Fast Food: 10 greatest Taco Bell menu items of all-time

Perhaps nothing hits the spot more than Taco Bell menu items when you get that craving for some Tex-Mex cuisine prepared well and delivered to your mouth as quickly as possible. And what’s quicker than heading to your local Taco Bell and ordering what you’ve got a hankering for? Nada, zilch; that’s what. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at ten of the greatest Taco Bell menu items of all-time.

But beware, reader, beware, as some of these items have been discontinued so not all of them will be accessible if you so happen to get a craving once you read about them in this piece.

Taco Bell has been around since its inception back in March of 1962, officially, and ever since, it’s been delighting customers with the flavors of that aforementioned Tex-Mex cuisine, as these following items will undoubtedly prove.

10 of the greatest Taco Bell menu items ever

10. Beef Supreme Grande Nachos/Loaded Taco Grande Nachos

Who doesn’t like nachos? What’s not to like, anyways? The cheese, the meat options, the diced onions? Well, you get all of that and even more with Taco Bell’s Grande Nachos.

Figured we’d start the list with a recent menu item add-on, and this one seems to be gaining steam for sure.

The Beef Supreme option comes complete with: seasoned beef (quite obviously), nacho cheese sauce, a three cheese blend, pico de gallo, beans, sour cream and guacamole; the lot served with the nacho chips, of course.

9. Grilled Cheesy Burritos

As we’ll get into a little later, Taco Bell was born on the classics of the cuisine, and what’s more classic than a burrito, dear readers? You can peruse the streets of Guadalajara, Mexico, or perhaps even El Paso, Texas, and find many a truck vendor selling these, the authenticity of the recipe evident in the smell being carried out to you as you walk over, and even before you put the burrito to your mouth, you just know it’s going to be good.

Authenticity. The word that you look for when eating age-old recipes, and no matter what most say, you can find that authenticity in Taco Bell, or at least a close substitute, which when you’ve got a craving—a bad one—is most certainly good enough.

This grilled edition of the classic burrito just takes something that’s already epically good, over the proverbial edge.

8. Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Taco Supreme

Okay…we had to do it. When you’re craving nachos and can’t get them served classically, topped with ingredient after ingredient, where do you go? If you said, to get a bag of Doritos at the corner store, we’re most definitely with you. And maybe there’s nothing better to eat when you’re watching The Masked Singer or a professional wrestling event on TV, than a bag of Doritos and a cold bottle of Mountain Dew to go along.

That’s why, for the genius minds at Taco Bell, it was a no-brainer to use a taco shell made out of…you guessed it, Doritos! An explosion of dynamics for your taste buds, for sure.

7. The Mexican Pizza

It was two tortillas stuffed with meat, the top tortilla topped with diced veggies, cheese and sauce. So essentially it was a pizza without being a pizza at all. Stay with me.

Maybe people were a little stand-offish when it came to pizza being served at a fast food joint of all places. I mean, I really don’t hear a magnificent chorus of a zillion voices asking for McDonald’s Pizza back, do you? I didn’t think so. Regardless, it stayed on the menu for decades.

Yet this was a really delicious item that undoubtedly makes this list and for good reason. But according to timeout.com, Taco Bell decided to do away with this menu item in 2020.

6. Caramel Apple Empanada

For you sweet-toothed members of society out there, this can definitely be considered an item to be missed and cherish. The memories you had with it need to be held on to. I hope like me, you can remember that first time biting through the surface of that shell, the taste of apple reminding you of your Ma’s apple and rum cake, taking you and transporting you back in time, as great food should do.

If you never tasted this one, you missed something special, folks.

5. Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes

Tex-Mex’s answer to the poutine. In Quebec, the poutine is not only a staple of the cuisine, but it’s done and done again by one restaurant to the next…some say is even outdone by some restaurants. If you ask this writer, it’s probably done best by Chez Ma Tante (translated, means At My Aunt’s Place), and Fusee Rotisserie Restaurants, but I digress.

This here could have definitely been considered the Tex-Mex equivalent and for very good reason. If it’s potatoes and cheese that you love, this was the dish for you. It was topped with sour cream to boot. (If we are lucky, we can still get it when the mood strikes Taco Bell.)

4. Spicy Potato Soft Taco

And speaking of potatoes, this was a really great vegetarian option, and one that packed a most definitive punch for something that didn’t have any meat in it at all. The star here was the potatoes themselves, the Taco Bell recipe for preparing them and the soft shell.

Best described as when you’re eating mashed potatoes, peas and gravy at Thanksgiving dinner, and combine that bite with a piece of soft and fresh dinner roll.

3. The Enchirito

We’re getting close to the greatest menu items at Taco Bell, according to this writer, and before we get there, I felt a nod to this fallen soldier was definitely appropriate and marks the last of the over-the-top menu items on this list, as the last two are as plain Jane as you can get, as I alluded to earlier.

The Enchirito, very much like a classic enchilada in Mexican cuisine, was taken off of the Taco Bell menu in 2013, much to the chagrin of customers all over.

2. The Classic Burrito (Beef and Bean variety)

And as we mentioned earlier, the classics are no doubt the best. This is arguable, as there are those that like to push the boundaries of classic cuisine, but for some, the staples of a cuisine speak for themselves, as they’ve been carried from generation to generation by word of mouth and reputation.

1. The Classic Taco

Which brings us to numero uno, friends, and sometimes, simplicity is the best thing one can expect, as we learned in the previous item.

So to finish off this trip in time and into the annals of Taco Bell’s menu item history, come with me if you will to 1948. Glen Bell opens a hot dog stand in San Bernardino, California, but after seeing the Mexican restaurant across the street doing so well, he asks to learn the recipe for their hottest item: the taco.

They teach him and he starts serving said item at his new stand, which after a few name changes finally lands as Taco Bell—the first ever—in Downey, California (1962).

Imagine if you will, walking into that stand and tasting something that passed from the hands of tradition and into the hands of the hopeful Bell, that wanted to do well with a simple hot dog stand at first. The magic of perseverance.

As of 2015, Taco Bell has earned over $1.988 billion…and all because of a classic Mexican taco recipe.

So yeah…I’d say it’s the number one menu item of all-time.

What do you think Guilty Eaters? Tell us your thoughts about these 10 great menu items.