Friday, September 30, 2011

Deluxe Taco Comparison: Taco Bell or Red Burrito

Who doesn't like a good cheap taco?  Even my kids like tacos so they can't be all bad.  This post reveals the good and the bad of both Taco Bell's and Red Burrito's (Hardee's) tacolicious crunchy deluxe taco offering.  But first, what's the difference between a regular taco and a deluxe taco?  In a word, sour cream...and about $.40.  Other than that, a 'regular' and a 'deluxe' are about the same.  Let's get down to brass tacks:


Deluxe/Supreme Taco Showdown
Red Burrito (Hardee's) -  First off, I always thought it was a little odd to have a taco bar in a burger joint, but hey, Hardee's may think i'm a little odd too.  Nonetheless, Red Burrito was purchased some years back by Hardee's and is now part of Hardee's regular offering.  The Red Burrito taco is called the 'Deluxe Hard Taco' (maybe they haven't yet heard the jokes about 'hard' and 'soft' tacos).  This taco is much less visually appealing than the Taco Bell taco, mostly because it lacks color.  There was no tomato, the lettuce wasn't as green, and the shell was paler compared to Taco Bell's.  See the pic above.  The flavor of the taco was what I expected, no more, no less.  I did enjoy the Red Burrito jalapeno hot sauce a little more than the Taco Bell fire sauce.


Taco Bell - At first glance, the Taco Bell taco is much more appealing, not to mention that they call their taco the 'Crunchy Taco Supreme', graciously omitting the term 'hard' from the title.  This taco is more colorful, at least partly due to the inclusion of tomatoes.  The shell is also much more colorful and inviting, although the taco shell is chewier than the Red Burrito taco shell.  I can't help but wonder if this taco shell was designed to be more flexible and chewy so as to avoid the much feared taco shell breakage which can result in taco contents winding up in your lap.  I don't especially like the chewiness, but I think I understand the chewiness.  The meat flavor was also a little better with the Taco Bell taco.  I always use the fire sauce when I go to Taco Bell, in spite of the weird sayings they put on the sauce packs.  Todays sauce pack weird saying example: "Help!  I'm a genie trapped in a sauce packet."  These sayings take my mind to whatever strange place that is suggested on the packet, thus sucking the life and energy right out of me.  I bet they didn't realize the power of those sauce pack sayings!  HaHa. 

 



As you can see from the above chart, the nutritional values of both tacos are similar, but the edge for nutrition goes to Taco Bell for having less fat and sodium and more fiber. 


All in all, I am giving the Taco Bell Crunchy Taco Supreme the thumbs up, it's worth the extra $.30.  While the Red Burrito Taco was an acceptable entrant into the taco space, it just doesn't measure up with respect to appearance or flavor.  Plus, Taco Bell has that cool 'booonnnngggg' logo sound.



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5 comments:

  1. taco bell's commercials annoy the piss out of me

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  2. Strongly disagree. I like fact that on my first bite of Red Burrito, it doesn't fall apart. Unlike Taco Bell's flimsy shell.

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  3. red burrito is like a world of greatness compared to taco bell

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  4. Significant protein difference and they have vetted salsa at red burrito

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  5. Hardees has real meat & a lot more of it! They also use a much better cheddar cheese.

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