Visit #1: Sunday, May 18, 2014: 5:23 PM

My initial visit on the quest to consume the entire Taco Bell menu took place earlier today.  Interestingly I spent most of the late morning/early afternoon cooking this week's lunch menu for myself and my girlfriend.  (I usually cook a week's worth of food on Sunday afternoon with the exception of perhaps a couple of items that can't be cooked too far in advance in consideration of taste/freshness...fish, for example, is something that would typically be cooked the night before the following day's lunch consumption.)  I really didn't eat much of anything while doing said cooking other than snacking on a handful of Zesta crackers and drinking a couple of Snapshot beers.

(Check out this link to learn more about Snapshot beer; my girlfriend introduced Snapshot to me as a gift in my Easter basket.  I can vouch for its tastiness.)
New Belgium Snapshot

But on to more pressing business.  By the time 5:00 PM rolled around, I was seriously hungry.  Shortly thereafter I jumped in the car and headed for the border.  Since this was the initial stop on my quest for Taco Bell menu completion, I wanted to try some items that heretofore I had never ordered.  I also made the decision to "Dine In," since I wanted to experience each of my menu items at their peak level of freshness.  Upon entering the restaurant and reviewing the menu board inside, I settled on three selections:


Item #1:  CHEESY POTATO BURRITO

I had noticed in recent years that a number of Taco Bell menu items had begun to incorporate potatoes. This intrigued me as I had never had the pleasure of tasting anything from Taco Bell that included potatoes.  The official Taco Bell website description:

"A warm, soft flour tortilla loaded with a double portion of seasoned beef and filled with crispy potato bites, warm nacho cheese sauce, and reduced-fat sour cream."

Price:  $2.39

Taste:  7.0 (out of 10)
Value:  8.5 (out of 10)
Overall Score:  7.4 (out of 10)

**Quick note on scoring:  The overall score is weighted 75% taste, 25% value.**

My Take:  My initial reaction was one of surprise at the sheer heft of this burrito.  This was a quite a lot more food than I had assumed upon ordering.  I viewed this as a positive development, however, since I was starving.  Bite #1 delivered pretty much what I was expecting:  ground beef swimming in some cheesy goodness.  I didn't encounter any potatoes until bite #2.  My opinion on the potatoes is a bit mixed:  while they were definitely a positive from a texture perspective, helping to break up the monotony of the soft flour tortilla/soft beef/cheese sauce/sour cream parade, they also made it feel HEAVY.  As in expanding-to-150%-of-its-original-size heavy, upon reaching my stomach.

There was a lot of beef in this item -- a "double portion," according to the Taco Bell website -- but I didn't encounter potatoes in every bite, which was disappointing.  The taste did get a bit bland by the end, but this was easily remedied by applying some Fire Sauce.  Upon examining my receipt, I saw that this behemoth weighed in at 1/2 pound.  Due to the extremely substantive nature of the Cheesy Potato Burrito, I think scaling this item down to 1/3 pound or so could really help.  I think this could be effectively achieved by leaving the amount of the potatoes roughly the same but reducing the amount of beef somewhat.  All in all, however, not a bad effort by the Bell.


Item #2:  SPICY CHICKEN COOL RANCH DORITOS LOCOS TACO

Taco Bell has been advertising the hell out of their Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos lately.  They had not truly appealed to me, however, for one glaring reason:  I am not a fan of Cool Ranch Doritos.  I would go so far as to say that I mildly dislike them.  Thus, my primary reason for ordering the regular spicy chicken taco versus the spicy chicken taco supreme...I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to like it, so why spend the extra cabbage on something that I wasn't going to like?  The official Taco Bell website description:

"A taco made with our Marinated, all-white-meat shredded chicken, new Fiery sauce, crisp lettuce, and real cheddar cheese, in a shell made from Cool Ranch Doritos Chips."

Price:  $1.59

Taste:  8.5 (out of 10)
Value:  7.5 (out of 10)
Overall Score:  8.3 (out of 10)

My Take:  This one was a true stunner.  It was delicious.  It kicked ass.  The shell perhaps would have tasted like Cool Ranch Doritos chips on its own, but mingled with the spicy shredded chicken and other components it was like fast food magic.  I absolutely inhaled this delectable creation.  I did add approximately one-half of a package of Fire Sauce to round out its spiciness, but in retrospect this may not have been necessary.  I cannot wait to try this one again.

You are not getting a ton of food for $1.59, but I suppose it's a bit relative.  This taco did come in a cardboard sleeve, which was a nice touch.  I can all but guarantee you that there is no way you can get this much food awesomeness from McDonald's for $1.59.  It's just not going to happen.  Taco Bell hit this one out of the park.  Eat one NOW.


Item #3:  STEAK MEXIMELT

I had been wanting to try a Meximelt for some time, and I opted to go with the steak since I had already covered my ground beef and shredded chicken bases with my first two menu selections.  The official Taco Bell website description:

"A warm, soft flour tortilla wrapped around marinated premium thick cut steak, a three cheese blend and pico de gallo, then melted to perfection."

Price:  $2.59  (base price for ground beef Meximelt is $1.79, plus $0.80 for the steak upgrade)

Taste:  6.0 (out of 10)
Value:  4.5 (out of 10)
Overall Score:  5.6 (out of 10)

I have enjoyed Taco Bell's steak on other menu items in the past, and that was without a doubt the high point of my Meximelt on this visit (the Meximelt is also available in ground beef and shredded chicken varieties).  While I would never confuse it with steakhouse-quality fare -- primarily due to its lack of a pink center -- it provides a substantive mouthful to chew on and is decidedly less greasy than the Bell's ground beef.

I opened it up to take a look before eating (see photo above) and saw what I expected to see:  a fair amount of steak, lots of cheese and some pico.  Ah, the pico:  normally one of my favorite menu items in quasi-Mexican fare.  However, the pico in this particular Meximelt had a strange flavor note in my opinion:  it had a very acidic taste to it.  I am not too familiar with Taco Bell pico de gallo, but my other past experiences with pico -- including actual experiences in Mexico -- blew this one away.  I can only guess that this disappointing pico was due to some combination of lack of freshness and/or substandard ingredients.

Outside of the pico, my Steak Meximelt was just kind of "meh."  The cheese was rather bland, and there was a bit too much flour tortilla when you consider the amount of its contents.  I had to douse it Fire Sauce to finish it off.  Certainly not inedible, but not one of Taco Bell's home runs in my opinion.  Perhaps I would have been less disappointed in the $1.79 base version.

I should note that I washed down my meal with Diet Mountain Dew from the soda dispenser.


THE WRAP-UP:

This was a lot of food!  I thoroughly enjoyed eating it and recording my observations.  Weirdly I also enjoyed the "dining in" aspect of my meal.  The employees were very friendly and the restaurant was clean.  The only downside was a yuppie couple with a young child dining nearby.  The husband/father kept giving me a "What-the-hell-are-doing-taking-pictures-of-your-food?" look.  I am writing a Taco Bell blog, pal.  Deal with it.

Here is a copy of the receipt from my initial visit:

The first of many more to come!  Until next time, Live Mas!