Taco Bell has a bad reputation when it comes to food quality. But for a lot of college students, it is an affordable yet tasty option for a quick meal. After earnings last year were below expectations, Taco Bell decided to spice up their menu with new offerings. The first of these changes came in the form of a breakfast menu.
The majority of Taco Bells open at 7 a.m. and serve their “First Meal” breakfast menu until 11 a.m. They still offer their entire menu during this time. But is it worth waking up early?
The most common new items are the breakfast burritos. Unfortunately, the things they all have in common are tasteless, dry, and what seems to be faux eggs and hardened cheese. The Steak and Egg burrito has overcooked carne asada, and the Grande Skillet burrito has sausage, mini hash browns, and pico de gallo salsa, making it a little too salty.
The sausage or bacon with egg burritos are considered the value burritos, and while 99 cents is a great deal, these burritos took two bites to eat. The sausage was juicy, but the bacon was grisly. They improved greatly when Taco Bell hot sauce was added to them, however. When ordering the burritos, I advise telling the staff to add the hot sauce on the burrito while they’re making it.
The Johnsonville Sausage and Egg Wrap is similar in looks to the Crunchwrap Supreme, a Taco Bell menu staple, but about half the size. It features a Johnsonville sausage patty with those same dry eggs and hardened cheese. The delicious sausage patty saves the wrap, and makes it one of the best the breakfast menu has to offer.
Taco Bell added the traditional breakfast side of hash browns to the menu as well. Unfortunately, they taste like a crusty, greasy sponge. I don’t know if they used it to clean the night before, or if they reheated week-old hash browns, but something needs to change about the way they cook them.
Taco Bell has big-name breakfast beverages Seattle’s Best Coffee and Tropicana orange juice to help you counter this sodium attack.
From the way I’m describing the food, you may think there is nothing to bring you to Taco Bell in the wee hours of the morning. But there is a light at the end of this tunnel. And that light comes in the form of Cinnabon Delights.
Slightly crunchy on the outside, warm frosting on the inside, and rolled around in cinnamon sugar. The Cinnabon Delights are the highlight of the Taco Bell breakfast menu, and they should be sold all day as a dessert.
While the menu as a whole needs improvement, it is not the worst (looking at you Jack in the Box). Hopefully Taco Bell will take customer feedback seriously and make it compete with the best at fast food breakfast; McDonald’s.
