Review: Taco Bell - XXL Crispy Taco

Taco Bell's XXL Crispy Taco is their biggest taco yet and features a double portion of steak (also available with either shredded chicken or ground beef) along with shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, shredded cheddar cheese, avocado ranch sauce, and reduced fat sour cream in a new crispy shell.

I bought the steak version for $2.99.

Price-wise, this is actually a better value than buying two Crunchy Steak Taco Supremes, which are generally $2 or more each.

The XXL Crispy Taco makes for a pretty big taco that might be just a tad less in size than two regular Taco Bell Tacos. Unlike Jack in the Box's Monster Taco, the XXL Crispy Taco is not just longer, it's also taller.

Taco Bell went with a new sturdier, crunchier shell for these. Compared to their regular taco shells, the XXL taco shell is less prone to breakage, slightly thicker, and denser. It reminds me a lot of Del Taco's new tostada shells.

It's not hard to see why then went with the sturdier shell; it held together from start to finish. The regular ones would probably break under the extra weight.

If you end up trying these with the steak, I recommend you nix the sour cream. Taco Bell's steak is fairly lightly seasoned and the huge amount of sour cream covered up the flavor almost entirely, except at the ends. The steak was tender and juicy, which is pretty good for reheated steak.

The avocado ranch sauce was MIA ("missing in action") in my taco; I neither saw nor tasted it (I'll chalk it up to launch day miscues).

The lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese were pretty standard and fresh. The lettuce was crisp and I could actually taste the tomatoes.

Overall, I like the concept of the XXL Crispy Taco, but I'm not sure about all the sour cream (at least for the steak). I liked the steak but only went with it as that's how they're promoting it. I would go with the seasoned ground beef or shredded chicken (Who am I kidding? Beef all the way! It's 50 cents cheaper too!) to better balance against the sour cream.

Nutritional Info - Taco Bell XXL Steak Crispy Taco (193g)
Calories - 430 (from Fat - 220)
Fat - 25g (Saturated Fat - 7g)
Sodium - 680mg
Carbs - 26g (Sugar - 3g)
Protein - 24g