The new year technically starts on Jan. 1. But for a fast food fanatic like myself, 2025 couldn’t really start until Taco Bell dropped a new menu item.
Happy 2025. Cheesy dipping burritos are here.
Taco Bell brought their newest cheesy treat to stores on Thursday, just a few week after releasing their take on chicken nuggets. This new dish features your choice of steak or chicken in a small burrito covered in a melty layer of cheese. Orders come with two burritos connected by the cheesy layer, creating a built-in cheese pull.
They also come with creamy chipotle sauce, nacho cheese sauce or sour cream. You know, for dipping.
Sounds messy. Sounds melty. Sounds delicious.
As someone who often chides Taco Bell for not being creative enough (every menu item is some combination of meat, cheese rice and sauce in a slightly different casing) I was excited to see this cheesy innovation. It sounded and looked kind of different than their normal fare. Then I thought more about it and realized this new dish was pretty much just a smaller version of the grilled cheese burrito.
Did that stop me from running out to Taco Bell for lunch on Thursday? Absolutely not.
What these cheesy dipping burritos lack in creativity they make up for in flavor. Because just like pretty much anything I’ve eaten at Taco Bell before, they’re quite tasty.
I got both the steak and chicken version of the burritos (in the name of journalism) and enjoyed them both. But the steak had more texture and flavor, making it my favorite of the two. The cheese pull was indeed gratifying, and the burritos are shaped and sized perfectly for dunking. I opted for creamy chipotle sauce, which tastes just like pretty much every other sauce Taco Bell offers on their normal menu — which is to say, decently creamy and spicy if not a bit nondescript. There is meat and cheese inside these burritos, and nothing else.
Taco Bell’s burritos might be their most underrated dishes — the cheesy double beef burrito and beefy 5-layer burrito are the menu’s unsung heroes. These cheesy dipping burritos have less going on than those loaded entrees, but maybe that’s the point. You can have two of these little guys and scratch the Taco Bell itch without feeling stuffed. Or you could spit an order of two with someone, which is adorable.
Sure, Taco Bell may have simply reinvented the wheel with their latest menu item. But dang, that wheel is cheesy and delicious.
Related coverage:
• I tried Taco Bell’s chicken nuggets so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.
• I tried the Wendy’s Krabby Patty Kollab meal so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.
• I tried Chick-fil-A’s banana pudding milkshake so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.
• I tried Taco Bell’s cheesy street chalupa so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.
• I tried McDonald’s Kit Kat banana split McFlurry so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.
Stories by Jeremy Schneider
Looking for more New Jersey food coverage? Subscribe to the free Jersey Eats newsletter here!
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.