Review: Taco Bell breakfast

A war is raging . . .   and apparently it is a BREAKFAST WAR!  A war with salvos like this:



Well, this morning I had the opportunity to try Taco Bell's breakfast menu for the first time, when I "dined" there with my friend Elmo.  What follows is an unsolicited and uncompensated review of what I ate.

Upon entering, Elmo asked the cashier what she would recommend.  She said that she likes the Waffle Taco, but many others enjoy the Breakfast Tostadas.  With these suggestions in mind, I decided to order one of each, along with a hashed brown and a Dr Pepper.

My order looked like this:

For the sake of this review, I will address each item pictured from right to left (more or less).

Not Pictured: Dr Pepper
Even though the morning was still young, I had consumed a full cup of black coffee already.  As such, I decided to order a Dr Pepper, rather than the more traditional American breakfast beverage.  Dr Pepper is the best.  Sic 'em Bears!

The Hashed Brown Wrapper
The hashed brown was delivered in a greasy paper sleeve, which claimed "THIS IS THE BEST DECISION [I've] MADE ALL DAY."  I found this to be a very thought-provoking assertion.  To which decision did it refer?  The decision to eat breakfast at Taco Bell?  Or rather, the decision to order specifically what I did?  Or perhaps the hashed brown alone?  Would this really be the best decision I would make all day?  If so, would that not be something of a minor tragedy?  Or does the statement rely on the logic that it is still the early morning and not very many decisions have yet been made?  If so, why does it not claim to be the best decision I have made so far today?  As I said, it was a very thought-provoking wrapper.  Who knew that Taco Bell catered to such an intellectual crowd?

The Hashed Brown Itself
This tasted exactly like every other overly-processed hashed brown patty that you have ever eaten before in your entire life.

The Waffle Taco
This item is the flagship of Taco Bell's breakfast advertising campaign warfare.  My first impression was that it was not very large.  In fact, it seemed to be dwarfed by the tostada.  I ordered it with sausage, rather than bacon.  Overall, it tasted fine, but I would not say that it was anything special.  Even with the sausage, it was a little bland.  Maybe the bacon would have been better.  I do not think there is anything bad about the Waffle Taco.  Perhaps I was just expecting something better, due to all the hype from the ad campaign blood-vendetta.

The Bacon Tostada
Behold:

There is a lot going on there.  At the bottom is a hashed brown patty, which is topped by egg, bacon chunks and cheese, all of which is wrapped in a slightly-burnt flour tortilla shell.  I really enjoyed it.  The bacon gave the tostada a nice crunch in addition to a pleasant flavor.  But the best part was the cheese.  The picture above might only show the anonymous shredded yellow cheese, but throughout the tostada was the melted "spicy" queso that Taco Bell uses in their quesadillas.  This is what put it over the top and distinguished it from other generic, run-of-the-mill fast food breakfast items.  I would definitely make a special trip to Taco Bell for an item like this.  In fact, I might have to do just that and also order the steak filled breakfast burrito as well.

Elmo ate a sausage tostada with which he was not impressed.  He seemed to not enjoy the very queso that appealed to me so much. He also ordered a sausage breakfast burrito, but I do not know what he thought of it, as I had to leave before he began eating it.

Those are my initial thoughts on the brand new Taco Bell breakfast items.  Have any of you loyal OSITF readers had an opportunity to try it for yourselves yet?