Watching the introduction of plant based options on fast food menus over the past couple of years has been fascinating to watch. Largely driven by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods – chains have been partnering up one by one – to offer consumers an enjoyable way to skip the meat when hitting the drive thru. We’ve actually have a complete list of who offers what here.
Del Taco where amongst one of the first big chains to get on board with the quickly developing trend, tapping Beyond Meat to provide. Which brings us neatly to this Beyond-powered burrito.
Here’s a quick picture of the burrito out of the foil wrap it comes packed in. It’s a fairly heftily sized burrito, mine wasn’t particularly well wrapped mine you. It started to disintegrate without the foil wrapping:
First up, let’s talk plant based beef…
I’m usually a fan of Beyond Meat’s burger product, we cook it a lot at home routinely; but I don’t believe that’s what’s being used here. I could be wrong of course, but the chunks of faux-meat here, reminded me instead of Beyond’s meat crumble product you can find in the freezer aisle. This is still a plant based product, and I do buy it from time to time, but it has a notably different flavor and texture to the product the Beyond Burger uses. The texture is chewier, less reminiscent of real beef and the flavor is less impressive and artificial. That’s what the Beyond meat here tasted like to me, a little disappointing really.
I also thought there was simply too much bean present in this burrito. I get it, it’s a cheap way to add bulk, but wow this was a bean heavy burrito. Even a little more rice would have been appreciated to even things out; speaking of which, the rice could do with some oomph, a little flavor.
The whole burrito in fact was a little dull and heavy. It need most zest and spice, something to really bring it to life. A hearty helping of pico would go a long way, maybe some lime crema, or a spicy hot sauce; I realize you can doctor that yourself with the brand’s Del Inferno hot sauces etc. but my sauce packet requests were forgotten by the restaurant on this order 🙁
Despite those missteps, I happily finished the burrito in full. Again, it’s a sturdy affair, I was plenty full for the rest of the day. I’d order one again, but if I did, I’d be ready to pretty heavily upgrade the finished product before diving in.
You can see the bigger Del Taco menu here including all the menu items with Beyond Meat.
Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you! I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic Salt Lake City, and a former freelance restaurant critic. I’ve worked extensively with local, regional and national food and drink organizations. I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have been writing about food and drink for more than fifteen years. I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand. I don’t mind admitting to a certain secret obsession with fast food as well – and that’s where Menu And Price comes in…