I once heard somebody joke that Taco Bell only has 3 ingredients, and they mix and match various types of tortillas to create their entire menu. I suppose there’s a certain amount of truth to that, but it’s not quite so simple. In many ways, I think Taco Bell gets an unfair bad rap. As somebody who’s eaten there for many years, since my youthful school days, I feel that I’m qualified to say TB is not as bad as you might have heard. In fact, their double decker taco is one of my favorite cheap fast food items.

I’m not as fond of the Fiesta Burrito. It’s OK, but it’s not good enough to be something that I look forward to having again. It consists of ground beef, seasoned Mexican-style rice, cheddar cheese and salsa, wrapped in a soft flour tortilla. The portions are ample, and it’s a decent sized burrito. Once you get past the inevitable Burrito-Flap (that section of tortilla at the end with no filling, that just flops around loosely) you get a good amount of beef, rice and cheese with each bite.

However, I’ve found after eating these a couple times now, the salsa gets put towards one end, instead of distributed evenly, which results in only 1/3 of the burrito having this extra flavor component. You will see in my second photo, sliced in half, you don’t even see the salsa. I’m not sure what’s going on with that. It would seem to be done on purpose, by design, since it’s happened at 2 different locations, but maybe their ‘aim’ with the big sauce spoon just gets off-track when things are busy. In all fairness, my visits did occur during peak hours at both locations.

The biggest problem is that nothing stands out, and the overall taste is bland. The ground beef is not very flavorful to begin with, and the rice and thick tortilla combine to mute it further. The rice is not bad on it’s own, but still too weak for what I expect from “seasoned” rice in a Mexican offering, even though it’s just fast food. The salsa was alright, but not nearly enough flavor or quantity to make up for the lack of kick from either the beef or rice. The cheese was perhaps the tastiest of the ingredients. I tasted real cheddar, and it had a consistency which confirmed it’s ‘genuine’ content.

The Fiesta Beef Burrito from Taco Bell is decent, but it’s not going to make any new fans of the brand, or fast food in general. Taco Bell has much better items on their menu. This is too bland in my opinion. It should be noted, there is an “upgrade” option to replace the beef with All-White-Meat Chicken, or Carne Asada Steak.

Price: $1.69 — Website: TacoBell.com

Fast Food Critic Score: C+

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Nutrition Facts - Taco Bell, Fiesta Beef Burrito.

Calories - 370
Calories from Fat - N/A
Total Fat - 13 grams
Carbs - 49 grams
Saturated Fat - 5 grams
Trans Fat - 0 grams
Cholesterol - 25 milligrams
Sodium - 1200 milligrams