Was Taco Bell better in years gone by? According to some fans, it was. These thirty discontinued menu items show a history of some of the best fast food items ever, and many customers say they’d pay just about anything to get these tasty snack foods back on Taco Bell’s menu.
Meximelt
Taco Bell will combine any Mexican dish with any other thing, regardless of the consequences. Often, it results in nonsense. Sometimes, you get genuinely excellent results like the Meximelt, a quesadilla and a taco smushed together. Bring this one back!
Nacho Fries
Nacho fries come and go, but the memory of them is forever. Or something. Taco Bell has brought this popular item back time and again since its initial outing in 2018, using a release schedule similar to McDonald’s McRib sandwich. Fans just want it to stick around permanently already!
Rolled Chicken Tacos
This is another menu item that Taco Bell has placed on the menu and removed a number of times. The rolled chicken tacos are simple and contain only three ingredients—tortilla, shredded chicken, and spicy ranch. They’re a welcome addition to the menu whenever they appear, offering a break from all the ground beef.
Volcano Taco
The red-hot Volcano Taco started as a crossover with Paris Hilton. After all, her catchphrase is “that’s hot.” While the PR stunt was funny, the taco itself featured a unique spicy shell that became a fan favorite—and now many customers want the item back on the menu full-time.
Choco Taco
The Choco Taco was one of the best desserts of the 90s, a genius combination of the form factor of a taco with the ingredients of an ice cream cone. What’s not to love about ice cream you eat from a taco-shaped waffle cone? Please bring this one back, Taco Bell!
Enchirito
The enchirito has been on and off the menu at Taco Bell for years. It’s a unique item, featuring soft tortillas with beans, beef, and onions, topped with nacho cheese, red sauce, and black olives. It’s been an in-app exclusive before, but fans just want it back on the main menu.
Caramel Apple Empanada
Another delicious dessert item, the caramel apple empanada sat on the other end of the temperature spectrum from the Choco Taco. This flaky, baked item is full of warm caramel sauce and sugary apple slices. It was a perfect compliment to a Taco Bell meal!
Waffle Taco
Taco Bell started serving breakfast in the mid-2010s, and one of their earlier experiments was the bizarre, but beloved, waffle taco. This item takes a breakfast taco and replaces the tortilla with a waffle. That’s genius and we want it back on the menu ASAP.
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Quesalupa
The “quesalupa” is another one of those weird Taco Bell mashups that worked out perfectly. This one is basically two chalupas stacked on top of each other and filled with delicious pepper jack cheese. It vanished after 2016, but fans are still waiting for its return.
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Cool Ranch Doritos Locos Tacos
Nacho Cheese Doritos are great, but a lot of people prefer the chip brand’s other major flavor, Cool Ranch. As such, it’s a bit perplexing that Taco Bell stopped serving the Cool Ranch version of their smash-hit Doritos Locos Tacos in 2019.
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Bell Beefer
Believe it or not, before their slogan was “Think Outside the Bun,” Taco Bell actually offered their spin on a burger. The Bell Beefer was discontinued in the 90s, but Taco Bell fans who tried it say it was surprisingly good. The fans want this one back!
Double Decker Taco
What’s better than one taco? Two tacos stacked on top of each other. The double decker taco is a Taco Supreme in a hard shell wrapped in a soft tortilla with beans caught between. It was a fan favorite that was sadly pulled from the menu well before its biggest supporters were ready to say goodbye.
Grilled Stuft Nacho
The unusual form factor of the Grilled Stuft Nacho might be a bit surprising at first, but this was a really tasty item. This 2013 concoction was basically a plate of nachos in a triangular tortilla, and it was extremely yummy. Many Taco Bell fans want this one back.
Black Jack Taco
In the late 00s, a lot of fast food places got in on the “black-dyed food for Halloween” trend. Taco Bell followed suit, introducing a Black Jack Taco that had a black shell but was an otherwise normal taco. Customers don’t usually like eating such odd-looking foods, leading to a swift cancellation of the item.
Spicy Chicken Crunchwrap
The normal Crunchwrap is still around, but the spicy chicken variant is long gone. This is a shame, as many fans of Taco Bell’s food have said that the spicy chicken Crunchwrap was among their favorite menu items. Maybe Taco Bell will hear their pleas and bring the item back someday!
Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes
This one needs to come back. Cheesy Fiesta Potatoes are the bomb: they’re chunks of seasoned potato, topped with nacho cheese and sour cream. They were affordable, filling, and vegetarian. Come on Taco Bell, do the right thing here.
Bacon Cheeseburger Burrito
In the mid-90s, Taco Bell had a bacon-themed menu that included things like a cheeseburger bacon burrito. It should have been the biggest thing in fast food, but it was a huge flop. People at the time just didn’t like the idea of such a heavy, hearty burrito.
7-Layer Burrito
Vegetarians haven’t forgiven Taco Bell for discontinuing the 7-layer burrito in the US in 2020. No meat, tons of beans, three different types of cheese, and a healthy helping of diced tomatoes made this the tastiest vegetarian item on the menu. And now it’s gone. Thanks for that, Taco Bell.
XXL Chalupa
The XXL Chalupa’s biggest selling point was also its biggest drawback. The thing was absolutely massive, crammed full of meat, and very expensive compared to Taco Bell’s usual offerings. While some fans loved it, it sold poorly due to its price tag and massive size and was discontinued around 2015.
Baja Gordita
In the late 90s, Taco Bell introduced the beach-themed Baja Gordita. It was served on a flatbread, topped with tangy sauce, and filled with seasoned beef. Basically, it looked like a yummy Mexican street taco. Sadly, it was taken off the menu sometime around 2004 or so.
Naked Egg Taco
When Taco Bell started doing breakfast, one of its early innovations was the naked egg taco. This was a taco made from an egg (read: an omelet) and filled with trademark Taco Bell stuff like diced tomatoes and ground beef. It was really good! And it sold really poorly! So it got axed.
Cinnamon Crispas
Before the cinnamon twists were introduced in the late 80s, Taco Bell served fried tortilla chips covered in cinnamon and sugar. The Crispas, as they were known, were quite popular, but had to go to make way for their now-iconic replacements. Fans still ask for them to come back, though.
Double Chalupa
Alright, imagine a chalupa. Now, imagine another chalupa next to it. Pour all the ingredients from one into the other. You have a double chalupa. These behemoth items were popular among those with huge appetites, but got canned for the same reason as the XXL Chalupa: it was too big for most customers.
Beefy Crunch Burrito
Fritos, beef, melty cheese, all wrapped up in a tortilla. Yeah, this thing was the bomb. Taco Bell discontinued this delightful dollar menu item in the late 2010s, likely due to the complication of keeping spicy Fritos on hand. Still, it’s a shame it’s gone.
Reaper Fries
Much like the perennial Nacho Fries, Reaper Fries are a popular menu item that Taco Bell introduced and then took away. Unlike Nacho Fries, the extremely spicy Reaper Fries haven’t made a return appearance. American eaters don’t usually go for the absurdly spicy menu items.
Chicken Caesar Grilled Stuft Burrito
In 2003, Taco Bell was worried about its image being too unhealthy so they introduced the absurd Chicken Caesar Grilled Stuft Burrito. Look, Taco Bell. No one is going to get a Doritos Locos Taco at 1 in the morning because they’re trying to lose weight. Stick to the delicious snack foods, okay?
Seafood Salad
Here’s another weird entry from fast food history: for some reason, every restaurant got really weird about introducing pescetarian items for picky eaters in the late 80s. See: the Filet-o-Fish and Taco Bell’s ill-advised seafood salad. Yeah, you don’t want the seafood salad from the taco chain.
Verde Sauce (Kinda)
Taco Bell axed their then-unpopular Verde Sauce in 2016. They’ve since introduced a sauce they’re calling Verde Sauce with their Cantina menu, but this avocado-based, creamy sauce isn’t quite like the verde salsa that was removed from the menu back in 2016.
Air Heads White Mystery Freeze
What’s better than a flavor you can identify? A mystery flavor! At least, that was the idea with the White Mystery Freeze flavor of Taco Bell’s popular slushies. This one was removed from the menu in 2016 in favor of the Air Heads Blue Raspberry Freeze, but many fans are still tossing up what, exactly, the mystery flavor was.
French Toast Chalupa
Another since-cancelled breakfast item, the French toast chalupa sounds good on the surface but was a bit underwhelming in practice. It was basically a breakfast burrito with a French toast shell, and fans didn’t respond too well to it, leading to it being pulled from the breakfast menu.
