The Steak Garlic Nacho Fries were tasty but went soggy quickly, making them less of a repeat order for me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nMy relationship with Taco Bell is simple: I show up, they hand me a paper bag of questionable decisions, and I shove it down my wide-open trap. Last time I did a Delish<\/em> taste test here, I deemed their new Steak & Poblano Rolled Quesadilla a hit, so my expectations for Taco Bell’s latest drop were, unfortunately for everyone involved, sky-high.<\/p>\nWhich is how I found myself fresh off a nine-hour travel day, waking up, blinking twice, and immediately opening the Taco Bell app like it was my morning newspaper (also known as X). I threw on pants, stumbled into my nearest location, which was very much not ready to emotionally process me, and ordered the Cheesy Dipping Burritos, now “officially” paired with Creamy Garlic Sauce, plus the returning Steak Garlic Nacho Fries. The chairs were still up on the tables. The employees looked at me as if I were absolutely insane for ordering at 10 a.m., and to make it worse, I had forgotten to order a Baja Blast.<\/p>\n\n\nRelated Story<\/span>What was in my bag: two warm mini burritos filled with cheese and your choice of grilled, marinated steak or slow-roasted chicken (I went steak), plus the Creamy Garlic Sauce in its own cup. The Steak Garlic Nacho Fries, also part of my order, come loaded with grilled steak, pico de gallo, shredded cheddar, nacho cheese sauce, and yes, more Creamy Garlic Sauce.<\/p>\n\nThe Taste <\/h2>\n First impression: a little sad-looking. I knew these were supposed to be small, but I still expected more of a moment when you pull them apart. Mine were too polite. Inside, it’s mostly steak and cheese. Which is fine! But when that’s basically the whole personality, I want it to really show up. Think of it like dating someone outside your usual type. If the resume is short, the charisma has to be loud. Here, the burritos felt like they needed the sauce to be the personality.<\/p>\n
And the Creamy Garlic Sauce did all the heavy lifting. It’s tasty, and it doesn\u2019t come in swinging like a wrecking ball. It\u2019s creamy and very dunkable, without turning your mouth into a garlic-scented crime scene or stinging the nostrils.<\/p>\n
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Sean Abrams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Sean Abrams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBut without the sauce, I don’t think the dipping burritos would have landed nearly as well. With it, the bite is satisfying. Without it, it’s\u2026 fine. And Taco Bell is rarely in the business of “fine.”<\/p>\n\n\nRelated Story<\/span>Now, about those fries. This was my first-ever Taco Bell nacho fries experience, so I came in with an open mind.<\/p>\n
The concept makes sense, but in practice, my fries went soggy pretty fast. That might be a timing thing, a travel thing, or a “you came in while we were still unlocking the store” thing, but it did affect the experience. <\/p>\n
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Sean Abrams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Sean Abrams<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAlso, I kept missing ketchup, which is not Taco Bell’s fault, but it is my truth.<\/p>\n
The nacho cheese is that classic radioactive-orange, which is comforting in the way a mall food court is comforting. I could totally see enjoying it more in a movie theater, in a reclined seat, not hovering over a table while the world was still waking up.<\/p>\n
The Verdict<\/h2>\n I\u2019m usually not a harsh critic of Taco Bell. And I’ll be clear that these are not the worst things to ever happen to my mouth. That said, I\u2019m not fully convinced I\u2019d order either item again as-is. The burritos needed more excitement, and the fries didn\u2019t win me over in the way I hoped. I do want to give them a fair shot at a more normal hour, with a slightly less pajama-forward vibe. <\/p>\n
Until then, I’ll be ordering my go-to Cheesy Gordita Crunch and Baja Blast Zero Sugar (have to watch my figure) as the Taco Bell gods intended.<\/p>\n\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n
Taco Bell brought back its Cheesy Dipping Burritos with three sauce options, including the new Creamy Garlic Sauce. I tried the steak burritos with Creamy Garlic Sauce and found the sauce did most of the heavy lifting flavor-wise. The Steak Garlic Nacho Fries were tasty but went soggy quickly, making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cupcake.website\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}