What Makes Taco Bell's Cantina Locations Different From Regular Ones?

Over the decades, Taco Bell continues to stand out for its fast food interpretations of Mexican menu items and evolving design features, such as mission-style architecture and postmodern interiors. It's gained loads of fans since the first restaurant opened in 1962, ones who still cling to the nostalgia of simple food and drive-thru grab-and-go tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and chalupas. While those ever-popular locations still exist, they have swankier grown-up siblings now, locations that serve alcohol in lounge-like settings called the Taco Bell Cantina.

Taco Bell Cantina locations are Taco Bell's edgier, more social spin on the classic fast food model. Designed with modern, urban vibes, these Cantina restaurants typically feature trendy decor with open kitchens, digital kiosks, communal seating, and artwork reflecting local scenes, plus ambient lighting, charging stations, and sometimes even DJs. Then, there are over-the-top Cantina events like wedding ceremonies in Las Vegas, complete with a Taco Bell wedding chapel, neon lights, sauce packet bouquets, garters, and bowties, and a Cinnabon wedding cake.

While regular Taco Bell locations typically rely on drive-thru convenience, the Cantinas instead foster a hangout atmosphere where you can sit, sip, and stay. The biggest difference by far is the alcohol. Joining the few other fast food chains that serve alcohol, the Cantina locations offer beer, wine, sangria, and boozy Twisted Freeze slushes. They're spiked with rum, tequila, or vodka, and, per most state laws, there are no to-go cups. Depending on location, Taco Bell Cantinas may also offer table service and more comfortable seating, which bodes well for lingering over drinks and finger foods.

For the drive-thru crowd, it's still about the Taco Bell menu and favorite take-home items they've loved forever. Those foods are still the core of Taco Bell's customer base, and that includes the Taco Bell Cantina restaurants. The menu might vary depending on location, but customers can mostly expect small differences, such as shareable tapas-style plates. At times, the Cantinas have featured exclusive offerings like Cheesy Dippers, Mini Quesadilla Nachos, and Naked Chicken Chips.

Though confusing per its name, the newest premium Cantina Chicken menu at Taco Bell isn't exclusive to the Cantina restaurants. It's offered at all participating Taco Bell locations, highlighting slow-roasted spicy chicken in five renditions: the crispy taco, soft taco, burrito, quesadilla, and chicken bowl, all with fresh fixings like purple cabbage, pico de gallo, and Avocado Verde Salsa. Still, the gathering-style ambiance at a Taco Bell Cantina ensures plenty of room for spreading out and sharing those popular dishes — in one case, by a glowing fireplace and beachfront scenery.

That would be what some consider Taco Bell's most beautiful location, perched literally on the beach in Pacifica, California. It's the essence of a Taco Bell Cantina experience, redesigned with modern-retro beachy architecture, washed woods, colorful ceiling tiles, and local art, including a vibrant street-art mural. A glowing two-sided fireplace opens to an expansive outdoor patio where diners nosh away while watching surfers ride the waves day and night. In fact, Tasting Table deemed this Cantina restaurant one of the four coolest Taco Bell locations in the U.S.