15 Essential Tips for Ordering at Taco Bell

Even if you’ve been going to Taco Bell for decades, we’re betting you don’t know all the ways you can hack the menu when you order. Not only are there interesting options for improving menu items through creative ordering, but ways to order yourself a cheaper meal, too.

Because of digital ordering options, Taco Bell has become one of the easiest places to hack the menu to get exactly what you want. But since you sometimes just need a little inspiration to help you imagine what’s possible, many of the hacks we’ve uncovered are likely a step beyond what you’ve tried before.

With that in mind, we found some excellent upgrades for the fast food chain. These included ways to create items you might’ve missed, ideas to make ordering easier, as well as suggestions to help stretch your meal budget. We challenge you to try a few of these Taco Bell ordering hacks next time you visit and see how you like them.

If you’re prone to customizing your order with numerous changes, we want to introduce you to digital ordering, as well as the sales-boosting kiosk option at Taco Bell. Rather than rattle off a bunch of substitutions to the cashier, you can easily make any changes digitally instead. Plus, you’ll have plenty of time to get everything just right, while seeing all of your available options, as well.

There are plenty of advantages to ordering digitally, including the price transparency provided for any add-ons (so you don’t get a surprise upcharge). You also get to see every menu item instead of just the ones that can fit on the restaurant’s display menu boards.

Additionally, we’ve noticed ordering online, with the app, or at the restaurant kiosks increases the chances of getting our Taco Bell order correct. Of course, if you don’t like the idea of ordering digitally for whatever reason, the in-store kiosks also give you plenty of opportunities to hack the menu and get exactly what you want.

One great hack for value ordering at Taco Bell is to use the extremely cheap cheesy bean and rice Burrito as a starting point. It comes with beans, creamy jalapeño sauce, nacho cheese sauce, and seasoned rice, and it’s under $2. Since it starts out cheap, adding extra toppings to it is less costly than starting with other burritos. Plus, the rice makes it more filling from the beginning

There are several advantages to using the cheesy bean and rice burrito as a base. For one, you can add items like potatoes and black beans to make it more robust without being too expensive. Even non-vegetarians can take advantage with ingredients like seasoned beef or potatoes (or both) for a cheap meal.

Additionally, you can create cheaper menu items by customizing the cheesy bean and rice burrito. For example, you could create a beefy 5 layer burrito by ordering the cheesy bean and rice burrito, removing the jalapeño sauce and seasoned rice, and adding seasoned beef, sour cream, and cheese. Doing it this way at our local Taco Bell saved $0.60 off the price of the Beefy 5 Layer Burrito, though you could also keep all the components for a heftier burrito.

If you like the old-style Taco Bell power bowls (from before they were converted into Cantina-style bowls), there’s a hack available to make a burrito that tastes just like a power bowl. The trick is to start with the cheapest burrito on the menu — one that already includes the most ingredients needed for a power bowl burrito — then add and subtract as desired.

For this, you’ll want a burrito that has seasoned rice, lettuce, black beans, avocado ranch sauce, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes, guacamole, and chicken. If it ever returns to the menu, the easiest hack is to start with a fiesta veggie burrito, switch the chipotle sauce for avocado ranch sauce, then add chicken.

Without the fiesta veggie burrito, the next best (and most affordable) option starts with a chicken enchilada burrito. First, subtract the red sauce, then add lettuce, black beans, avocado ranch sauce, tomatoes, and guacamole.

When you look at the available nacho offerings on the menu, they’re not terribly exciting. While you’ve probably added and subtracted items here and there for your burrito orders, it’s easy to forget that you can do the same with nachos, potentially creating a mega meal. We suggest starting with the cheapest nachos on the menu, then adding from there.

Any nachos on the menu work for upgrades. You can switch out the seasoned beef for any other protein, or add extra protein, if preferred. Swapping the meat for black beans, refried beans, or potatoes is free, while replacing it with any other meat results in an upcharge. You could also try adding unconventional ingredients for something new, like getting shredded cheese instead of nacho cheese.

Additionally, you can turn nachos into a salad by adding lettuce and lots of veggies, like tomatoes, pico de gallo, jalapeño peppers, and purple cabbage. If you have a favorite sauce, go ahead and add that, too. Turning the cheapest nachos on the menu (loaded beef nachos) into a chicken nacho salad full of veggies is still much cheaper overall than the nachos Bell grande.

If you’ve spent much time looking at the digital ordering options, you may have noticed you can substitute the meat on any Taco Bell menu item with one of several vegetarian options. More than that, this option is completely free, which is one of the reasons why Taco Bell is among the best fast food chains for vegetarians.

Since there are three vegetarian meat substitutions available at no additional cost — black beans, refried beans, and potatoes — you can get yourself a burrito supreme, then ask for black beans instead of seasoned beef. Just keep in mind that only one substitution is free; for example, if you substitute black beans for meat but also want potatoes and refried beans, you’ll have to pay an upcharge for the additional items. Be sure to replace meat with the most expensive vegetarian option you want to save money in that instance.

The Taco Bell breakfast menu is full of all sorts of burritos, quesadillas, and Crunchwraps, which are often made with ingredients like scrambled eggs and cheese. Many are also served with meat such as sausage, bacon, and steak, though some items come with tomatoes, guacamole, potatoes, or a hash brown patty, as well. While none of the breakfast dishes feature beans, you can ramp up the flavor by adding them to any Taco Bell breakfast item.

Getting beans on your breakfast sandwich not only makes it more filling, but can enhance the flavor, too. On that note, don’t forget that you can sub beans in for the meat on any breakfast item if you’re vegetarian. And while it doesn’t appear that you can use a digital option to order beans on your breakfast menu item, plenty of customers on social media have had success ordering it in person.

Taco Bell has a great loyalty program, and it’s possible to upgrade your free rewards items to make them a little more filling. The Hot Tier rewards items aren’t all that exciting, after all, whether it’s cheesy fiesta potatoes, a cheesy bean and rice burrito, or a crunchy taco (among other options). As such, we’ve often let these rewards sit uncollected until they expire because we didn’t want to waste calories on a boring menu item. However, it turns out that you can upgrade these items rather than letting them go to waste.

When you upgrade your reward, the base item remains free, so you only have to pay for the changes. Thinking back to all the options we mentioned with a cheesy bean and rice burrito, it’s clearly a pretty good deal. You could subtract the nacho cheese sauce from the cheesy bean and rice burrito, then add chicken, guacamole, and shredded cheese for a relatively small fee overall — resulting in something closer to what you might have wanted in the first place. You could also upgrade a plain taco with a better meat choice like steak and your favorite sauce.

When grilled burritos first hit the Taco Bell menu, they were a revelation. But they also came at premium prices, with some hitting the menu at a greater cost than expected from the chain. Luckily, you don’t have to spend premium prices (or even consume premium burrito calories) to get a grilled burrito, because grilling is free.

If you’ve checked out the menu online, in the app, or ordered from a kiosk, you’ll notice that even the cheapest burritos (those that sell for under $2) have an option to be grilled for no extra cost. So if you like your burritos toasty and grilled, you don’t have to specifically order a grilled burrito anymore from Taco Bell. Now, you can look at the ingredients rather than whether or not it’s toasted when making your ordering decision, resting assured that you can order it grilled if you’d like.

Taco Bell is notorious for its revolving door of menu items, so chances are good that there are some menu items you miss. Luckily, many of them are easy enough to still order if you know how to hack the menu.

Among the many Taco Bell secret menu items you need to try are various retired products, which remain available with the right hack. The classic discontinued menu item we miss the most may be the 7 layer burrito, but we’ve discovered that we can still get it with a little creativity. Start with a cheesy bean and rice burrito, subtract the creamy jalapeño and nacho cheese sauces, then add cheese, guacamole, lettuce, sour cream, and tomatoes. Now, the price is going to be a lot higher than it was when the 7 layer burrito first hit the menu in the early 1990s. But when that craving hits, that doesn’t really matter.

In short, if you can find the old ingredient list for a discontinued menu item, you can probably recreate it with a little menu creativity — as long as it doesn’t require a special sauce or ingredient that no longer exists. Then again, you can also remake items like the beefy crunch burrito if you bring your own Flamin’ Hot Fritos to the Bell.

You’re probably getting french fries with every meal at other fast food restaurants, so why not add potatoes to your Taco Bell menu items, too? There may be a small upcharge, but those few extra cents also turn any item you add them to more filling (not to mention that the potatoes are tasty and comforting).

We’ve already suggested adding potatoes to your nachos order, and there are plenty of people who also add them to burritos. Of course, you can add them to any other menu item, as well, including quesadillas, Crunchwraps, tacos, and bowls. And while you may not find potatoes listed as an option on the screen when ordering a Mexican pizza, we’ve seen people on social media try it, though it may have to be a verbal order.

Don’t forget you can substitute potatoes for any meat for no extra charge. You could also consider swapping it out for rice in some menu items if you want to try and create a different flavor profile for the dish. However, the potatoes will adds some extra calories. For example, swapping out the rice for potatoes in the cheesy bean and rice burrito brings an additional 50 calories to the menu item compared to the standard composition.

Something else you’ll want to consider adding to, well, everything at Taco Bell is chili. No: We’re not giving a strange name to seasoned beef or red sauce when we talk about Taco Bell’s product. It’s literally chili. While only select locations appear to have chili as a menu item as of April 2025, if you’ve seen items like the chili cheese burrito? Then your location has it.

Now, the chili has been off and on the menu for decades, and not every location keeps chili in stock; it generally depends on whether or not the chili cheese burrito sells well in a particular region. But the Living Más website has a chili cheese burrito locator map if you want to find a place near you that has it. The chili is essentially ground beef with a chili-flavored sauce, so it looks like what you’d get on a hot dog or chili cheese fries. And just like you’d use it as a topping for everything from hamburgers to onion rings at other fast food restaurants, you can add it to anything you want at Taco Bell.

Imagine adding chili to your nachos, power bowls, potatoes, burritos, quesadillas, and more. Granted, this is an order you might want to make in person rather than using a digital ordering option, but you can also get it on the side to add to items in your order.

Saucing up your order is a great way to enhance the flavor of menu items you already love from Taco Bell. Some of the best Taco Bell menu items taste great because of the sauce that’s on them, after all. With that in mind, consider which menu items you like most, then check online to see what type of sauce is used to see if you can use it elsewhere.

For example, if you decide you enjoy the smoky and hot chipotle sauce on its 3 cheese chicken flatbread melt, you may want to get chipotle sauce on everything else. You can add it to items that don’t come with any sauce, like crunchy tacos, or switch it onto menu items (such as the Cantina chicken bowl) that may come with sauces you don’t like as much. Just remember that when you switch out the sauce, you may have to pay extra. You’ll also want to note that different sauces have different price points, though generally no more than a dollar. 

There isn’t always a Veggie Box option on the menu, but when there is? There’s a great hack available to create meat-filled versions for less money. Basically, if you add meat to the vegetarian items, it’ll often end up cheaper than buying the meat version of the same box.

When it first came out, the Veggie Build-Your-Own-Cravings Box allowed you to get two vegetarian menu items, a side, and a drink at a fairly reasonable average cost. It wasn’t long before customers on social media were sharing their hack for getting the box with a quesadilla and adding chicken. What was impressive about this particular option was that getting a chicken quesadilla this way was around the same price as buying a chicken quesadilla off the menu, and several dollars cheaper than ordering the Cantina chicken quesadilla meal (which doesn’t come with a side).

In some locations, you may still be able to get the same veggie items as of April 2025, but they’ll be in the Build Your Own Luxe Cravings Box. Luckily, there’s still a cheese quesadilla option, allowing you to add chicken for a small upcharge, which is still a good deal.

Some people have discovered that you can get a small cup of your favorite sauce on the side to use for topping or dipping everything in your order. For a more fun and flavorful dipping experience, then, check out the Sides & Sweets section on the Taco Bell menu.

What’s interesting about this hack is that side orders of sauces cost the same as if you got extra sauce directly on a menu item. As a result, you’re getting substantially more sauce on the side for the same price as a small squirt on an item. Plus, we’ve found that adding the sauce ourselves guarantees a more even distribution.

You may want to consider getting a side of red sauce instead of several packets of the hot sauce, too. You’ll end up with a superior sauce (in our opinion) for a small fee.

Another menu hack allows you to create something that’s similar to Rotel dip (with canned tomatoes) for your nachos. And while this order might sound a little odd — causing the employees to look at you a little strangely — we think you’re going to like the results.

This is one of those orders that’s best if made in person. Start by asking for a Nacho Bell Grande with the chips and beans on the side, which leaves you with a pile of seasoned beef, sour cream, nacho cheese sauce, and tomatoes. At this point, simply stir the remaining ingredients together, and you’ll have a side of beans and Rotel dip dupe for dipping.

You could also experiment with adding a tomato-based sauce, or possibly pico de gallo, to intensify the Rotel-like quality of the dip. Simply put, mixing together the same ingredients in a new way can make all the difference.