With the new year comes a chance for fast food brands to mix things up and reinvent their menus. Just this month, Jack in the Box launched a smash burger, McDonald’s reintroduced the Double Big Mac, and Shake Shack is mixing things up with a Korean-inspired menu. But what about everyone’s favorite ultra-cheap stoner food? Is Taco Bell up to anything?
Yep! The Bell has indeed shaken things up a bit with its brand-new Cravings Value Menu.
The Cravings Value Menu is a list of 10 of Taco Bell’s current classics all ranging between the low price of $1-$3. Taco Bell has always been cheap but I was surprised to find out that for just $25.69 I could feed an entire family. I don’t have an entire family to feed, however. Meaning that my girlfriend and I ended up with a lot more Taco Bell than we could eat in a single sitting.
Yes, weed was smoked and food was over-consumed. This is Taco Bell we’re talking about, folks!
While I can say that everything on the Cravings Value Menu was tasty, it certainly isn’t all worth ordering. Here is the breakdown, starting with my least favorite.
10. Cheesy Roll Up
Price: $1.59
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
I know the Cheesy Roll Up is a fan favorite so I don’t doubt that it deserves to be part of the Cravings Menu but there is no way I can rank this dish any higher than last. It’s just Taco Bell’s three-cheese blend rolled up in a tortilla. That’s it. Do I hate it? How could I? It tastes like cheese and tortilla, that’s a winning combination!
But it’s hard to feel excited about this too. This is the sort of dish that you have to hack into something good, as it stands it’s just okay and easily the weakest item on the entire Cravings Menu.
The Bottom Line:
It’s tortilla plus cheese. Tasty, but ultimately pretty boring.
9. Three-Cheese Chicken Flatbread Melt
Price: $2.49
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Ranking all of the other foods on the Cravings Menu is a bit tougher as they are all leaps above the Cheesy Roll Up, but in the second to last spot, I’m going to have to give it to the Three-Cheese Chicken Flatbread Melt. This dish consists of a big piece of flatbread loaded with chunks of grilled chicken and chipotle sauce melted together with Taco Bell’s three-cheese blend. Each bite has a hint of spice and smokiness, with nutty salty notes from the cheese.
Taco Bell’s grilled chicken is a bit dry and wrapping it in this thick piece of flatbread doesn’t do it any favors. Overall, Taco Bell food just tastes better wrapped in flour tortilla — this flatbread is too thick and too dry to be enjoyable.
The Bottom Line:
Good flavors, but too dry and laborious to get through.
8. Spicy Potato Soft Taco
Price: $1.49
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
It hurts me to rank the Spicy Potato Soft Taco this low because I love this dish, but in comparison to the other food on the Cravings Menu, this dish just isn’t satisfying enough. The Taco consists of diced fried potatoes, cheese, lettuce, and chipotle sauce in a flour tortilla. The perfect bite combines buttery potato flavors with the smokey character of the chipotle sauce but the key word here is “perfect bite.” Most of your bites won’t be perfect, and when they aren’t all you’re eating is sauce, cheese, and lettuce. There just isn’t enough potato in here to make eating this taco a consistent experience.
The Bottom Line:
It’s a great side order but as a standalone dish, it leaves a lot to be desired.
7. Stacker
Price: $2.39
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
The Stacker is Taco Bell’s version of the quesadilla. It’s a giant flour tortilla filled with ground beef, a three-cheese blend, and nacho cheese sauce. It’s delicious, offering bite after bite of salty and savory flavors and a whole lot of cheese. My only issue with this thing is the nacho cheese sauce. I don’t really think the dish needs it, and trust me, I know how it sounds to say I want less cheese — what am I, some kind of maniac?
But my problem with the nacho cheese sauce is that its salty flavor masks the complexity of the three-cheese blend. You can’t taste the distinct qualities of Monterey Jack, Mozzarella, and Cheddar because the salty cheese sauce dominates everything.
The Bottom Line:
A great dish but one that is made better with some menu hacking.
6. Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes
Price: $2.99
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
The Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes are a great dish. The fried potatoes have a carmelized exterior that traps the seasoning blend nicely (I would assume the same blend of spices that flavor the ground beef, I’m getting paprika, salt, and a hint of garlic) with a thick layer of nacho cheese sauce and sour cream poured all over the dish. It’s salty, zesty, with a nice cool tang that is addicting to eat. I love them, but ever since Taco Bell introduced Nacho Fries to the menu, these sadly taste like they come up short to me.
Although they feel a bit redundant to me, I hope Taco Bell never drops them from the menu as it’s one of the more unique dishes on offer.
The Bottom Line:
A great potato side but not quite as good as Taco Bell’s fries. Order them once in a while for the novelty.
5. Chicken Enchilada Burrito
Price: $2.79
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
This is a tasty dish that is ultimately held back by Taco Bell’s grilled chicken. If you like Taco Bell’s grilled chicken, we’re genuinely happy for you, but this stuff tastes akin to Subway’s grilled chicken. It’s chewy, dry, and lacks flavor. Everything else about this burrito, however, is great! Inside a flour tortilla sits chunks of grilled chicken, a three-cheese blend, sour cream, seasoned rice, and Taco Bell’s greatest open secret: red sauce.
The sauce has a very mild heat to it and a lot of smokiness and pairs nicely with the other ingredients. To elevate the burrito even further, we suggest you order it grilled, which will add a lot of nice crispy texture to each bite.
The Bottom Line:
A great burrito that is held back by its protein. Sub that chicken for ground beef and you’ll have a way better burrito.
4. Loaded Beef Nachos
Price: $2.99
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
The Loaded Beef Nachos takes one of Taco Bell’s most disappointing dishes (the Nachos Bell Grande) and adds a few ingredients that equal more than the sum of its parts. The Loaded Beef Nachos are a dish perfected while the Nachos Bell Grande comes across like a rough draft.
The build is incredibly similar, you’ve got the chips, beans, beef, sour cream, and nacho cheese sauce, but gone are the watery tomatoes, instead replaced with guacamole (which has bits of tomato in it) and red sauce. The guacamole is a lot easier to pile on a chip than loose tomatoes, and with all the ingredients combined with the red sauce, each chip is a mix of smokey, beefy, savory, buttery, creamy, nutty, and salty flavors. It’s complex, which is something Taco Bell rarely is.
Yes, it’s a much smaller order than the Bell Grande at about half the size, but you can order two of cheese and still come away with more change than a single order of the Bell Grande.
The Bottom Line:
Order the Loaded Beef Nachos once and you’ll never order the Nachos Bell Grande again.
3. Double Stacked Taco
Price: $1.99
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
I love the Double Stacked Taco because it’s the closest thing on the menu to the discontinued Double Decker Taco. The Double Decker was essentially a crunchy taco inside of a flour tortilla with beans holding the shells together. The Double Stacked is that, only instead of beans, it’s nacho cheese. In addition to the standard taco build, the Double Stacked features tortilla strips inside the taco, adding more crunch to the taco, which is appreciated as the cheese sauce turns this taco a bit mushy.
The flavor is on point, it’s the classic Taco Bell crunchy taco flavor elevated by a layer of salty nacho cheese. Pair this with your favorite hot sauce packet, and you’ve got a great standalone taco.
The Bottom Line:
More filling and cheesier than the standard Taco Bell taco.
2. Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito
Price: $1.59
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Is the number two spot too high for the Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito? Nope! This dish is a classic and given its low price and delicious simplicity, it’s the type of menu option that should be added to every order. The weird thing about this burrito is that none of the individual ingredients are mind-blowing. Taco Bell’s beans are fine, their cheese is fine, the rice is….fine yet when they join forces together some sort of magic happens that makes this burrito delicious.
Is it nostalgia? Maybe, but few dishes hit the spot like a classic Taco Bell Cheesy Bean and Rice Burrito.
The Bottom Line:
Add it to every order and you’ll never be disappointed.
1. Cheesy Double Beef Burrito
Price: $2.99
Tasting Notes & Thoughts:
Decadent, indulgent, and delicious, the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito isn’t just the best item on the Cravings Menu, it’s one of Taco Bell’s top five burritos. It features ground beef, nacho cheese sauce, seasoned rice, sour cream, three-cheese blend, and Fiesta Strips. Each bite is a flavor bomb of salty, savory, tangy, and creamy sensations. Despite all the wet ingredients in this burrito, the Fiesta Strips help to add the perfect amount of texture to this burrito, but like the Chicken Enchilada, we’re going to suggest you get this one grilled.
Grilling the burrito takes it to another level, adding even more texture and creating a perfect counterbalance to the nacho cheese sauce and sour cream. It’s also pretty substantial, one of the few burritos on the Cravings Menu that can serve as a full meal — at $2.99 that’s one of the best values in all of fast food.
The Bottom Line:
Hands down the best item on the Cravings Menu, the other nine items don’t even come close to this decadent classic.