Not that most fast-food usually resembles its shiny, larger-than-life promotional photo, but good grief Taco Bell, this disconnect borders on the egregious. Upon opening our "Cantina Bowl Chicken" we were disappointed to see that it was mostly white rice and corn, with shreds of lettuce and chicken strewn about the plastic bowl, topped off with an ice-cream scoop-sized dollop of guac that tasted more sour cream-based than "made from real Hass avocados." The chicken also left a lot to be desired. Instead of hearty, flavorful strips of grilled chicken, the meat folded into our "Cantina Bowl Chicken" was stringy, limp and absent of even a hint of "citrus-herb marinate." It was immediately clear why, from placing our order at the Taco Bell drive-thru to receiving our plastic bag of food at the window, it only took Taco Bell three minutes to "prepare" our "Cantina Bowl Chicken."
As an additional, ahem, kick-in-the-pants, the "Cantina Bowl Chicken" did not agree with Gut Check's constitution, which is to say, it didn't agree with a constitution that coolly digests McGriddles for breakfast. After recovering from the "Cantina Bowl Chicken" we ventured to Chipotle for a chicken burrito bowl, a meal we're all too familiar opting for on our lunch hour in lieu of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich we brought from home. First, fair is fair:
Sure, adding gauc to a chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle ups the price to $8.05, which is almost double the cost of Taco Bell's "Cantina Bowl Chicken," but in the end, if you've got it, it's $3.26 well spent for a superior product. Maybe it's that Chipotle truly does prepare its ingredients fresh, from scratch, and doesn't rely on microwaves to heat its meat and vegetables, but the disparity of quality and taste between a chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle and a "Cantina Bowl Chicken" at Taco Bell marks a chasm so deep even Gut Check is shocked. After all, it's all just varying degrees of fast-food, right?
Where the ingredients in the "Cantina Bowl Chicken" miserably fail, the chicken burrito bowl at Chipotle succeeds: The guacamole is fresh, tangy and tastes like avocados, the flavor and texture of the cilantro-lime rice and adobo-marinated and grilled chicken are evident and the pico de gallo retains a crispness that suggests it was made fresh today -- a claim the "Cantina Bowl Chicken" makes but doesn't deliver.
Despite its lower price and convenience factor, the "Cantina Bowl Chicken" loses in a fair fight with Chipotle's chicken burrito bowl. And it didn't make us sick. That's a huge advantage for Gut Check, too.
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