Taco Bell introduces its new line of upscale food, including cilantro rice and black beans. Thankfully, they'll still serve their standard, cheapest-of-the-cheap, pseudo-Mexican fare, too.
Taco Bell Launches Upscale Menu Items
Don't be fooled, though, it's still Taco Bell.
Web2Carz Contributing Writer
Published: June 12th, 2012
T
his July, Taco Bell restaurants will be rolling out a new, "upscale" menu created by celebrity chef Lorena Garcia. The new menu will include things like black beans, cilantro rice, citrus-and-herb-marinated chicken. Sound a little familiar? Sound a little bit like....Chipotle? We think so.
The new menu is described by Taco Bell exec Brian Niccol as "gourmet Mexican." We have to wonder: has Niccol ever eaten Taco Bell's food? There's nothing gourmet about a 79-cent taco that you get at three in the morning, and we doubt that cilantro-studded rice will change that.
Aside from burrito bowls and fancy rice, additional sides will be offered, like chips and salsa/guacamole, and black beans and rice.
The menu will also feature the "Cantina Burrito" and the "Cantina Burrito Bowl" (they really didn't try very hard to distance the product names from the competition, did they?) and Niccol credits Garcia, who will appear this summer on Bravo's "Top Chef Masters" show, as the brains behind the new menu.
"She brought a lot of new thinking, a lot of fresh approaches to our ingredients that change the flavor profile of the brand," Niccols said.
Aside from burrito bowls and fancy rice, additional sides offered include chips and pico de gallo or corn salsa, chips and guacamole, and black beans and rice.
But fear not: T-Bell's standard fare of neon cheese, sandy ground beef, and old lettuce will remain on the menu (and thank goodness for that). But we have to ask: what's the deal with our favorite trash-food restaurants trying to make us think they're anything but trash-food? With Burger King's "real fruit smoothies" (which are probably just all sugar and juice concentrate) and McDonalds' fresh-blueberry/maple/whatever oatmeal, does anyone actually believe they're eating healthier food?
We hope not.
