Taco Bell Mexican Cheesesteak

Taco Bell is always pretty creative in their food offerings and puts out new items on a frequent basis.  They take advantage of the ingredients that they already have on hand and then mix them together to come up with new variations on things they already have.

Recently, I was driving past my local Taco Bell (96th Street & I-69) and I saw a sign in the window for a Mexican Cheesesteak.  Yes, that’s right, a cheesesteak.  I was immediately intrigued and searched the internet far and wide and could not find a single mention of this menu item anywhere on Taco Bell’s site or anywhere else on the web.  So, it would appear that Indianapolis is a test market for a new product once again, just like it was for the Pacific Shrimp Tacos several months ago.  I laughed when I thought of a Mexican Cheesesteak, but since we here at WIBIA were all over the shrimp tacos, I figured that we should be all over this test item as well.

What I Got: Mexican Cheesesteak $3.49 + tax ($3.77 total)

As you can see from the picture above, they’ve got quite a variety of ingredients in this melt (that’s what the cashier referred to it as).  Included in the melt/cheesesteak were sauteed green peppers, sauteed red peppers, sauteed onions, grilled steak and melted cheese all inside warm flatbread.  Going back to the theme of Taco Bell re-using ingredients, you can probably recognize this is a twist on their usual Gordita with a slight change in ingredients.  Size-wise, it was about five to six inches long (again, the same size as a Gordita)

That said, the taste of this thing was pleasantly surprising.  I was expecting a disaster, but this thing was actually pretty good.  The vegetables were perfectly sauteed and the steak was tender and perfectly cooked.  The flatbread was also soft and chewy as well.  The only problem with this melt/cheesesteak was that it was a complete mess and barely held in the ingredients as they were plentifully stuffed in there.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes and no.  I would buy it again if taste was the only consideration, but according to my budget, when you factor in a price of $3.49, the taste really isn’t worth it.  I’ve always been strictly a value menu guy that barely ventures into the regular menu, so that’s why the price is cost prohibitive to me.  If you like ordering items that are not on the value menu and price is less of a factor than taste to you, then I think you’ll enjoy ordering this item.

-IndianapolisEater

Black Jack Taco

You’ve probably seen the awful, yet oddly amusing commercials and maybe even read reviews from a couple other blogs, but Taco Bell has recently introduced another new menu item (as they seem to do about every few weeks) and this one is called the Black Jack taco and it’s currently available for 89¢.

They describe this as “A crunchy black taco shell filled with seasoned beef, zesty pepper jack sauce, shredded lettuce and a blend of three cheeses – cheddar, pepper jack and mozzarella.”  With that mix of new ingredients on top of their basic crunchy taco, you’d think that this would be pretty interesting and could have the chance to be pretty tasty.  Sadly, if that’s what you thought, you’d be wrong because this one was just boring.  I’ve shared my thoughts on the pepper jack sauce before, but other than that, this tasted like a regular taco to me.  The three different kinds of cheeses were indecipherable and the black taco shell was cosmetic in appearance only because it did nothing other than change the way the taco looked.

Would I Buy It Again?  No, I would not.  I’ll just stick with my regular crunchy taco ordered Fresco style.  The prices are the same for both the Black Jack and the regular crunchy taco, but nothing about this one excites me or my taste buds.  There’s no reason for me to leave an old standby.

But, if you’d like to try one despite my review (and for free), you should know that Taco Bell is offering a free Black Jack taco to anyone that visits one of their locations on this upcoming Halloween evening starting at 6:00 p.m. and running until midnight.  So, if you are a fan of free food like I am or just want to get your own opinion on this taco, give it a shot!

-IndianapolisEater

Caramel Apple Empanada

What I Got:  Caramel Apple Empanada 99¢

Another entry off the Why Pay More Value Menu (the greatest value menu of all time) is Taco Bell’s Caramel Apple Empanada.  I believe that it has been introduced recently, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

Taco Bell describes this as “A warm pastry pocket filled with sweet apple chunks and caramel sauce” and that’s basically what it is.  I ordered from the counter when I got this and what I found odd is that they must make all of these all at the same time and leave them under a heat lamp all day because they just reached into a container to grab mine.

As for the taste, there were really no surprises based on the description.  It was exactly the way they described it and it was very delicious.  While the measurements of the item were smaller than I thought (it was only about four inches long), they still found a way to pack a large amount of filling into this thing and it ended up being fairly heavy for its size.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, I definitely would, especially since it is only 99¢.  It really did shock me how good this thing was.  The apples and caramel sauce were really warm and that may have been what made this taste so good.  I don’t know if I got lucky and just got there as a fresh batch came out or if they are always that way, but it made a huge difference.  If you ended up getting this thing when it is only lukewarm or worse, you probably wouldn’t like it.  Regardless, if you are looking for a dessert to top off your meal at Taco Bell, make sure you get this.

-IndianapolisEater

Crispy Potato Soft Taco

It’s no secret that we love Taco Bell around here and make frequent trips there.  When I go, I usually order off of the greatest value menu ever and this is another fairly recent addition.

What I Got:  Crispy Potato Soft Taco 79¢

Taco Bell describes this as “A soft flour tortilla filled with crispy potato bites, Pepper Jack sauce, crisp shredded lettuce and real cheddar cheese.”  What they don’t tell you is that there is nothing crispy about the potato bites at all.  In mine, they were soggy and mushy and it made this item very, very bland and boring.  The Pepper Jack sauce was tasty, but the potato bites ruined it for me.  I will give them credit though because they really did manage to pack a lot of stuff into this small tortilla shell.

Would I Buy It Again?  No, I would not.  I understand that it is cheap and you get what you pay for, but there is so much better stuff available on the value menu that I would order before I ever ordered this again.

-IndianapolisEater

[Editor's Note:  Please note the date of this review.  This is when this product item was under development and being sold in the Indianapolis area test market.]

What I Got:  Taco Bell Shrimp Tacos $2.49

You can probably tell how this is going to go by looking at the pic. I saw the commercial yesterday and decided to stop by.  I love fish tacos, but had huge reservations about Taco Bell’s interpretation of any seafood in tacos.

Six marinated shrimp, lettuce, pico and a ranch based sauce.  First impression, where are the shrimp?  I had to dig for them through the over-sauced taco.  I pulled out three and set them next to a hot sauce packet so you can see the size.   Wow, really small.

As far as taste, it wasn’t horrible, but it was close.  Compared to a real dish fish taco, it was laughable, but I expected it to be worse.   It was difficult to taste the shrimp by themselves because they were small and most of them covered in sauce, but the “marinade” tasted like any run of the mill bottled margarita/southwest flavored marinade.

Would I Buy It Again:  No. For $2.49 and under, there are a lot of choices on the Taco Bell menu and 99% of them are better tasting and a far better value.  If the shrimp were an honest size, it would be a lot better…though I am not sure it would save this taco.

I can’t find any nutrition info online, or any details for that matter.  Wondering if this is a market specific launch?

-wibia

NEW Chicken Ranch Gordita

What I Got:  NEW Chicken Ranch Gordita 89¢

Taco Bell debuted this item on their Why Pay More Value menu just this week, so I figured I’d give it a shot.

As you can see from the picture, this gordita had A LOT of ranch dressing on it.  In addition to the ranch dressing was Taco Bell’s typical seasoned chicken (they use it on their burritos and tacos) and also lettuce.  I will say that the sheer amount of ranch dressing overpowered the gordita and the only way I knew everything else was in the sandwich was because I could physically see it and I could feel it in my mouth as I was chewing.  So if you are a big fan of ranch and don’t really care about anything else, this is the item for you.  Plus, when something is available for this little money, you almost have to go for it if you have a taste for ranch dressing.

Would I Buy It Again?  Yes, if I was in the mood for something different.  There’s nothing that really stands out about this item, but if you are looking for something outside the normal taco/burrito arena, this is worth a shot.

I will also admit that I’m not the biggest fan of ranch dressing, so this one was a stretch for me.  Even with that said, I actually liked this.  I will give Taco Bell some credit in the fact that the ranch dressing they put on this was warm ranch dressing because if they had put cold ranch dressing on this, it would have made it really disgusting.  One improvement I would recommend is that Taco Bell add some fiesta salsa to this to give it an additional kick and flavor profile.

-IndianapolisEater

What I Got:  Volcano Taco $1.19

In honor of a the new Volcano Nachos and it has been 8 days from our last review… I thought that I would release this from the archives.

Standard $0.89 taco plus Lava Sauce.  Lava Sauce is not that spicy, but this is coming from a guy that thought that “Wall of Flame” was a good idea.  However, I like the sauce.  A little bit of a burn and a little hotter than their Fire sauce.  There wasn’t a lot of Lava Sauce on the taco, but enough to understand that this has a little kick to it.  The red shells are nothing more than red shells.  No extra flava.

I realized after eating this that salsa, pico or tomatoes are a must on tacos for me.  I like a little sour cream at times as well, but I can’t go without tomatoes.  IMO, Taco Bell needs to turn up the heat on Lava Sauce.  Take a less from Cheetos v. Flaming Hot Cheetos.   They turned up the heat and nailed it.

Would I Buy It Again? No. I am not that big of a fan of the standard taco from Taco Bell and the Lava Sauce wasn’t enough to take it over the top.  However, if you like the $.89 taco, then you will probably like this.  I am more of a supreme guy.  I liked the flavor of lava sauce and would like to see it used in other parts of the menu.

Note to Taco Bell:  Make Volcano Sauce hotter!

-wibia

-WIBIA