Fast Food Breakfast Wars

Ever since Taco Bell launched their breakfast menu and came out with their clever television ad campaign where they found a bunch of people named Ronald McDonald to praise their new breakfast items, there seems to have been a bit of a Breakfast Wars in the fast food industry.

Even though I had previously tried the Taco Bell Breakfast taco when they were serving it in select test market locations and hadn’t been very impressed, I was still curious. So Mr. K and I decided to try out some of the new breakfast fast food offerings.

Taco Bell

While the breakfast menu at Taco Bell offers a whole line of items including breakfast burritos, cinnabun delights, hash brown and more, there are two main items they are featuring: the Waffle Taco (sausage or bacon) and the A.M. Crunch Wrap (sausage, bacon, or steak).

Waffle Taco

I had originally requested the bacon one but they told me they were out of bacon. Out of bacon?? During breakfast?

Once I came home and unwrapped it, I immediately noticed something.

All the ads have been showing this photo of the Breakfast Sausage Taco.

And even the one I had during their testing looked like this.

So, obviously something was off. Where was my sausage patty? It turns out this one did have sausage, but it was cut into bite-sized pieces and mixed with beans. I don’t know if they were running out of sausage so they switched to chopped up pieces but seeing something so far off from the advertised product left me a little annoyed. I also didn’t appreciate the bean filler.

I will say though, that despite the little switcheroo, the actual product was better than the test one we had previously tried both in appearance and taste. The narrow box is better at supporting the waffle taco shape. The waffle itself was crunchy and tasted freshly toasted. The eggs were fluffier and looked better than the dry mess of my test version. There was also a good amount of melted cheese. I just wish they had used the whole sausage patty like the advertisements.

AM Crunch Wrap

We didn’t see this during the test run so this was a new item to us. We actually both enjoyed this one. It’s basically a burger-shaped wrap filled with crunchy hash brown, eggs, cheese, and the protein of your choice. The wrap held together surprisingly well and stuff wasn’t falling out.

Del Taco

Del Taco has always had a breakfast menu, but with the launching of Taco Bell’s breakfast, I couldn’t help but think of Del Taco and wanting to compare the two. And Del Taco did recently come out with a new breakfast item: breakfast tacos.

At participating locations, if you buy two breakfast tacos, you get a 5-piece hash brown for free.

During my research, I also found out that the Balboa location of Del Taco actually serves breakfast all day! The downside is that they don’t participate in the national Del Taco promotions and deals.

The breakfast tacos consist of soft shell tacos filled with egg and cheese, and either sausage, bacon or steak. In my mind I was imagining a crunchy shell taco, especially since the advertisement has the tacos standing up.

Instead they are soft shell tacos, so without a little help, they basically lay flat when I unwrapped it. They looked more like burritos when I opened them, and honestly I don’t see how they are different from the burritos since they both use a soft flour tortilla and are then filled with breakfast food items. The photo above is after I propped it up and pinched the top sides together and then quickly snapped a photo before it flopped back down. Since I’m not usually a fan of breakfast burritos, I wasn’t much a fan of this. Next time I might see if they would do a crunchy taco version.

I did love how cheap Del Taco’s breakfast menu is. We also got the hash browns, and the egg and cheese quesadilla.

The hash browns were crunchy and the shape makes them easier to snack on.

I also like how cheesy the quesadilla is.

Carl’s Jr.

X-Tra Bacon Egg and Cheese Biscuit

You may have seen Carl’s Jr. ad for their X-Tra Bacon Western Thickburger, in conjunction with the upcoming X-Men movie. I didn’t realize until a recent visit though that they also offer an X-Tra version of their biscuit breakfast sandwich. The ad says twice amount the bacon, but I was still surprised by how much bacon was in my burger. It’s supposed to be four slices, but it seemed so much more.

I enjoy the fresh made biscuits at Carl’s Jr so I enjoyed this. I do wish the bacon was cooked to be more crisp, but I did enjoy all the bacon. And the eggs were light and fluffy.

So that’s we’ve had lately from the fast food chains. I didn’t include McDonald’s since they didn’t launch any new items that I know of. I’ve covered past McDonald breakfast items here and here.

Happy Friday everyone!