Taco Bell goes upscale with Cantina Bell menu, expands Doritos Tacos line

America Now News / The Christian Science Monitor ^ | June 13, 2012 | Schuyler Velasco

[2ndDivisionVet]

Good news for us poor people.

[Bryanw92]

After the fast food wars, all restaurants are Taco Bell.

[relictele]

It’s easy to say ‘I would have thought of that’ but I have always wondered why the Doritos/Taco Bell marriage didn’t occur years ago.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

I’m waiting for the Cool Ranch Dorito taco. The regular Doritos shell was awesome, but the CRD one will be stellar.

[nerdwithagun]

Sounds good, but their Dorito tacos are a crock. They might be a dorito chip, but they don't have the FREAKING DORITO SEASONING! It's just a corn tortia by another company without the seasoning. It irritates me to no end how they make a big deal of it when it tastes just like a normal taco.

[Proud2BeRight]

If this new menu actually resembles Mexican food that will be a great 1st for the chain.

[Boogieman]

They’ve tried “upscale” stuff before, but I don’t think it ever sells. If we want good Mexican, we’re not going to Taco Bell, no matter how cheap it is.

Hell, I can go to an authentic tacqueria and get real carne asada tacos for 1.50 each, with real mexican queso, cilantro, onions, and free chips and pico de gallo. Neither Taco Bell or Chipotle can compete with that.

[TaMoDee]

“Cantina Bowl” = “E.Coli Special”!

[2ndDivisionVet]

Not every locale has authentic tacquerias. They’ve sold over 100 million of those Doritos tacos since early March. Sounds like they’re on a roll.

[Drew68]

Hell, I can go to an authentic tacqueria and get real carne asada tacos for 1.50 each, with real mexican queso, cilantro, onions, and free chips and pico de gallo. Neither Taco Bell or Chipotle can compete with that.

The best Mexican food I've ever eaten were burritos grilled up out of a taco truck in San Diego.

If Taco Bell could figure those out, I'd eat there every day.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I’ve been sick half a dozen times after going to Chinese Buffet restaurants (but still go, I like Chinese) but have never had food poisoning from any Mexican restaurant, be it Taco Bell or a hole in the wall.

[Boogieman]

“Not every locale has authentic tacquerias.”

Well, now that Obama has cleared the way, they’ll be coming. Welcome to Sanctuary USA :)

[molson209]

I miss that little dog

[Boogieman]

We don't have many taco trucks around here yet, but they just started allowing food trucks last year, so it might be happening soon. In the meantime, I've developed a checklist for detecting a good tacqueria. Look for:

1) Circular Mayan Calendar scultpure on the wall:

2) Paintings of Aztec warriors with feather headress:

3) Shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe:

4) Television tuned to only Futbol or Mexican Soap Operas:

5) Al Pastor Spit behind the counter:

6) Menu contains items like "cabeza" and "lengua":

If you can check off at least 4 of these items, you are probably going to be eating some darn good Mexican food!

[TaMoDee]

I assume that you need a colon clean out every once in awhile! (I guess at Qu Chi you didn’t get enough of that “Oriental Action”. :>)

[bmwcyle]

They are made by Pepsico with the CEO b&^ch that hates America.

[Illuminatas]

I see you’ve been to Tacos Nayarit in Durango. Also, real tacos have cabbage not lettuce on them.

[Boogieman]

Actually, I just grabbed all those images off the web, so it wasn’t me that went there :)

Never had tacos with cabbage. Around here, the tacos come with onions and cilantro only, with queso and crema by request. If you order it with lettuce and tomato, it’s called a “gringo taco”.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The best Mexican food I've ever eaten were burritos grilled up out of a taco truck in San Diego.

Best Mexican food I've ever eaten was also in San Diego, at Roberto's. OK, maybe not the best, but pretty good for 3 AM when you're in college.

[ApeStyle]

Carnitas and carne asada street style tacos should be just onion and cilantro, but fish and shrimp tacos need some cabbage.