- Taco Bell is reviving five menu items from past decades for a limited time.
- The nostalgic menu includes items like the Tostada, Meximelt, and Gordita Supreme.
- We tried the new Decades menu and the Meximelt was our clear favorite.
Taco Bell is the latest fast-food brand to bank on nostalgia, with a new limited-time menu featuring five fan-favorite items from the past.
When the first Taco Bell restaurant opened in Downey, California, in 1962, it offered just five menu items: frijoles, tostadas, burritos, tacos, and a chili burger. The menu has undergone multiple changes since, often removing and re-releasing fan-favorites like Mexican Pizza.
Now, Taco Bell is hoping to evoke a sense of nostalgia in customers with its new “Decades” menu that features five of its previously discontinued items.
The menu, which was released on Thursday, includes the Tostada from the original 1960s menu, the Green Sauce Burrito from the ’70s, the Meximelt from the ’80s, the ’90s-era Gordita Supreme, and the Caramel Apple Empanada of the 2000s.
This isn’t the first time a fast-food chain has leaned into nostalgia in a bid to win over customers.
Wendy’s recently launched a collaboration with Paramount, which owns Nickelodeon, and “SpongeBob SquarePants,” to celebrate the series’ 25th anniversary with a limited-edition burger inspired by the Krabby Patty and a pineapple-flavored milkshake.
It came on the heels of McDonald’s launching limited-edition cups inspired by iconic Happy Meal toys and its viral Grimace-themed shake, which paid homage to the character that was first introduced in the 1970s.
Additionally, in 2021, Burger King rebranded for the first time in 20 years, returning to a design reminiscent of its ’70s and ’80s branding.
Nostalgia can pay off. In July 2023, McDonald’s reported the Grimace shake helped boost sales by more than 10% during the quarter the campaign launched, while Fast Company reported that in the days after Burger King’s rebrand, customer visits increased by 39%.
We tried four items on Taco Bell’s new Decades menu (the Caramel Apple Empanada will be released on November 21) and ranked them from our least favorite to our favorite.
