Review: Taco Bell Drops A Dud With Shrinkflated Double Dipping Burritos Test Run

The fast food industry wants you to believe you're eating in a golden age. And if you take a quick glance at the menu of your favorite chain, you might be convinced it's true. The rush of inventive items has never moved quicker from research-and-development kitchens to ordering kiosks. But the truth is harder to digest. In fact, the industry's competitive scrambling for the next big thing actually reveals fast food is in a precarious place. Sales are slumping and dollar menus are largely extinct, leading some to believe the fast food sector has lost its identity. It's into this world that Taco Bell has released a limited trial run of potential menu additions called Double Dipping Burritos.

These new items are a follow up to some of the Bell's first innovations of the year, which reveal a strategy by the Mexican-inspired chain. After all, between a commitment to producing fresh menu items that invoke novelty, and doubling down on restoring old menus for nostalgia — like its Decades lineup announced in 2024 — Taco Bell is hoping to capture new and old customers alike. With that in mind, I tried these new menu items to see if they're worth the hype. Here's my review of Taco Bell's Double Dipping Burritos.

This isn't the first time that mini burritos have earned a place on Taco Bell's menu. The chain ran another limited time special in January 2025 with some different accompaniments for its cigar-sized snacks. Branded cheesy dipping burritos, the Bell stuck with its own tried-and-true recipes for that release, pairing the small burritos with either nacho cheese sauce, sour cream, or creamy chipotle. While those had a limited-time national run after being tested in Detroit, these new Double Dipping burritos — released in September 2025 — are only currently available at Charlotte, North Carolina locations (while supplies last).

There are two choices for Taco Bell's double dippers: A cantina, slow-roasted chicken burrito, or a marinated steak burrito. Both are filled with cheese and an avocado ranch sauce, and each is also accompanied by a double-sided dipping cup. One side of the ramekin is filled with what Taco Bell calls a chili lime crema; the other side contains a crunchy blend of crushed tortilla and toasted cotija cheese.

It remains to be seen whether Taco Bell's new menu item will even be available to diners in other states. In North Carolina, though, the Double Dipping Burritos are priced at $5.99 or $6.99, depending on the store.

The first thing I felt upon receiving my order was duped. The two miniature steak burritos are wrapped in the same paper as a normal-sized taco or beefy cheese and bean burrito, but is missing any sense of heft. I already felt this had been diminishing from the latter menu item for years, and these could barely keep the paper from blowing away. The Steak Double Dipping Burritos were toasted nicely, but the pair felt like less than half the size of a standard burrito. One might also describe the dipper cup — split between crispy items and sauce — as scant.

It's almost unfortunate, since the flavor of the burritos themselves was fairly decent. The steak was hot, moist, and flush with marinated flavor. You could almost imagine a slight tinge of pink to it, a whisper of the truth that this meat was prepped fresh once upon a time. However, avocado is a difficult flavor to bring through, which was the case with the sauce. It's a little tangy, yet apart from the brief acidic note, it gets lost behind the dipping components.

Without a doubt, these are the most potent part of the whole kit-and-caboodle. I dunked the burrito in the sauce first, then coated it in the crunch mix, and hoped for a miracle of flavors that might justify the cost. I was grateful for the tartness, because the salt from the tortillas and cheese was overwhelming. But without much of a chili profile to differentiate this from hot sauce, the crema felt flat. There was nothing that made it feel original to Taco Bell, and it felt all too familiar.

Quite frankly, if I had to stick with one of the two Double Dipping Burritos, the steak option would be the one I'd purchase. Maybe it was a benefit of being the first one I tried, but realistically? I think the difference maker was having recognizable slices of beef rather than the pulpy, shred-like mix offered by the Chicken Double Dipping Burrito.

I sliced the burrito open, and it was nearly impossible to distinguish the pulled pieces of poultry from melted cheddar. In fact, this only furthered my feeling that somewhere between walking in the restaurant and sitting down to eat, my pockets had been picked.

Still, just like with the steak burrito, the flavor here was hard to hate. The promise of the earlier dipper iteration lived on; there was a nice cheese pull, and the seasoning was quintessentially Taco Bell in terms of spice and presence. Even the ranch sauce had a strong role to play, despite the avocado pulling a Homer Simpson meme by dissolving into the background. I won't rehash the same complaint of the dipping cups, but will say: If you're a craver of sauces, there's barely enough to get by.

If fast food had a preamble, then "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" would probably be translated along the lines of "consistent, accessible, and affordable for all." Maybe it's a not-so-shocking sign of the times, but Taco Bell seems to have broken with the last part of that generally accepted rule of fast food here. For this reason, I honestly can't say the Double Dipping Burritos are worth the cost.

Now, when considered in a vacuum, the burritos themselves don't totally fall flat. They taste good, they're quick to make, and they do try to strike a balance between the things that work for Taco Bell. But there's still a lot going on in these. The "avocado" portion of the avocado ranch seems like a blatant name drop. As for cotija, it's exciting to see the type of Mexican cheese being repped in such a prominent way, except its only real function is to add a final dash of sodium to an already over-salted topping.

With the Double Dipping Burritos, Taco Bell took a noble try with a menu item it thinks can be a winner. Unfortunately, not every attempt by the chain is a great piece of fast food. The reality is that this thing takes two hands to eat: One to hold the dipping cup, and one to sink the burrito. It's too bad, then, that by the time you're served, Taco Bell's already asked for an arm and a leg to pay for such a small amount of food.