The best Taco Bell items to pick from the menu

The Taco Bell of 25 years ago was a much more nauseating proposition than the Taco Bell of today, and like everywhere, the general quality of its food has improved. If you want a reminder of how vile the old stuff was, order up the Nachos Bell Grande. These taste a little like plasticky ballpark nachos, minus the fun helmet. The cheese sauce is inedibly bad, the chips are, well, chips, and the meat is your standard Taco Bell meat puree. It’s a decent nostalgia play, but if you really wanna relive the glory days, go for a standard taco. It’s far more palatable.

Price: $6.59

Calories: 730

Order with: A side of guacamole actually helps this out, essentially turning it into a loaded chips and guac.

I think I got diabetes just looking at this new Taco Bell menu creation, a sort of sweet vanilla slushy with vanilla crème, pink cookie dough flavored syrup, and rainbow sprinkles. If you could make a K-pop video into a slushie, this would be it, and to say it’s sweet would be like saying Demon Hunter has a few fans. It does cut through the grease and salt of your standard Taco Bell order nicely, but the sugar is just too much.

Price: $3.69 for a small

Calories: 220

Order with: Something spicy. Not that I’d suggest putting Diablo sauce on a slushie, but you’ll need something to balance the sugar.

The Crunch Wrap Supreme has held its place as a Taco Bell classic because of the textural journey it takes you on. The meandering from soft tortilla to crunchy lettuce and corn tortilla, to soft meat and cheese does a lot for your mouth. But flavor-wise, it falls flat, depending too much on the meat seasoning to do the work. It needs… something to kick it up a notch, or it’s just a lot of interesting-feeling filler.

Price: $6.69

Calories: 530

Order with: Lots of Fire and Diablo sauce. I’d go so far as to recommend unwrapping it and squirting the stuff inside because this dish is in serious need of spice.

Taco Bell is nothing if not a company that listens to its customers, and after fans demanded the Quesarito return, it’s now back on the menu. It’s a cheesier take on the regular burrito that adds much-needed richness. I ordered the Volcano variant to see how the limited-time sauce paired, and it failed to deliver. It has about as much spice as English breakfast, and while it does add a creamy texture, if you're gonna call something “Volcano” it better bring the fire. This rates low for false advertising.

Price: $4.99

Calories: 650

Order with: Spicy sauce. 

Our first entrant from the value menu is quite the bargain at $2.19. The Stacker is effectively a beef quesadilla folded on top of itself, and in doing so, it amplifies the flavor by a factor of about 5. It’s an intense bite, lots of greasy cheese and meat exploding out from the pressed flour tortilla, which gives a nice crunch. It’s also a more efficient bite than a burrito, making it an excellent meal-on-the-go.

Price: $2.19

Calories: 400

Order with: Sub steak for regular beef, it's worth the upcharge.

Give credit where it’s due, Taco Bell does an outstanding job seasoning its steak. You’ll realize this upon the first bite of the steak quesadilla, where the spice in the steak stands out immediately over the sea of melted cheese. The problem is, Taco Bell is a little chintzy with the steak, and since it’s clearly the best part of the item, the lack of meat leaves you wanting. And for almost seven bucks, they could give you more.

Price: $6.89

Calories: 520

Order with: Guacamole. It gives the dish more heft and a smidge more protein.

I remember when the Double Stacked Taco first came out, where they slapped beans between the flour and corn tortillas. Elementary school me thought it was the greatest cultural advent in American history. Now, cheese fills the gap, replacing the beany heft with more ooze and salt. The tortilla strips on the inside make this the most intriguing dish, texturally, aside from the crunchwrap. And it gives your mouth the same roller-coaster for a fraction of the cost.

Price: $1.99

Calories: 320

Order with: A side of beans. If you want to relive the old days, this is pretty easy to deconstruct and put back together.

Unlike most fast food restaurants—and really, restaurants in general—Taco Bell understands that after consuming a bunch of its food, you don’t want yet another heavy dish for dessert. This is why Cinnamon Twists are the smartest dessert on Franchise Row, essentially Styrofoam packing peanuts dusted in cinnamon and sugar. They’re not complex. There’s nothing gourmet about them. But they’re the perfect light treat when you want something sweet to end your meal.

Price: $1.69

Calories: 170

Order with: A side of the sauce they use on the Cinnabon Delights. It’s like Diet Churros.

Nobody is confusing Taco Bell with your local organic juice bar, but of the Bell’s new-ish line of fruit-flavored drinks, this one tastes the most natural. It’s a pleasant surprise, not overwhelming you with sugar, letting the flavor of the Dragonfruit speak for itself. If you want something more interesting than soda to wash down your meal, but aren’t up for a Mountain Dew hangover, this one cuts the grease nicely.

Price: $2.00

Calories: 160

Order with: No syrup. There are two options, and the syrup-free version teeters on being too sweet already.

These are Taco Bell’s take on the steak fries we’ve started seeing at fast-casual “gourmet” taquerias like Taco Stand. They come covered in a slightly concerning red flavor dust that reminds me a little too much of Takis. Aside from that, the steak garlic nacho fries deliver on their promise, packing a strong garlic, greasy flavor in every bite. The additions of cheese and sour cream make this almost too rich, though, and it might benefit from leaving one high-fat ingredient off the list.

Price: $5.49

Calories: 490

Order with: Light cheese and sour cream. These are delicious, but they’re a fat bomb, and eating a whole order as-is can leave your stomach with some serious regret.

These are a fun little variation on the usual burrito, a smaller, more-dippable-sized dish that comes two per order. The idea is to dip them in whatever side sauce you choose—some recommend creamy garlic, I went with guac. The steak loses a little flavor, drowned out by the blanket of cheese that surrounds it. It is, in its essence, a rolled-up quesadilla with some additional meat. But the dipping aspect gives it some dimensions that other menu items don’t have.

Price: $6.09

Calories: 480

Order with: Guacamole, mix it with Fire sauce, then dip away.

One might think ordering chicken strips at Taco Bell would be like ordering a burrito at White Castle. But Taco Bell’s limited-time entrant into the chicken tender craze is surprisingly respectable. The strips are substantially meaty, aren’t overbreaded, and give a good crunch when you bite in. That said, the breading lacks any noticeable seasoning, so eating them on their own can be a little bland. Think of them as opportunities to hone your fast-food creativity.

Price: $7.99 (4-pack)

Calories: 470 (4-pack)

Order with: Fire or Diablo sauce, and a to-go container. Put them in the closed container, cover them in more hot sauce than you need, toss them, and voila! You’ve got spicy chicken tenders that are better than most bar food.

Biting into a Taco Bell taco for the first time in years is the food equivalent of digging up a mixtape you made for your high school girlfriend. Is it objectively terrible? Yes. Does it bring back memories that you wouldn’t trade for the best taco in the world? Even more so, yes. Somehow, that blend of cold lettuce, shredded processed cheese, mystery meat, and a crunchy corn shell transports you back to days when these things cost 39 cents, and you split 20 of them with your best friends in the world. Whether it’s “good” or not is irrelevant, because I dare you not to eat one and not smile.

Price:  $1.99

Calories: 170

Order with: A text to one of those friends you haven’t seen in years.

While I do love a nostalgic bite of a Taco Bell taco, the Cantina crispy variety makes you wonder why Taco Bell didn’t make its tacos like this in the first place. They taste like the kind of deep-fried crunchy tacos you’d get in a Mexican Restaurant with a B on the front door. The crunch is spectacular, the chicken inside is spicy and flavorful, and the avocado sauce gives it a creamy finish. It’s like Taco Bell looked at their old stuff and said, “Why don’t we make these… better.”

Price: $3.19

Calories: 280

Order with: Salsa verde. It’s the best pairing with this style of taco.

If Taco Bell’s Cantina menu were its own, it would be better than half the “gourmet” taquerias I’ve been to that charge $18 for a burrito. The Fiesta Cantina Bowl is the closest thing to “healthy” you’re finding at Taco Bell, with lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, black beans, avocados, and a bunch of other stuff you see on lists of “foods to eat to live to 100.” Not saying Taco Bell is the key to longevity, but if you’re running for the border and don’t want to slip into a food coma, this bowl is the way to go.

Price: $8.69

Calories: 480

Order with: Extra black beans. It packs in some more protein, adds some spice, and is considerably cheaper than adding meat.

The greatest comeback story in fast food history has to be Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. I never understood why the whole internet seemed to demand its return, but then I finally tried one, and I get it now. First, the presentation is brilliant, served in a little box and cut into triangular “slices.” Second, it seamlessly blends every flavor and texture Taco Bell is famous for,  beginning with a light tortilla crunch, then moving into creamy beans, spicy, soft meat, salty cheese, and a crisp tomato finish. It’s all that’s great about the Bell in one box, and an item everyone should try.

Price: $6.10

Calories: 530

Order with: Fire sauce. Drizzle it on top, and you’ve got the complete Taco Bell experience.

Taco Bell’s Cantina Chicken Burrito is like the Paul Skenes of fast-food menu items: a glimmer of generational brilliance surrounded by—no offense to the rest of this menu or the Pittsburgh Pirates—mediocrity. The inside is a light, flavorful blend of seasoned chicken, black beans, lettuce, and pico de gallo that’s not weighed down by over-processed ingredients, each bite melding into an agreeable mush of Mexican comfort. It’s surrounded by a tortilla that’s pressed to give it that trademark Taco Bell crunch. And it’s still light enough that finishing one isn’t impossible, or painful.

Price: $6.49

Calories: 540

Order with: Rice on the inside. It’s like a Taco Bell Mission Burrito and could be the best fast-food menu item in America.