The 5pm Saturday crew at my local Taco Bell is not the A Team. Every trip is a gamble, but that’s part of the charm. On this trip I planned ahead and submitted my order through the Taco Bell app so that all I’d need to do was walk into the lobby and grab the bag. Unfortunately, there was a “lobby closed” sign when I got there and I had to wait in the drive-thru. I let the order taker know that my order was placed online and he insisted that I had selected the wrong Taco Bell location. He was wrong, I was right, but my food was definitely not ready. Fortunately for everyone involved, Taco Bell food is not complicated and they prepped the order quickly.

I go to Taco Bell whenever they have some sort of promotional item. With the return of Nacho Fries, and their current iteration of “Loaded Taco Fries” I had a good excuse. It’s been over 3 years since I last reviewed Taco Bell fries and that was with the original launch of their french fries. I gave them a 5 out of 10. Back then they had the “Nacho Fries Supreme” which added taco meat, nacho cheese, and sour cream to the fries. The Loaded Taco Fries do the same thing but add a Spicy Ranch sauce, red chip strips, and some shredduce.

It was fine. My guess is that Taco Bell read my previous review and started seasoning the fries more. I ordered them to-go and it was mostly mush by the time I sat down to eat it. The nacho cheese mixed with the spicy ranch sauce where the right compliment to the starchy base. No chance you can eat this with just your fingers, so make use of the provided spork. The lettuce was at best a neutral addition. I also ordered the black bean version of the fries, but that one didn’t include lettuce…:shrug:. Both versions were equally fine. The most I’ll give the item is 6 out of 10. The fries would need to be crispy for me to consider anything more.

The surprise in the order was the Loaded Taco Fries Burrito. While it’s not pretty, it was a much more successful version of the fry and taco stuff dish. Maybe I just expect stuff inside a burrito to be mushy, or maybe it was just more convenient to eat with easy ratio control between starch, meat, sauce, and veg. Whatever the difference was, I liked it. Reminded me quite a bit of the Hot Cheetos Carne Asada Fries Burrito I had at a gas station in the middle of nowhere Nevada.

I can’t guess at how long these will be available, but I’m confident that something like it will exist again in the future. Also, I asked for about 10 hot sauce packets. Based on what they gave me I can understand why there have been rumors of a hot sauce packet shortage.