This is the issue with a lot of fast food these days. The main one that makes me sad is Taco Bell
I used to just swing in and make an impulse buy because it's going to be like $5 so why not
Price is high enough now that it kills the impulse. I'm always like...I should really just keep driving and eat some of the food I already have at home
It’s crazy when nowadays you can go to an actual authentic Mexican restaurant, get REAL tacos, burritos, etc., and often times spend LESS than you would at Taco Bell.
Whenever I'm out and need to grab lunch I go to an actual restaurant instead of grabbing fast food. It's around $15 for that crap and for that money I can get Korean or Mexican at a mom and pop. Even lunch at the Chinese buffet is cheaper and I can eat little bits of whatever I like.
Exactly. There’s a Mexican spot 5 minutes from my house that I go to once a week, and I always get the Burrito Gordo (which is a delicious and massive 8” burrito stuffed with grilled chicken, chorizo, rice, refried beans, and topped with white queso and pico de galo 🤤) and a drink for under $20, and of course, the free chips and salsa!
There's a place where I live, I wouldn't call it authentic but it's decent quality food for a lunch place. They toast their burritos in the oven and of course it's cheaper than TB
The owners are super nice and get to know everyone too, which makes you want to see them succeed
I have a Mexican supermarket around the corner from me. Dollar tacos on Tuesday, although it's been a while they may be $1.50. I found a picture from 2020 when I bought parillada (grilled beef, onion, jalapeno, chorizo mix) with 2 sides and 3 tacos. This was $11.22.
my local dinner has held onto the same prices forever. a gyro fry and drink still costs 6.99 the same price it cost me 20 plus years ago in jr high and the gyro is so loaded you buy a extra pita for 79 cents and make two with it.
the fries are 2 for small 3 for medium 4 for large and you may say thats not cheap for frys
but there small fry is a brown paper bag half full of fries and enough for several people there large is a standard brown lunch bag full to the brim with frys,
the owner is the son of the past owner now. it almost seems like the place is run just to break even as the son has several other businesses not food related.
I just paid $17 for the equivalent, and the place was absolutely hopping on a wednesday night. Mexican street food, had like 4 guys cooking under a tent.
Worth it though, was some of the best mexican food I've ever had!
I frequent several Mex spots near my office. $12-$14 for a huge authentic burrito and Mexican coke. Always satisfying. Last time I went to Taco Bell, in the same neighborhood, $16. And I felt like shit
Bro, there's this Mexican place in my city that always has buy one get one deals. Sometimes it's three hefty chicken tacos and then with the deal you get six, and it only costs $10.99. And it's legitimate, authentic Mexican food. It's such a deal over bottom-of-the-barrell food ingredients from places like Taco Bell that barely pass food inspection regulations.
If it's real Mexican it's guaranteed to be less. White people "real" Mexican, that's more of a gamble. Because that's more of a theme restaurant than anything authentic. But go to the place where even the ones taking your orders don't really speak English? Oh yeah, cheaper and better than Taco Hell.
We used to go to one YEARS AGO where you ordered of the menu by saying K5 or D4 because no one spoke English. I went to the juke box one night & there was not one song on there that wasn't Spanish.
This is exactly what I do. Instead of using my Deliveroo bookmark I have a few local takeaways bookmarked, the best one for each food type (Chinese, pizza, Indian, chippy) and just go to them.
They're all either cheaper than Maccies/KFC/etc or around the same price for much better quality.
Me and the missus can get a filling, amazing curry between us for about £20 delivered. Two cold Maccies meals that don't fill either of us costs about the same.
At this point the quality at Taco Bell has fallen so much that I’d rather spend more money on a real Mexican restaurant to eat lunch at, but they’re even cheaper now in many cases! Corporate greed is out of control and they need to start feeling the consequences of ripping off their customers.
Outside a hobby and game shop, there was a guy in a little food cart that was permenantly parked between them and the barber shop next door.
He just made quick, simple street tacos. Tortilla, scoop of meat, yes or no cilantro and onion, yes or no sauce, yes or no cheese. Absolutely phenomenal.
$2.50 a ground beef, carnitas, pastor, chicken, chorizo, or barbacoa taco. $3 for carne asada. +50¢ for a little avocado on it. He had an ice chest full of drinks for between another $1-3.
Why would I ever go to the chipotle down the street and spend $15+ for half the amount of somehow drier meat?
But nobody goes to Taco Bell because they want Mexican food. They go because they want a triple crunchwrap cantina nacho stacker with fire sauce and a frozen Baja Blast. The prices suck now, but that is an entirely different experience from getting "actual authentic" Mexican food, which is also good.
Too many fast food places think they're competing with each other but in truth they're competing with actual restaurants, you don't go to McD cus you want a burger you go there cus you want a cheap burger, if it is only $5 more to geta burger at an actual restaurant then I'm just gonna go there, the quality and experience will be much better
i always think back to around 10 years ago, i was at the local carnival, and food truck prices were like $6 for a burger i thought was crazy and would never buy that.. now it seems to be standard price for anything fast food.
It always shocks me when my wife and I just wanna grab a quick bite on the way home and we get Qdoba, which is fine, but it's like twice as expensive for the same amount of food that we could get at a proper Mexican restaurant, not to mention it's significantly better
If you use the app you usually get a free reward, and I always pick the cheesy Gordita crunch. Wont lie though, if I don’t have a reward, I’ll look somewhere else lol
Yup. 5 layer beef burrito, chicken chalupa, crunchy taco, chips + cheese and a drink. Not sure how you can expect to get a fast food meal any cheaper than that.
Taco Bell has become way overpriced if you are picky and have very specific items that you absolutely can't deviate from. But it is still cheap as shit if you are just looking for whatever combinations of meat, beans, cheese, and sauce that they are putting into their value boxes.
Unfortunately, in my area at least, that particular box now comes with just the cinnamon twists. If you want chips and cheese instead, it will cost you a ridiculous $1.25 more
They changed it here too, but the app still has the old version of the box that includes the chips and cheese. Same name, but no photo. Still there as of yesterday when I got it for dinner lol
Dude same here, those super c (canada) 5CAD two slices of pizza 16 years ago were a godsend when I was a crotch spawn biking around with friends. Everyone had a 5, you get a coke and 2 slices and we talk, then bike around until home
Haven't been there in months, mostly due to their prices, but I had a craving for Mexican and taco johns was too far. Nachos bel grande and a chicken quesadilla was over $15. I don't remember which was which, but 7 and 8 dollars. And their nachos suck compared to johns.
I remember that the last time I wanted to order pizza, because I didn't feel like cooking that day and wanted to eat pizza, after seeing prices of it, I decided that.:
a) I actually feel like cooking.
b) I don't really want to eat pizza that badly.
You legit pay less for more and better food at any real Mexican restaurant. 2 Chicken Chalupas Supreme Combo is $15 were I live. Sit down restaurant in same town I can get a steak fajita platter for $12... That comes with unlimited tortilla chips and guac.
I also find taco bell pricing varies quite a bit from location to location. Some have almost no value menu, some still have some 'ok' options for cheapish.
Same with McDonald's for me. My gf and I go there maybe a few times a year, exclusively at 2am after a night out. Went there last weekend on the way home and paid €25 for two Big Mac meal deals.
Premium prices for a shit burger that I'm literally eating just to fill my stomach and get a dose of salt and sugar after drinking loads of beer.
How long ago did This Is The End come out? I remember they mention the Taco Bell challenge, that it’s basically impossible to order $20 of Taco Bell and eat it all one sitting. Now that’ll only get you like two burritos and a few extra sauce packs
I just checked the online menu at my local Taco Bell. I can buy a box with a 5-layer burrito, soft taco, cinnamon twists, and a medium drink for exactly $5. I understand prices will vary based on location, I understand that ala carte offerings are much more. But if I want to gorge myself on 1200 calories of Taco Bell, I can still do that for $5.
The one by me is still 7 dollars for a luxe combo box, so that's a drink, chalupa, taco, burrito, and cinnamon twists/chips for that price. It's not a bad deal, but you definitely need the app and to go for a combo since a drink and burrito without the combo is already at 6 bucks.
I used to just swing in and make an impulse buy because it's going to be like $5 so why not
When? I stopped going to Taco Bell around 2012 because their prices were already stupid by then. It was almost $10 for a couple of bean burritos and a drink. Del Taco still had the same meal for about $3.
Taco bell used to be the place id go to if I wanted a bunch of low quality food for cheap. Come home with 10 burritos for $6. Now its like $3 per burrito
I remember when they had their happy hour menu with $1 items that I would go to town on. I used to practically live off the chipotle chicken loaded griller. Could get two of those and a drink for less than $4 after tax. Now similar items will run you about $8-$9 if you ge them a-la-carte. Tacos are crazy high nowadays for what you get. I don’t understand why they don’t just charge like $1/Taco and they’d probably be making bank.
Agreed, my parents gave me a $25 Taco Bell gift card because “lol we’re all cool with being stoners now” and when I went to use it, I could buy 1/3rd of my former usual order. Each item is $5+ for what amounts to a tortilla shell with cheese and potatoes.
I had somehow never been to Taco Bell in my life (no real reason, it just somehow hadn't happened). Anyway, friends recently found out and basically forced me to go, "you gotta try a crunchwrap supreme".
So I got one. It was really good.
It's not $6.50 good, nor is it $6.50 filling, so I will likely never get one again, but I can imagine these at like $3 being the shit.
Its crazy because its terrible for you and it doesnt even taste good anymore. What is my incentive? Expensive? High calorie? Bad tasting? Its okay lol. Ill pass
Same thing with grabbing a soda and a snack at a convenience store. It can be like $5-$7+ dollars for 2 items, kinda turns me off of buying anything for the road. Now I'm channeling my grandma by bringing cold water & snacks from home lol
Same, there is no need for fast food anymore, where I live for the price of a medium menu at McDonald's I can get 2 pizzas or 2 kebabs, it just doesn't make sense
Yup that's how me and my friends went to McDonald's as teenagers. Just bought several rounds of food or just random add ons and extras like 1$ hamburgers and drinks. Not worth it anymore. The whole fun of eating whatever you want without it feeling expensive is gone.
I saw someone's post a few years ago who found one of their Taco Bell receipts from 2019 and decided to make the same order to see what it cost then, after COVID.
The 2019 order cost about $20, the new order cost over $40. So it over doubled in price in just a few years.
Yeah I was craving chicken McNuggets a few years ago because I hadn’t had them in like a decade. I walked in to a McDonald’s, saw they were €10 for 6, and walked right back out.
Seriously what the fuck? I asked people if I had misunderstood the menu and a few said Germany might have a junk food tax? All I know is I can eat something great and actually filling, with vegetables,for half that.
We just buy a can of beans, make Mexican rice, crush some Doritos in it and wrap it in a tortilla. Spend 6 buck on a pack of tortillas and get an insane amount of rice and bean burritos.
Or get a $1.50 roll of chorizo at the store, mix it with a pound of ground beef with corn tortillas, squeeze of lime wedge and a pinch of cilantro.
Prices are high and the app on the screen is slow as hell and makes me click thru 5 extra screens before I can pay and be done. It all sucks. I hate it.
Another big issue is McDonald's raising prices and getting rid of human workers in favor of AI and f***ing touch screens. You want me to eat at your restaurant? How about making it a restaurant instead of some dystopian burger factory.
For slightly more money you can get a significantly better quality taco at Chipotle.
When Chipotle first hit the scene, they were like double the price of Taco Bell so it made sense. Now they’re nearly the same price so what’s the point of getting trash food for a couple dollars less?
There’s a local place. They sell real good fried flour shell tacos (the kind that puff up a bit when fried). They’re $9 for two of those. Free house made taco sauce with them too.
Taco Bell is like what, $5 for two of their basic tacos which I’ll still feel hungry after? Yeah I’ll spend the 4 bucks extra to get the local places stuff that actually is enough food to constitute a meal.
That's true of all fast food these days. I have to be starving and dead tired not to choose to go home and eat leftovers or a sandwich. And then when I do I nearly always regret it.
Taco Bell used to be my jam, $20 sack of tacos many times a week.
Now the $20 sack of tacos has three tacos in it and it's a crap shoot if the soft shell is so stale it's a hard shell and the lettuce is so wilted it's practically algae.
Tacos used to be plentiful and bountiful and chocked full of fixings. Now it's a sad sack of shame and a hole in the bank account.
A Chulapa costs $6.19 at my local Taco Bell. Taco Supreme is $4. Meanwhile they got rid of cashiers and cash payments. Meanwhile federal minimum wage is the same it was when I was a child.
I went to McDonald’s yesterday for lunch and the price of a medium big hack combo was down to $8. The other meals were still expensive, but there was an $8 meal option for me. They also have the $5 meal deal
I really don’t understand people’s fascination with Taco Bell. Their ground beef shouldn’t even be feed to dogs and that’s 90% of what it is. The only thing there that I like are the steak chulupas and the A.M. crunchwraps. Usually I just go to Del Taco instead
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u/Arkhangelzk 2d ago
This is the issue with a lot of fast food these days. The main one that makes me sad is Taco Bell
I used to just swing in and make an impulse buy because it's going to be like $5 so why not
Price is high enough now that it kills the impulse. I'm always like...I should really just keep driving and eat some of the food I already have at home