Review: Taco Bell's Doritos Locos Taco



Mmm



Heroes in a half shell!  Wait, that's Ninja Turtles.  Tacos in a half-Dorito shell!  Similar, but Michael Bay isn't trying to ruin the latter.  (Although, the Doritos Locos is like an explosion in my mouth - Michael Bay style - so again, similar enough.)

In case you haven't heard yet, the Doritos Locos taco is real, and it's exactly what it sounds like.  It is a regular Taco Bell taco supreme* (ground beef, lettuce, cheese, tomato*, sour cream*) in a shell coated in Doritos cheese-dust (original flavor, Nacho Cheese).  I guess it's "Locos" because it's so crazy of an idea!  And it rhymes!!

The taco itself is point number one in it's favor - it's a taco supreme (which I prefer), so you have a better basic taco to begin with, and also more flavors for the Doritos to interact with.  Particularly the 'smoothness' of the sour cream playing off the [slightly] tangy/'biting' cheese-dust.

As far as price goes?  It's not too bad I suppose.  Honestly I don't remember - I got it in the Doritos Locos 5 buck box - but let's be serious...this is Taco Bell, you can go in with $5 and dine like a king.

My biggest fear was that the Dorito taste would be too overpowering.  Fortunately, they managed to balance that out just right - the shell isn't exactly a Nacho Dorito chip.  Like I mentioned above, it has a "cheese-dust" on it that reflects a Dorito, but it's not quite as powerful.  [It's different than their volcano taco since the volcano is strong and spicy and your tastebuds are much more focused on that than the other ingredients of the taco.  It can be a little overwhelming.  (Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the volcano taco, too.)]  That's fortunate for two reasons.  One, you don't want it so strong that you think you're just eating Doritos as a side with your taco - ie, two strong and different flavors that don't mix.  You want the taste of Dorito to be a supplement to the taco, there to enhance your taco experience.  And it does.  And two, I think that the Doritos taste can be too much to handle in large quantities.  I can only eat so many Doritos before I start to feel a little queasy.  Fortunately, you can order multiples of this taco if you so desire: you'll be full due to the taco-ness well before your system would start rejecting the Dorito flavor.

All in all, this is a positive addition to the Taco Bell menu.  If you're a fan of Taco Bell in general, give it a shot.  Is this the end-all be-all of tacos?  No.  Is it a good addition to the Taco Bell line-up and your repertoire of go-to menu items?  Yes.  We'll see how long it lasts.

So there you have it, a quick overview of the Doritos Locos taco.  Recommended by myself and some random twitter-ers on the box/cup. 

Now your Taco Bell experience can be: Come for the Doritos Locos, stay for the food-to-price ratio (so good, so cheap!).  (Leave with the Taco Bell-exclusive Baja Blast Mountain Dew.)

And to let you know: as a basis for my review, I am grading it as a taco, as compared to other tacos / Taco Bell items.  Not as a stand alone food against every other edible out there, because surely it pales in comparison to steaks and pastas, etc.  (Well, I suppose that's dependent upon the level of a certain illicit drug in your system.)

So, to recap:
Positives: taco supreme, good taste / good flavor blend, not overwhelmingly Dorito-y, not too expensive. 
Negatives: I don't know...it has a tendency to break apart, but what hard taco doesn't?  And it gets your fingers cheesy.  I just don't like giving out perfect scores - sorry every professor I ever had.

Verdict: 8 out of 10