At this point, I feel as if I don’t need to explain what Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries are, and how there’s always a loaded version of them that usually features standard Taco Bell ingredients that, in the past, may have been chosen by pulling out slips of paper from a flipped-over bell. In the present, I imagine the physical pulling has been replaced by an in-house AI chatbot called Gidget, after the chihuahua from the 90s Taco Bell commercials.

If Gidget does exist, its latest creation is the new Chicken Bacon Ranch Nacho Fries, featuring slow roasted chicken, pico de gallo, bacon, cheese, nacho cheese sauce, and avocado ranch sauce. There are also Chicken Bacon Ranch Street Chalupas, which include almost everything above minus the nacho cheese sauce, wrapped in toasted cheddar chalupa shells. However, when the Toasted Cheddar Street Chalupas debuted last year, I wrote that “if it ever comes back, I’m sure I won’t be sticking it and its bread-y flavor in my mouth again.” So I didn’t give them a try and stuck with the fries. Hey! That rhymes!

A quick search of this site confirms that chicken, bacon, and ranch are a common fast food combo, and the Nacho Fries are an excellent vessel for highlighting them, providing a slightly crispy, seasoned bed for those toppings to rest on. I was skeptical that the nacho cheese sauce could be paired with the avocado ranch, since one might cancel out the other. But the orange goop added a cheesier layer that complemented the creamy, slightly tangy avocado ranch rather than competing with it.

The biggest letdown was the chicken, but mainly because my order didn’t seem to have much of it. It looked less like a star of the menu item and more like it had been accidentally included in my order on its way to being added to another order. At least, there were enough bacon crumbles to make up for it. The pico de gallo was a welcome addition, bringing bright, acidic bursts with each forkful, and doing a nice job of cutting through the richness of the sauces.

Overall, Taco Bell’s Chicken Bacon Ranch Nacho Fries are as good as many of the previous loaded Nacho Fries iterations. There’s a lot of flavor, and the fries are a great carrier for all the sauces and toppings. But at the same time, there’s nothing about it that makes it a must-order, and if you happen to miss this limited-time offering, there’s no need to feel any amount of FOMO.

Besides, Gidget will have something new for us soon enough.

Purchased Price: $6.99 each
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 350 calories, 24 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 940 milligrams of sodium, 22 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 13 grams of protein.

Taco Bell has gotten expensive.

I’ve seen your comments complaining, and I completely agree with you because I hear the voices in my head yelling profanities in between statements like, “SEVEN DOLLAR DIPPING BURRITOS!? Back in my day, you could spend seven dollars at Taco Bell and eat for seven days! Now get off my lawn!”

Those days of a few dollars getting you a lot of food are long gone, but Taco Bell has heard your grumbling and my mind’s cursing because there’s now a new Luxe Value Menu that features ten items that are advertised for three dollars or less. While that’s not like the days of yore quiero Taco Bell, it’s a start.

Of those ten menu items, five are new-ish: Beefy Potato Loaded Griller, Salted Caramel Churros, Mini Taco Salad, Chips and Nacho Supreme Dip, and Avocado Ranch Chicken Stacker. The not-new-ish are the Cheesy Double Beef Burrito, Spicy Potato Soft Taco, Cheesy Bean & Rice Burrito, 3-Cheese Chicken Flatbread Melt, and Cheesy Roll Up. I’ll be reviewing the five new-ish ones here.

Avocado Ranch Chicken Stacker

Let’s start with my least favorite of the bunch, which features grilled all-white-meat chicken, avocado ranch, creamy chipotle sauce, a three-cheese blend, lettuce, and tomatoes, all wrapped in a folded tortilla.

Yeah, it’s my least favorite of the bunch, but it’s still decent. Although I’m not sure mine was made correctly, I could definitely taste the avocado ranch sauce, but not the creamy chipotle. Whatever I got, it’s pretty basic tasting with just the chicken and ranch sauce coming through. The poultry is tender, and the lettuce adds a little crunch, but the tomatoes aren’t noticeable at all, despite my order having several chunks.

The Avocado Ranch Chicken Stacker is a limited time offering, but it’s so mid that it’s okay to skip it. Also, it’s the priciest of the bunch.

Purchased Price: $2.99
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 430 calories. No other nutritional information is available at the time of publication.

Let’s follow up my least favorite of the bunch with my favorite: a grilled roll-up filled with seasoned beef, crispy potato bites, chipotle sauce, nacho cheese sauce, and reduced-fat sour cream. Those of you who edit the Taco Bell Wiki probably realize that this is awfully similar to Taco Bell’s Beefy Potato-rito from 2017. The only ingredient difference between this and that is the addition of sour cream in this one.

I gave the Beefy Potato-rito a 7 out of 10, and I’m going to give this one a slightly better score because it’s bigger, making it beefier and potato-ier. There’s a chili cheese fries vibe with these, and I love the seasoned beef and potato combo. The nacho cheese is the most noticeable of the sauces, and there’s also a slight kick that might be coming from the chipotle sauce, but it doesn’t build to anything beyond smoldering. The Beefy Potato Loaded Griller is terrific, and it makes me wonder why more Taco Bell items don’t have potatoes in them. Will definitely be repurchasing this.

Purchased Price: $2.79
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 490 calories, 25 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 1120 milligrams of sodium, 54 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar (including 2 grams of added sugar), and 12 grams of protein.

Mini Taco Salad

Let me start by saying this Mini Taco Salad is super adorable. That adorable mini tortilla bowl is filled with seasoned beef, chipotle sauce, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, and refried beans. I want to call it a Taco Side Salad.

Despite having “salad” in its name, it’s more meaty than salad-y. Actually, if it didn’t have the lettuce, it looks like the dip from the chips & dip you’ll read about next. With the lettuce and tortilla bowl, it has that familiar taco salad taste. So it’s almost everything you’d taste from a regular taco salad, but in a cuter form.

However, I think the best thing about the Mini Taco Salad is the fact that I didn’t need a fork to eat it. Sure, I was given one, but I took one look at the mini tortilla bowl and thought, “Yeah, not gonna need utensils with this one.” Then I picked it up with my hands and started chomping away. Surprisingly, I didn’t make a mess. Your cleanliness may vary.

Purchased Price: $2.49
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 280 calories, 16 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 490 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbohydrates, 6 grams of fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 9 grams of protein.

Chips & Nacho Supreme Dip

I’m a little surprised this wasn’t called Chips & Six-Layer Dip. Okay, “six” doesn’t EXACTLY rhyme with “chips” and “dip,” but it kind of does. Those six layers include seasoned beef, beans, nacho cheese sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, pico de gallo, and a three-cheese blend, which is served with a sleeve of tortilla chips.

As I looked at the Luxe Value Menu on my table, I had thoughts about dumping the Nacho Supreme Dip into the Mini Taco Salad’s tortilla bowl and eating them as a combined menu item. Maybe I’ll spend five dollars to do that during my next Taco Bell run.

The dip is plentiful, and there’s enough for all the chips given. Much like the Beefy Potato Loaded Griller, the nacho cheese sauce is the most noticeable condiment. With my order, there was a slight bitterness, which might’ve been from the pico de gallo. The dip overall had a familiar flavor, which isn’t surprising since it’s made with common ingredients in the Taco Bell Universe. I guess you could think of this as a burrito filling that doesn’t have a flour tortilla to go home to.

The chips and dip were enjoyable, and I would spend another $2.50 to eat them again.

Purchased Price: $2.49
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 360 calories. No other nutritional information is available at the time of publication.

Salted Caramel Churros

I ended my Luxe meal with the only dessert on the menu. An order comes with three pieces featuring a creamy filling and a crispy exterior dusted with salted caramel-flavored sugar. That crystalline substance on the crispy fried dough is definitely sweet and definitely salty, but perhaps a bit more salty than I was expecting.

The creamy filling adds a modest amount of sweetness, but I kind of question whether it was necessary if all the salted caramel flavor comes from the sugary coating. I also wondered whether the filling wanted to be involved with this dessert, because when I bit into a piece on one end, the filling would escape from the other, as if it were trying to run away from being associated with these churros.

Other than being saltier than I expected, I think these churros were worth it. For $1.99, you don’t have to fork over much.

Purchased Price: $1.99
Size: 3 pieces
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 230 calories, 16 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 20 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (including 12 grams of added sugar), and 2 grams of protein.

With Taco Bell’s Luxe Value Menu, you won’t be able to stretch five dollars as much as you could a decade or so ago. However, you can get two or three of these items for five, six, or seven dollars. I paid under $13 for all five, which isn’t enough to quiet the voices in my head. Although they’re whispering, “That’s not too bad.”

Ah, the holidays! A season of peppermint, eggnog… and, if recent product releases are to be believed, confetti? I guess it makes sense with so much to celebrate this time of year, and as someone whose wedding cake was Funfetti, I for one couldn’t be happier with this trend—especially Taco Bell’s Confetti Cookie Freeze.

When I think of Freeze flavors, I think fruity: strawberry, margarita, Baja Blast… so my attention was piqued by a flavor on the different side of the sugary spectrum, more “bakery counter” than “produce section”. I’ll admit, though, I was a little thrown by the premise of a “confetti cookie” rather than “confetti cake,” and a bit disappointed to realize that there would not be real chunks of cookies blended in there.

I wasn’t disappointed for long, though. After some light misadventures—an employee who forlornly informed me “We don’t have that right now… and we might never get it…,” a chilly mile-long walk to the next nearest Taco Bell, and a flurry of mild terror from the new trainee who took my order—the Confetti Cookie Freeze was in my gloved hands. Nothing like a cold drink on a cold night, eh? Well, when a drink is as delicious as this one, I’ll enjoy it any time.

The base is a vanilla slushie, which is swirled quite thoroughly with a “pink sugar cookie flavored syrup.” The Freeze is also studded with tiny round rainbow sprinkles, more for aesthetic than taste (when cold, they’re extremely hard, and I wouldn’t recommend chomping down directly on them). Though Taco Bell’s website states that this drink also includes “a swirl of creamy vanilla crème,” I couldn’t visually distinguish that from the white base. Visually, the whole thing is reminiscent of Mother’s Animal Cookies—which I, of course, mean as the highest compliment.

It should come as no surprise to you that this drink is very sweet. However, I was surprised by how rich it tasted for something primarily consisting of ice. That’s where the crème comes in, lending some dairy-like smoothness to round out the grittiness of the slush. The pink syrup is also a powerhouse, reminding me of frosting with its powerful sugariness. Could those pillowy technicolor Lofthouse cookies be another inspiration? (Wow, I never realized how many different desserts are pink and sprinkled.) When I tried to ascribe a more specific flavor to the syrup, the idea of bubblegum briefly crossed my mind—perhaps because of the slight synthetic aftertaste, perhaps just because of the drink’s color—but that’s not quite right. Even if the sweetness is a bit generic, though, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

The Confetti Cookie Freeze is a creative, fresh idea that I was excited to see on Taco Bell’s menu. If you’re curious, go try it for yourself; like fallen confetti, I don’t think it’ll stick around long. But despite that, I have a feeling that, like the stray confetti pieces that you might unearth from the corners of your house months later, the sweet memories of this dessert will stick with me even longer.

Purchased Price: $4.34
Size: Regular (16 oz)
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 220 calories, 1 gram of fat, less than 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 55 grams of carbohydrates, 53 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein.

Flat burrito.

That was the first thought that rolled into my head when I pulled out Taco Bell’s Steak & Poblano Rolled Quesadilla from its sleeve. Despite accurately describing what I received and what the promotional photos show, “flat burrito” would obviously be a worse name for a Taco Bell menu item than “rolled quesadilla.”

However, it might be a decent name for a pop punk band. If you’re trying to come up with one, feel free to take it. You can always change it later.

Just like pop punk chord progressions, the ingredients list here is very simple: seasoned steak, a three-cheese blend, spicy ranch, and fire-roasted poblano peppers in a warm tortilla.

I presume this is the first time poblano peppers have been put in a Taco Bell product, which is particularly surprising because I had the perception that the Tex-Mex place had incorporated every possible pepper at this point into its products. But I’m glad the green vegetables are there because they add some color, crunch, and a mild peppery flavor that’s somewhat similar to standard green bell peppers.

At first, I thought the poblano was spicy, but it turned out to be the spicy ranch sauce we’ve seen in many other Taco Bell products. The tangy, mildly spicy sauce complements the other ingredients without overwhelming them.

I’m not sure if this rolled quesadilla had more or the same amount of meat as the standard quesadillas, but it sure tasted and looked super meaty in every bite. As for the three-cheese blend, it provided a hint of cheesiness in the flour tortilla.

Overall, it’s a fine tasting menu item, and the addition of the poblano peppers is nice. However, let’s get back to its flat, long burrito shape. Because it’s not fanned out like Taco Bell’s standard quesadillas, it looks less substantial. And that would be fine if it had a less substantial price than the other quesadillas, but it’s just slightly cheaper.

Purchased Price: $6.59*
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 530 calories, 28 grams of fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 70 milligrams of cholesterol, 1280 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbohydrates, 3 grams of fiber, 5 grams of sugar (including 2 grams of added sugar), and 25 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.