Review: Taco Bell Decades menu items, listed with photos

• Taco bell is reviving five menu items from decades past for a limited time.
• The nostalgic menu includes items like the Tostada, Meximelt and Gordita Supreme.
• We tried the new Decades menu and the Meximelt was our clear favorite.

Taco bell is the latest fast food brand to rely on nostalgia, with a new limited-time menu featuring five favorite items from the past.

When the first Taco Bell restaurant opened in Downey, California, in 1962, it offered just five menu items: frijoles, tostadas, burritos, tacos and a chili burger. The menu has undergone several changes since then, often removing and re-releasing fan favorites like Mexican Pizza.

Now, Taco Bell is hoping to evoke a sense of nostalgia among customers with its new “Decades” menu, which includes five of its previous menus. discontinued items.

The menu, released Thursday, includes the Tostada from the original ’60s menu, the Green Sauce Burrito from the ’70s, the Meximelt from the ’80s, the Gordita Supreme from the ’90s and the Caramel Apple Empanada from the 2000s. .

This isn’t the first time a fast food chain has tapped into nostalgia in an attempt to win over customers.

Wendy’s recently partnered with Paramount, owner of Nickelodeon, and “SpongeBob SquarePants” to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary with a limited edition burger inspired by the Krabby Patty and a pineapple flavored milkshake.

It followed the launch of McDonald’s limited edition cups inspired by iconic Happy Meal toys and the like Grimace-themed viral shakewhich paid tribute to the character first introduced in the 1970s.

Moreover, in 2021, Burger King rebranded as a brand for the first time in 20 yearsreturning to a design reminiscent of the branding of the ’70s and ’80s.

Nostalgia can pay off. In July 2023, McDonald’s reported that the Grimace shake helped increase sales by more than 10% during the quarter the campaign launched, while Fast company reported that in the days following Burger King’s rebrand, customer visits increased by 39%.

We tried four items from Taco Bell’s new Decades menu (the Caramel Apple Empanada releases November 21) and ranked them from our least favorite to our favorite.