REVIEW: Taco Bell Quesalupa

Taco Bell Quesalupa

This country is always trying to pit us against each other. In politics, it’s a two party system that radicalizes the masses, the haves versus the have-nots. In sports, the blowout celebration is one final matchup that stretches narratives into ideologies and forces us to choose sides, the dabs versus the dab-nots.

Taco Bell tries the opposite, joining things together with varying success. They integrate other products such as Cinnabon and Doritos into their own items and display countless permutations of existing creations, rearranging-Titanic-deck-chairs style.

Taco Bell’s latest attempt is the much-ballyhooed Quesalupa, a combination of the quesadilla and a Chalupa. A quesadilla is kind of like a grilled soft taco with lots of cheese on it and a Chalupa is kind of like a deep fried soft taco. If menu items were human beings, I would examine the family tree pretty meticulously before letting these two get married.

Taco Bell Quesalupa 4

Ostensibly, the Quesalupa is a Chalupa shell with pepper jack cheese inside then filled with sour cream, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese and a protein. This, however, is no Chalupa shell. I’m sure they had to make adjustments to accommodate the pocket of melty cheese that spills out of the center, but the near-perfect crispy-chewy Chalupa armor has been depleted to a weak facsimile.

Taco Bell Quesalupa 3

The entire Quesalupa sags in the middle, buckling to the sogginess of the cheese, without a textural counterbalance to save it. There is plenty of cheese to go around, to the point where the warm stew-like blend of ingredients exhibits the comforting consistency of a shepherd’s pie. But without the fluffy-crispy promise that a Chalupa provides, the Quesalupa falls short of expectations.

Taco Bell Quesalupa 2

I tried the beef and chicken options and the beef comes up on top, with the salty, ground meat lending better flavor to the entire item. The chicken is bland and definitely needs outside help of a hot sauce to feel complete. The produce is typical of Taco Bell and serves to fill out the item—space-wise and color-wise—and maybe to place a pebble on top of a food pyramid quota.

Perhaps it’s a testament to the Quesalupa that the cheese blends well together. It’s a gooey affair that absorbs all the qualities of both types of cheeses offered (and the sour cream as well) to make a dairy bomb that flattens out any nuance. The center of a Quesalupa is at the same time satisfying and a bit icky, melding together like a cream of Taco Bell soup. Whether that sounds good to you or not will be the deal breaker here.

For my buck, the best Taco Bell items play with texture in a unique way and dance on the crunchy-soft line: the Crunchwrap Supreme, the Double Decker Taco, and the Chalupa.

Unfortunately for the Quesalupa, while it features the warm qualities of a steaming quesadilla, it does not take the best parts of a Chalupa, which makes it a pretty average Taco Bell item. And maybe that’s the point? People hate Trump. People love Trump. People hate Cam. People love Cam. Quesalupa? “Ehh.” On this, I think, we can all agree.

(Nutrition Facts – Beef – 460 calories, 26 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 50 milligrams of cholesterol, 890 milligrams of sodium, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of sugar, 4 grams of fiber, 19 grams of protein. Chicken – 440 calories, 23 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 60 milligrams of cholesterol, 840 milligrams of sodium, 37 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of sugar, 3 grams of fiber, 22 grams of protein.)

Item: Taco Bell Quesalupa
Purchased Price: $2.99 (beef) $3.79 (chicken)
Size: N/A
Purchased at: Taco Bell
Rating: 5 out of 10 (beef)
Rating: 4 out of 10 (chicken)
Pros: Comforting consistency, gooey cheese center.
Cons: Soggy in the middle. Maybe too much cheese. Texturally boring.

48 thoughts to “REVIEW: Taco Bell Quesalupa”

  1. Almost $4 for one Taco Bell item that’s still just a taco. I’ll stick to the cheap stuff. I think this will just end up being a fad & we’ll forget about it in 6 months.

    1. How dare you disrespect my TBELL like that. I eat this every night for dinner.

      -Christopher Anthony Stabile

      1. Yes the advertisement show gooey cheese, where there was so little cheese in the one I had just a dab of cheddar.

  2. Agree with the review exactly. 5 out of 10 is the perfect score. It’s not terrible but its completely underwhelming. TB really set themselves up for failure hyping it this much. The biggest disappointment for me was the cheese. It’s barely there and totally flavorless. I knew it wasn’t going to be like the commercials and stretch out but this was like if you made a grilled cheese and let it cool for 5 minutes. It barely moves at all and is hardly noticeable. It’s suppose to be Pepper Jack but it just tastes like bland white cheese. You’d be better off buying a quesadilla and wrapping it around a taco yourself.

    Actually, just buy a Cheesy Gordita Crunch. It’s every thing the Quesalupa claims to be except it actually delivers.

  3. how about Taco Bell just brings back the regular Nacho Cheese Chalupa….that was perfection there.
    Now I have to argue with TB employees and pay exorbitant prices to recreate that wonderful concoction.

  4. Tried this twice haven’t seen any cheese yet! Not sure if anyone else is coming across the same thing but no more quesalupa

  5. It was delicious. The cheese was not melty and stringy like the pictures by the time I got it home but it was there. And did I mention, Delicious?

  6. I think this is the most overpriced, gross not like advertised item. I will not get it again. I didn’t see the cheese like it said it had so I ended ripping the 2 shells apart there was a little cheese on one side. It looked like it was an old shell definitely not made to order. ?

  7. I have never been so dissatisfied before by anything. This quesalupa is not up to par or anywhere near the commercial that shows it being very cheesy. When i broke the one i ordered, it barely had a sprinkle of cheese on it. There was vert little meat in it as well. Left a bad taste in my mouth. One thing for sure, i wont be going back. Oh, when a hispanic says i need a handful of your hot taco sauce and when you get home and there’s only 2, now thats reason in itself never to return to Taco Bell. Im very unhappy with the food i got.

    1. Wellllll… obviously there is a rapest in lincoln park. He’s climbing in your windows snatching your people up trying to rape them, so you need to hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your husbands too cause they raping everybody out here!

  8. Don’t be fooled. It is not any part chalupa….with that delicious fried flatbread…in any way, shape, or form. It is just a soft taco supreme but instead of one tortilla for the shell it is two with a sprinkle of pepper jack cheese between the two and then “hot pressed”. Basically it’s a very weak pepper jack quesadilla used like a taco shell. It’s forty cents more than a chalupa which puts it at $2.99 when instead it should be forty cents more than a taco supreme at $1.99. Grab three mini chicken quesadillas off the cravers menu instead.

  9. I thought it was OK, but mine had cheese, just wasn’t warm enough. Like it had been sitting. Then I got a mouthful of cheese from the center, and almost choked, it was so hard to chew at first. My husband thought it was too greasy, he ended up throwing half of his out.

  10. It’s not bad, but it’s (way) overhyped and somewhat overpriced.

    1- It takes longer to prepare. I had two people come in after me receive their orders before I did (including one guy with at least four items).

    2- In no way is the cheese spread throughout the shell; what cheese is there (I did taste some pepperjack) pools in the middle of the shell/the bottom of the “taco”, underneath all of the fixings. I won’t say that the cheese CAN’T be spread throughout the entire shell as the commercials/Taco Bell website suggest (even though the texture of the sides does seem different than the middle where the cheese gathers), but it doesn’t seem to do it naturally: maybe if you removed everything else from the shell and pushed down on the middle with a spoon, the cheese would move throughout the rest of the shell. The limited amount of cheese sounds comparable to some complaints about the new Pizza Hut stuffed cheesy bites pizza or whatever it is called.

    3- The cheese that’s there is…fine, but you also could get a normal soft taco and add nacho cheese as an extra and get comparable taste for (at least where I live) $1 less. The quesalupa shell is different and a little better than the soft taco shell, but it’s not what I remember the chalupa shell being nor something that I “have” to have. Plus, it’s #Cheese, not #Shell.

    4- The cheese stands out even less on the Breakfast Quesalupa, which includes nacho cheese as part of the item. I did taste pepperjack a few times, but there wasn’t that much more cheese than with, say, the Grilled Breakfast Burrito, which costs $1.50 less.

    Much preferred 3 Crunchwrap sliders for the same price (actually less than the Chicken Quesalupa).

  11. waste of money, nothing like the pictures or commercials show. Definitely will NOT be buying this again. I will stick to the value menu from now on as the items are all comparable in quality anyway.

  12. There is no cheese in this! Taco Bell has always lied about these kinds of things, my question is why? Ppl would rather have reliable, consistent food that is as good as the ad then to always have something new coming out and being bullshitted every time. Taco Bell, take your time on one thing and keep it consistent rather then half assing a bunch of different things.

  13. I just had one. If they hadn’t told me there was cheese in the shell I wouldn’t have known. Mostly what I could taste was bland unseasoned chicken and sour cream. Much ado about totally nothing.

  14. I tried one yesterday at the North Augusta, SC location and couldn’t find any cheese in it. It’s nothing like the commercial advertises it to be, nothing but a thick dough shell with standard taco filling. Plain soft taco is much better and a fraction of the price. The commercial should be pulled for false advertising!!

  15. No cheese in any of the one’s I’ve gotten. Not even cold cheese. Just a layered shell with nothing inside of it. Not worth it whatsoever. Very disappointing. Wont buy again until they fix it (might just be at my location, idk.)

  16. This is my favorite TB item right now! I have to limit myself to about once a week. I get steak, and I get it with no lettuce – I wonder if the other kinds aren’t as good.

  17. I tried the chicken Quesalupa and it was ok not what i expected it to be. It was good not worth $3 though

  18. Quesalupa very disappointing tried it at multiple locations never seen any cheese stretch like the comericals (false advertising) like mentioned before a expensive taco is all it is bring back the volcano burrito

  19. Yeah, this definitely sounded like a better idea than it tasted. The shell i got was overcooked and the cheese inside was as hard as the shell itself. It was gross… I’ll just stick with the Doritos locos tacos that I love.

  20. Um yeah, I was not a fan of the beef quesalupa. I didn’t like the bread (shell) at all… it was too soft & chewy. The quesalupa was bland and I didn’t see or taste the cheese that is supposed to be between the bread. The whole time I was eating it, I kept wishing I had a chalupa instead.

    I really wish Taco Bell would bring back the baja sauce. That was my favorite! The baja beef chalupa and even the black jack taco had the sauce on it… Both items, of course, Taco Bell does not have anymore.

  21. I don’t know what you guys are talking about… the Quesalupa is hella good! It out weighs any item on Taco Bells menu hands down. QUESALUPA ALL DAY!

  22. This thing has to be one of the nastiest, pathedic pieces of crap they have ever released. What’s worse is they got rid of the sliders which were actually good for this abomination. Taco Bell, you deserve to be shot in the face for what you have done. Do with me what you will, internet. You’ve always sucked that way.

  23. Taco Bell es muy bueno esta noche. Tengo un rollo de queso encima y una bebida. No cuesta mucho dinero. Eran realmente rápidos. Este es mi restaurante favorito. Volveré otra vez. ¡ Usted debe probar.

    Original

    I got a cheese roll up and a drink.

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