Taco Bell

Rating: 2

We ate dinner here in September 2024.

Cheese quesedilla
Cheesy gordita crunch
Beef nachos
Churros

The Beast is slain at last.

The spectre of Taco Bell on Cuba has haunted us forever. Ever since we first saw him sitting there on his throne of skulls right beside the bus stop. No more. And just like Subway, a great weight was lifted from our shoulders as we ticked this chain off the list.

It turns out that we’d been building Taco Bell up in our minds like some kind of final boss of fast food for far too long. The overall impression is that it’s just bland. The quesadilla only escaped being as bland as the rest of the dishes by the included sauce sachets. Neither of which was fantastic, but at least they added something. The nachos of the loaded nachos came with some kind of red dust scattered all over them, but alas, all you couldn’t taste it at all. Likewise the beef mince was flavourless, and the cheese sauce, barely detectable. At least the guac tasted somewhat like avocado, but is it really made from avocados? The gordita fared mostly the same, it had the same bland mince, but also had some kind of sauce in it that the Fee-Rex really didn’t appreciate. We did actually like the texture, with a crunchy taco shell inside soft flat bread.

The churros were the only thing we’d have again. They were soft and fluffy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, and absolutely smothered in a tasty mix of cinnamon and sugar. Their chocolate sauce was thin, but there was a lot of it, no sad rationing required.

A note on value. The menu at Taco Bell looks really cheap, with dishes half to two thirds of the cost you’d expect if ordering them somewhere else. Don’t be fooled. Aside from the difference in quality, there is a substantial size difference. Many cafe nachos are so big we struggle for finish them. After we ate the above meal, we came home and had toast.