I’m not sure what brand they used, but it tasted like a Doritos nacho). They lost their crunch, but that was to be expected.

This didn’t do much to change my opinion of nacho cheese sauce. I appreciate that they didn’t go crazy with it. It stayed well contained. My preference would have been for shredded cheese, but that’s just me being weird. They gotta use nacho cheese sauce for nachos. Maybe they’d let me customize my order a bit next time.

I recommend this one if you like nachos. I suspect you’d love it, and I got more nacho taste out of this than the Doritos Locos Taco. I might get this one again if I want a bit of a change, especially if they let me sub out to shredded cheese. Still not quite as good as a regular taco though.

7.5/10

Taco Bell Quesalupa

Taco Bell is one of those oddball restaurants for me. As a picky eater, it should be gross. I mean, they don’t score very well on presentation, especially compared to a “normal” taco. And along with the fact that I don’t like cheap cheddar cheese, you’d thing I’d avoid the place like Christmas leftovers in January.

But no, Taco Bell us one of my go-to spots. I can eat a lot of tacos from there without feeling sick at all. I joke with my friends that I could eat an entire party pack if I were so inclined.

Honestly, it makes no damn sense, but I’m glad because one of my favourite perks about Taco Bell is that it’s cheap. I can fill up on a couple tacos for lunch and I’m satiated for the rest of the work day. At under $3, you really can’t beat that.

Given that fact, I rarely order anything other than tacos there. Nothing really there grabs me and makes me feel like spending more. Well, the fact I’m not very adventurous doesn’t help. Either way, the premium items need to really impress if they want to coax me out of a couple extra dollars.

Now that I’m trying to branch out a bit more and writing reviews, I have a reason to give it a chance. I got even more of a push when I happened across a couple for a free Quesalupa with the purchase of a combo. I heard a bit about the Quesalupa, Taco Bell’s recent creation, a combination of a quesadilla and a chalupa. Basically, there’s pepper jack cheese baked into the chalupa shell. It sounded interesting enough to give it a shot.

The combo I ordered had to be at least a certain value, so no cheap two taco combo for this one. I went with the quesadilla combo. Maybe a bit redundant, but out of my options, it was the one I wanted to most.

It’s been years since I last had a quesadilla from Taco Bell. It was good, but still not good enough to be ordering over the regular tacos in my opinion.

Once that was out of the way, it was time for the main attraction. Like usual, I made a slight modification: No sour cream. Maybe one of these days I’ll be okay with it, but not today. BUT I left on the tomatoes. I said in my last review that tomatoes seem like one of those things I can eventually start to like. This was a chance for me to give it a shot.

…Okay, but maybe not that many tomatoes.

Yeah yeah, there’s not much on there now, but I’m taking small, manageable steps. If I left too many on there, it’d distract me from everything else and I’d start getting anxious for no good reason. But I did taste them in the bites where they were present. It wasn’t terrible, but I definitely need more work with them. I’m just glad I didn’t leave all of them all or that would’ve been a disaster.

As for the Quesalupa itself, well…it wasn’t nearly as cheesy I thought it would have been. The cheese was thick, not gooey. In a way, it felt like the shell was a thick dough instead of being stuff with cheese.

You can kinda see it there. I think it needed more.

About three-quarters of the way in, the heaviness started to hit me. Having this and the combo together might not have been the best idea. I’m beginning to think that maybe that party pack isn’t as doable as I thought. It didn’t bog me down enough to not finish, but I felt pretty stuffed afterwards.

Overall, it was alright, but for the price that it is normally, I could get three tacos. And this Quesalupa was not better than three tacos. I’d consider getting it again if I had a coupon for it, but I won’t be paying full price for another one.

6/10