Review: Taco Bell Breakfast

I actually started to write this review a few months ago when Taco Bell first rolled out breakfast in our area and for some reason never did.  However, this past Saturday I happened to be up early (that's another story) and decided to take my daughter P to get some breakfast.  P being who she is really wanted chicken so I took her to White Castle to get some chicken rings, but I wanted breakfast.  I had been seeing quite a few Taco Bell commercials recently and decided to give their breakfast another shot.

Now the first visit a few months ago, M had brought me a couple of things home, specifically the Sausage Flatbread Melt, and a Sausage Waffle Taco.  The melt was pretty good, albeit a touch on the smallish side.  However, the Waffle Taco was a bit of a disappointment.  Perhaps my expectations were too high, but the waffle was on the soggy side and it also was smaller than I expected.  Now as to the soggy part, yes it was brought home to me, but we also only live about 1.5 miles from Taco Bell so it's only a couple of minutes home.  As far as the size of both, I suppose it's typical advertising as the finished products - especially in the restaurant industry - never seem to match up with is shown on television.  I'm not saying either was "bad", they just weren't good enough for me to try them - or really any other breakfast items from there again.  At least until now.

This time I chose to sample the Steak and Egg Cheesy Burrito, and the Steak A.M. Crunchwrap.  Unfortunately, by the time I decided to picture(s), I had already eaten the burrito and actually had taken two bites of the crunchwrap as well.  That being said, here's what's left of the crunchwrap.

Since that's what I have a picture of, lets start there.  Per Taco Bell's website this is how they describe it:

"Fluffy scrambled eggs, a golden crispy hash brown, real cheddar cheese, marinated premium thick cut steak and creamy jalapeno sauce wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla and grilled, so it's good to go."

As to what I thought of it - well I'm not sure the picture does it justice, but it's again on the smallish side.  I've had a few Crunchwrap Supreme's in my time and normally they are big enough that the tortilla doesn't quite close on the folded side and this not only did close there was a fair amount of overlap - more than I felt the picture on their website shows.  The hash brown was a touch on the soggy side, not horribly so, but considering I was probably eating this within five minutes of leaving Taco Bell I would have expected it to not be as soggy as it was.  Beyond that, everything was as it should be and actually it tasted pretty good.  I don't think there was nearly as "stuffed" as the photo on their website - but as I said above that's a fairly common complaint with most every restaurant.  

Now to the burrito.  Again per Taco Bell's website:

"Fluffy scrambled eggs, lots of warm, melted cheddar cheese, marinated, premium thick cut steak, and creamy jalapeno sauce all wrapped up in a warm flour tortilla.  Also available in Fresco Style."

Frankly, I was more impressed with the burrito than the crunchwrap.  From a size perspective, it was about what I expected and resembled the website photo.  The contents were evenly distributed and truthfully it was one of the better things I've had at Taco Bell during any day part.  I'm not sure if it was good enough that I'd make a special trip to Taco Bell to get it, but it was good enough that if I were to be going there for breakfast it would be one of the items I'd lean towards ordering.

Some final thoughts.  The total for these two items was nearly $6 with tax - $2.99 for the crunchwrap and $2.49 for the burrito.  While it's a little more than I'd normally spend on a fast food breakfast, I also would note that the pricing is in line with Taco Bell's lunch/dinner items containing steak.  I could have opted for either a sausage or bacon crunchwrap and the burrito also comes in bacon (and maybe sausage too) - and those options would have been at least somewhat cheaper.  As such I'm by no means saying their pricing is "out of line" with other fast food restaurants - I'm simply not much of a breakfast person and normally if I were out at that time of the morning I'd probably just grab a cheap sausage biscuit from somewhere.  

The food itself was good (the burrito being the better of the two), but not great; although that's a typical fast food issue, but the calorie count was incredibly high.  I believe it was about 650 calories for the crunchwrap and around 450 for the burrito which turned that into 1100 calories which is at/over half of my limit for the day.  Now the burrito is available "Fresco Style" which would reduce the calorie count from 450 to 320, which is more palatable - albeit probably not as tasty either.  

So to summarize these items have changed my mind a bit on Taco Bell's breakfast offerings, but not enough to decide to just up and go there for breakfast.  It's more along the lines of - if I was out and wanted something quick to eat I would consider visiting there.  I would definitely have to just grab *one item* and not two as I did here and it would likely be the burrito as it was the better of the two items and the calorie count is much more in line with what I can/should consume for breakfast.

- M