Tag: Taco Bell

The 300s Reviews Taco Bell Chicken Nuggets

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Earlier this week I heard whispers of a new Taco Bell menu item being rolled out in a select market. As David Letterman used to say, “I just pray to God that your city has been selected.” Well, the fast food gods were smiling on me because my market was selected and that’s how I got my hands on the latest innovation from Taco Bell.

Well, it’s not really an innovation. The Bell certainly didn’t reinvent the wheel to pump out chicky nuggies. Even nacho fries, which I love, were a little more innovative. If anything, the dipping sauces were more innovative than the nuggets themselves.

My first thought when opening the box was “oh shit.” These nuggets looked strikingly similar to the worst fast food nuggets I’ve ever had the displeasure of eating (congrats Sonic!). But they were actually somewhat juicy and tender, and not covered in a Michelin Tire-like coating.

The nuggets themselves were not that much of a departure from your standard (non-McDonald’s) nuggets. I didn’t sense any special seasoning on them, like there is on nacho fries. But the sauces were surprisingly good. The two nugget dipping sauces were “Bell sauce” and a jalapeno-flavored honey mustard. The Bell Sauce tasted like thicker Taco Bell sauce you’d get out of the packet and was the better of the two, but the honey mustard packed good flavor and wasn’t too spicy.

Eating the nuggets dipped in the sauces was actually a similar experience to boneless wings at Buffalo Wild Wings.

So what’s the verdict? I wouldn’t go out of my way to grab Taco Bell chicken nuggets the way I would a Crunchwrap Supreme. But I won’t go so far as to say they serve no purpose. My guess is that Taco Bell chicken nuggets will be most popular in late night group orders. A good add on, or an option for the one guy in the car at 1 AM who doesn’t want a taco. I can’t imagine them being too popular with the younger set, though. (Sorry, dads who would rather a Chalupa than a Quarter Pounder when grabbing chicky nuggies for the kids.)

I didn’t order the meal, as I wanted 10 nuggets to try both sauces (could only do a meal with five nuggets). A 10-piece with both sauces ran me $6.99 before tax. Overall, I give the Taco Bell Chicken Nuggets a 5.8. Good, not great. Won’t go out of my way to grab these again, but I could see myself eating a few in addition to my next quesadilla. The dipping sauces helped the score. McDonald’s and the other chicken fast casuals do not need to press the panic button.

Taco Bell Cantina AKA the Best Club in Vegas is Coming to Boston Reportedly

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You know how many years I have spent complaining about the lack of Taco Bells in the Boston area? They actually just opened one downtown a couple of months ago, but before that there was one in the Cambridgeside Galleria food court and that was it. The next closest locations were in Revere, West Roxbury, and Quincy. 7,000+ locations and there was only one in Boston, what an absolute crime. So I’m all for any semblance of Taco Bell expansion in town, but now I learn that there may be a Taco Bell CANTINA coming to town??

If you’re unfamiliar with the Taco Bell Cantina concept then you my friend are missing out. Theres only a handful of these glorious locations in the country and the one on the strip is legitimately the best club in Las Vegas. I’m not even joking. Just look at this clip I had on my phone from when I was in Vegas last year.

Again, that is a Taco Bell.

The place serves booze, has a DJ, and is just general debauchery with a side of Doritos Locos Tacos.

Now for the location. I love it because its pretty close to my house, but to drop this place directly across the street from a major college in Boston University is BOLD. BU isn’t exactly Arizona State, but I guarantee there is still going to be 19-year-old sorority girls passed out face down in their fourth meal on the regular.

Live mas, indeed.

Taco Bell Has Gone Too Far

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CNN – For years, Thanksgiving feasts have featured bland roast turkeys, canned cranberry sauce and boxed stuffing mix. Thanks to Taco Bell, these painfully generic holiday dishes will plague American families no longer.

Instead, the food chain wants you to serve blended Taco Bell Rolled Chicken Tacos at your traditional holiday dinner…

Taco Bell has taken your mother’s beloved bisque recipe and turned it into its Rolled Chicken Tacos Bisque.

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I love Taco Bell as much as anybody and part of what I love about them is their self-awareness. Taco Bell is not fine dining. It’s not even fast casual. It’s for when you’ve got $18 left in your checking account or are on your way home from the bars (or possibly both). They know that. You know that. They know that you know that, and they’re cool with it. That’s why this news is so disappointing.

Taco Bell is not fancy food for fancy people. So why are they trying to play to the stuffy, basic Friendsgiving crowd? Imagine bringing Taco Bell to Friendsgiving. Melissa would shade you so fast on Instagram your phone would die. Why is Taco Bell trying to play to this crowd? Do they actually think putting their product in a blender to make it more resemble vomit will win that crowd over?

Taco Bell has a long history of innovations with a couple of misses (like the Bell Beefer) but way more grand slams (like the Crunchwrap Supreme). So while I love that they’re willing try something so outrageous here, I can’t help but be amazed by how far off-brand it is.

Sure, White Castle has a similar vibe to Taco Bell and has had lots of success with it’s Thanksgiving stuffing, but that’s totally different. White Castle sliders are 75% bread and stuffing IS MADE OF BREAD. Also, the White Castle stuffing recipe gets points for not requiring a goddamn blender.

Sorry Taco Bell. I won’t be serving your bisque at my house next week.

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Pizza Hut Going Back to the Future

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CNN Business – Pizza Hut wants to return to its winning ways. So it’s rebooting the logo from when it dominated the American pizza market.

The pizza chain is replacing its current round logo with a retro logo that hasn’t been used in two decades, the company said. Compared to its current logo, the old version features its red roof more prominently and the Pizza Hut font is bolder and in black.

Pizza Hut used the original logo from 1967 to 1999, when it was the by far the biggest pizza company in the world. Its market share has been dwindling since, and Domino’s overtook Pizza Hut last year.

In an era of reboots, revivals and throwbacks a move like this shouldn’t surprise anyone. Pizza Hut brought back the P’Zone earlier this year, and with this move they’re just setting the destination time on the DeLorean a little further back. There’s just one problem…

It had been years since I last ordered a calzone from a restaurant, so I was excited to grab a P’Zone during the NCAA tournament. When I bit into that thing, though, I wasn’t sure if I was eating the P’Zone or the box that it came in. It tasted like dry, overcooked dough with hardly any meat or cheese inside. The pizza I got wasn’t much better. To me, Pizza Hut pizza tastes more like a collection of dough, sauce and cheese than an actual pizza.

I’m all for nostalgia – I’d love to see the Patriots trot out their ’90s Drew Bledsoe jerseys next season – but let’s not pretend that this is move by itself will change anything for Pizza Hut. I probably stopped regularly eating Pizza Hut when the Hut near my house closed up shop earlier this decade. Did it close up shop because pizza eaters didn’t like the new logo? Or did pizza eaters just wise up to overpriced dough, sauce and cheese, and get sick of sitting in restaurants that hadn’t been updated since the Bad News Bears ate there?

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There is hope for the Hut, though. Pizza Hut sister brand Taco Bell has reinvented itself into a full-fledged lifestyle brand. They are constantly generating buzz with unique menu offerings, and the Taco Bell Cantina was a highlight of The 300’s Vegas Expedition. All of that has nothing to do its logo. There’s no reason why Pizza Hut can’t do what Taco Bell is doing – or what Domino’s did. As I said on November 2, 2017:

Domino’s Pizza has had a resurgence over the last ten years. Their stock closed at $2.83 per share on November 20, 2008. At the start of trading today, their stock was at $178.44 per share. That’s an increase of more than 6,000%. What happened? Domino’s realized there were problems. Their recipes were stale and their service was subpar. Just as bad, they weren’t “cool.” So they very publicly reworked and improved their pizza recipes in 2009. They tweaked their menu. They introduced the Pizza Tracker. They were no longer the company with delivery drivers allegedly killing people on the roads to deliver pizzas in 30 minutes. They became a hip, self-deprecating company, a social-media darling that served affordable pizza in tough economic times.

There’s room in the market for both Domino’s and Pizza Hut to be successful. Between their sister brand and pizza competitor, the playbook for them should be pretty clear. It can start with a logo reset, but it certainly can’t end there.

 

PS – Domino’s stock (DPZ) opened the day today trading at $275.57 per share. About a hundred bucks higher than when I wrote about it last, and now a solid 9637.46% higher than on that fateful day in 2008. Why don’t I take my own advice?

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Welp, Looks Like I’m Having Taco Bell for Dinner

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Forbes – Taco Bell today announced that delivery is now available nationwide, a day shy of the one-year anniversary since parent company Yum! Brands announced its partnership with Grubhub. That partnership included Yum’s $200 million investment in the delivery company to accelerate expansion of its network.

With today’s announcement, Taco Bell delivery via Grubhub is now available in 65% of its restaurants across the nation. 

I love me some Taco Bell. I don’t just like it, I love it. But the biggest problem with Taco Bell, at least in the Boston area, is that they are almost nonexistant. There’s the one in the Cambridgeside Galleria and then there’s one in Saugus. Other than that the only one I can even think of is in Quincy. Whichever one I choose becomes a goddamn expedition that James and the Giant Peach wouldn’t even attempt. So now I can have this delicious beef paste delivered hot to my door? Goodbye summer bod and any human interaction.

“There’s no doubt that the consumer wants delivery. There’s no doubt that they’re prepared to pay for delivery. There’s no doubt we see a higher check. There’s no doubt we see an incremental transaction,”

Having less locations in Boston than there are Infinity Stones will actually work to Taco Bell’s benefit if they can hire enough delivery drivers to not make this a complete cluster. More and more fast food restaurants in particular are getting into the delivery business, but there’s no way I’m paying a premium for McDonalds because I drive by like 3 of them on my way home from work. But Taco Bell? Hell yea I’ll pay $12 for a Crunch Wrap Supreme, a Doritos Locos taco, a Baja Blast, and a spicy chicken burrito.

With a smile on my face.

And you better believe I am picking up some fresh Taco Bell apparel at the flagship cantina when The 300s does Vegas next month. (I went there twice in one day that last time I was in Vegas)

I’m Making November 1st a Fast Food Holiday

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Business Insider – Taco Bell is giving away Doritos Locos Tacos on November 1.

Before the World Series, Taco Bell announced it would bring back the “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion: If a player steals a base, Taco Bell will give away tacos across the US.

Taco fans didn’t have to wait long for the free tacos to be unlocked. On Tuesday, the first night of the series, the Red Sox’s Mookie Betts stole second base.

Taco Bell’s “Steal a Base, Steal a Taco” promotion has always seemed a bit tacky to me. Has there ever been a World Series without a stolen base? Just one, actually. As Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune wrote last October:

Only once in 112 World Series has no one stolen a base. That was in 1944 when the St. Louis Cardinals downed the St. Louis Browns in six games.

Nevertheless, I’m not one to say no to free food.

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I’m also not one to pass up deals. Right now there are plenty of deals in the fast food world, and I’m not talking about $5 boxes. I’m talking about even better deals. So on November 1st, in honor of Taco Bell giving out free tacos, I’m going to take advantage of all of them and hit for the fast food cycle. What is the fast food cycle, you ask?

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That’s 10 nuggets, a large fry, a large Coke and a Doritos Locos Taco all for three bucks (plus tax) on November 1. Name a better fast food meal with more variety for a better price. I’ll wait.

Before you complain about having to drive all over town to hit for the cycle, keep in mind that at least two of these four restaurants are probably right next to each other in your town. I have a Taco Bell literally next to a Burger King on my way home from work. The Burger King in my home town was across the street from the McDonald’s. Hitting all four restaurants will not be as challenging as you think. Even if it is a bit more challenging than just plunking down $8 for a Quarter Pounder meal at McDonald’s, how could you say no this kind of deal?

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Make no doubt about it, there has never been a better time in history to enjoy fast food in this country. And don’t look now, but the McRib will soon be back, too.