Bachelor on the Cheap

The hash brown visual does not impress

By Mike Thayer

It's a Happy Friday, I'm feeling much better since getting out of the hospital last week after being treated for a Pulmonary Embolism (blood clots on the lungs) and so I decided to treat myself to some breakfast at Taco Bell to start my day.

I've been wanting to try their new Breakfast Box and I'm a sucker for a good breakfast burrito.  Introduced last month, the Taco Bell Breakfast Box comes with a Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito, hash brown, Cinnabon Delights (2 pack) and a medium drink.  Burrito options are steak, bacon and sausage.

Hitting the drive thru at about 9:15am and nobody ahead of me in line, I went with the steak and a Baja Blast Zero Sugar.  It didn't take long to receive my order and I was quickly on my way back to the house.

A tear in the tortilla, but easy to overlook considering how stuffed it was

In opening up the box and taking inventory, the hash brown visual was not a good first impression.  It almost looked like whoever fried them took a bite before putting them in the box, but the potato was simply falling apart.  The burrito had a visual issue too, with a good sized tear in the tortilla, but considering how stuffed the burrito was, it was easy to overlook.  The burrito was stellar, a nice marriage of flavors.  The steak was seasoned well and tender.  I got a bit of a crunch in the potato, a nice variety in texture.  The eggs were fluffy, the three-cheese blend was melted nicely, the tomatoes provided a little punch of freshness and it was all wrapped up pleasantly in that warm, toasted burrito.  Taco Bell doesn't hold back on the portions, this is a well stuffed burrito.  The Cinnabon Delights were excellent, perfectly prepared with that nice combo of cinnamon and sugar followed by that delicious cream cheese filling - admittedly these were the first items to go from the box.  Now about those hash browns...  The hash brown 'patty' is designed to be picked up whole and eaten.  What I received did not stay intact, it fell apart into pieces.  I'm guessing the oil temp wasn't hot enough, as they were also a bit greasy and lacked that nicely crisp exterior and fluffy potato interior.

A nice balance of breakfast flavors

Overall, this was a satisfying breakfast with the only disappointment being the execution error with the hash brown.  Costing me $6.19 I'm giving the Taco Bell Breakfast Box 4 out of 5 Bachelor on the Cheap stars.  Reasonably priced this is a Bachelor on the Cheap wallet friendly breakfast that is worthy of a repeat buy.

Hash brown was greasy, fell apart