If you know me and my relationship with food, you will know three things: 1) I love cheese, 2) I love crunchy fried things, and 3) I love Taco Bell. 

It’s a running gag between my siblings and me how many fast food apps I have on my phone, most notably Taco Bell. I won’t get into the many reasons why I have them (coupons, deals, etc), but now I can validate at least one of those apps for one key reason: they told me about the Quesalupa.

This Taco Bell menu item is not completely new—it was first introduced back in 2016—but boy does it feel like a classic: a typical chalupa (a taco but with a crunchy, puffy shell) filled with your expected combo of ground beef, lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, and sour cream, but it’s elevated with a cheese-stuffed shell that is both crunchy, gooey, and flavorful, making every bite just that much better than anything else on the menu.

Is it absurd? Yes. Is it unnecessary? Probably. Is it better than any other cheese-stuffed, Quesadilla-hybrid food on the fast food market? Absolutely.

Sitting in the parking lot of my local Taco Bell, I unwrapped this golden crusted delicacy and got started. The first bite didn’t surprise me much, since I barely got into the cheese in the center of the shell, but once I got into my second and third bite, I was in heaven. The cheese was the perfect consistency, gooey enough to string and pull out with each bite, but not too solid to clump together and get stuck in your throat. The greasy crunch of the shell in combination with the natural crunch of the lettuce and tomato was a nice contrast to the very soft layer of the ground beef and lower part of the shell. 

Ultimately, everything together worked perfectly—the flavor, the cheeses, the consistency, and the good mix of crunch and soft bites. While everything on the inside was your standard expectation from Taco Bell, the new addition of extra cheese baked into this crunchy, fried Chalupa shell made every bite even better, and was definitely well worth its $3 price. 

Altogether filling, fattening, delicious and indulgent, I would give Taco Bell’s newly-resurrected Quesalupa a 10/10. Not only is it so completely ridiculous that you have to try it, but the flavor of this filling meal is much better than anything Taco Bell has delivered before. Skip the sauce packets on this one, as it’s already filled to the brim with all the flavors and condiments you could use, and be sure to ask for extra napkins, for your hands, mouth, and bib (if that's your thing).