New Offerings to Temp You

The new year brought with it a few new items for Taco Bell’s specialties menu. These items were getting a ton of hype, with fans on social media going on and on about how good the new Mini Taco Salad and Steak Garlic Nacho Fries were. I love food, and I will take any excuse to wander over to a restaurant and try some new items, so this was all the justification I needed. I recently loaded into my car, took a drive to my (semi) local Taco Bell, and grabbed the items they had on offer (as not every restaurant has the same things) so I could see what all the hype was about.

The short answer is that, among the items I picked, these new selections are good. Some are better than others, but Taco Bell is on the right track and, really, whatever of these specialties (and then some) that you get, you’ll probably leave satisfied.

Mini Taco Salad

This was the item getting the most buzz on the feeds that I read, so it’s the one that I was most excited to try. It is, as the name suggests, a miniature taco salad, much like what Taco Bell makes (or used to make) but in smaller form. The salad comes with seasoned beef, refried beans, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and creamy chipotle sauce in a small, crispy fried tortilla bowl. Eat it with a fork, or with your hands (I chose the latter, like a monster) and enjoy this tiny-sized snack.

In general I liked this item. The mix of flavors, from the beef to the fresh veg, the cheese, and the chipotle sauce were good. With or without extra sauce on top (I did add some DIablo sauce after the first bite), the overall mix was good. I will note, though, that I didn’t mix the items in the mini bowl before eating, and the people that made my item had slopped beans to one side in the bowl, so by the last few bites it was all refried beans and tortilla. Not terrible, but not as good as when I got the full flavor profile in a bite.

I’d call this good, especially for the (current) price of $2.89. It’s a solid B effort, and for those that like all these ingredients, and enjoy a good taco salad, this is an easy and affordable buy.

Crispy Chicken Nuggets

Taco Bell brought these back for their menu (at least in my area) with all the new items, and since my restaurant didn’t have the Nachos Supreme Dip on offer, I went with the tried and true nuggets again. We’ve looked at these before, so I won’t go too deep into the basics of them, but I will say these nugs were just as good as the last time I had them. I’ve seen online that some people have gotten bad batches of the nuggets, with the chicken chunks spending too long under heat lamps after coming out of the fryer, so I’m sure some places make them better than others. My Bell has been good, always getting me fresh nuggets when I order them, so I have no complaints.

I did sample these with a selection of three sauces this time around, though. The Bell Sauce, which was the default selection, is a smoky and sweet red sauce that I thought really complimented the nuggets nicely. I also got them with Diablo Ranch Sauce, which, surprisingly, didn’t wow me. Their Diablo sauce for tacos is spicy and delicious, but I found the ranch version to be pretty bland and mild. I dipped a couple of times in it and then went back to the Bell Sauce instead as I liked the overall flavor profile more.

And then there was the creamy garlic sauce, which I had on my Steak and Garlic Fries and… well, actually, let’s discuss those instead. But if you have the nuggets alongside them, let’s just say I recommend dipping them in the sauce.

Steak Garlic Nacho Fries

I hadn’t tried nacho fries before from Taco Bell. Sure, dipping fries into cheesy sauce is great (and is one of the reasons why I love going to White Castle, for example, because their crinkle cut fries with a side of cheese sauce is a highlight of any fast food meal), but when I go to Taco Bell I go for Tex-Mex fare. I’m not thinking, “you know, what I really want is a side of fries.” Other places have fries; Taco Bell is a different (albeit also cheap) experience, and I like getting different things there.

Still, for the sake of this review (and since my restaurant had it on offer), I grabbed the Steak Garlic Nacho Fries (which is their name, even though I want to call them “Steak and Garlic” because that sounds more correct, grammatically). The fries feature crispy, spice-dusted fries topped with grilled marinated steak, nacho cheese sauce, shredded cheddar, pico de gallo, and a new, creamy garlic ranch sauce, and they are absolutely delicious. While I wouldn’t have thought getting fries from Taco Bell was a good idea, these have made me a convert.

The knock against the fries is the fact that the steak that tops them isn’t the best steak. It’s the cheap, Taco Bell steak which is overcooked, processed, and mashed until it only resembles steak if you squint at it. I get that the fries need something with body, and this is probably a better selection to put on than ground beef, but it’s still not as high a quality of meat as I would like. But then, when can I really expect from Taco Bell? Going to the Bell and complaining about the quality of the meat is like going to a water park and complaining about getting wet. You should have known what to expect before going there.

The rest of the dish, though, is delightful. The mix of cheese sauce and garlic sauce is great, with the garlic sauce having a flavorful, creamy, more subtle taste than the bold salt of the cheese sauce. The two paired together compliment and work so perfectly. Then when you add the brightness of the pico, and put them on the salty, seasoned fries, it comes together. I loved eating the fries. I loved dipping my nuggets in the sauce (which absolutely drenches these fries). I just loved it.

If the Mini Taco Salad was a B, and the Nuggets are always an easy B+/A-, these Nacho Fries were an A, through and through. If I head back to Taco Bell any time soon, while these fries are on offer, I’ll be getting these again. I have no doubt.