Review: Cheesysteak Gordita Crunch from Taco Bell

Posted July 20th, 2015 | 2:58pm by Ryan

Ever since Taco Bell released their mobile ordering app, I’ve found myself relying on it because of one crucial element… customization. Being able to customize an order where you don’t have to repeat your drive-thru order four times has been a pleasure. Lately I’ve been craving cheesesteaks and tacos so I decided to fire up the Taco Bell mobile ordering app and create the Cheesysteak Gordita Crunch.

Since a lot of Taco Bell items are just a shuffling of existing ingredients, actually reviewing a customized order didn’t seem like such a bad idea. My order consisted of a Nacho Cheese Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch as the base, and on the inside I used grilled marinated steak (+$0.80), extra 3 cheese blend (+0.60), and raw onions (+0.30).

Normally the traditional Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch is priced at $3.19 and that includes seasoned ground beef, spicy ranch sauce, 3 cheese blend and lettuce. With my substitutions, my Cheesysteak Gordita Crunch came out to be $4.89 plus tax. From a value perspective, it feels like getting cheated when you charge for extras, but you don’t subtract when removing ingredients. I can understand the upcharge for steak over ground beef but a little extra of the 3 cheese blend is 60 cents? And 30 cents extra for some raw onions? Removing lettuce didn’t subtract my bill by 30 cents and the same goes for the spicy ranch sauce that is priced at 30 cents a la carte.

Aside from the price issue, I really liked my Cheesysteak Gordita Crunch creation. After multiple makeovers, I’m still not impressed with Taco Bell’s steak (still too rubbery), but overall I was able to get a good cheesesteak and taco vibe in one handheld package. The outer gordita and the Nacho Cheese Doritos taco shell is only separated by a layer of cheese which makes for a great duo of chewy and crunchy textures. Adding extra cheese (trio of mozzarella, cheddar, and Monterey Jack) seemed necessary to get a cheesy consistency to complement the chunks of steak. I really wanted “cheesy” to come through with the Cheesysteak Gordita Crunch. The raw onions rounded out the cheesesteak style I was going for and since I tend to order raw onions over grilled onions on my cheesesteaks anyway, these were a good fit that added a little freshness and extra crunch. If you’ve customized a Taco Bell to make it your own, share with us in the comments. Until the Quesalupa gets a national release, I’m having fun with customizing my own orders. The Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch is an awesome Taco Bell product and adding your own spin on it is likely to yield strong results.