In what can only be described as a huge slap in the face to our Southernmost neighbor, America just declared Taco Bell its favorite Mexican restaurant. Yes: French fries served with nacho cheese and tacos wrapped in Doritos tortillas are the marks of great Latin cuisine here in the good ol' U.S. of A.
To be fair, authentic restaurants weren't really given a fighting chance. The Harris Poll EquiTrend Study only gave participants six mainstream options: Taco Bell, Chipotle, Moe's Southwest Grill, Qdoba, Baja Fresh, and Del Taco. Moe's was America's number one Mexican restaurant brand in 2017 and 2016, and before that Chipotle ranked tops. In the 30 years since this EquiTrend Study launched, Taco Bell never took the top spot — so major congratulations are in order.
The chains were judged on three qualities: familiarity, quality, and future consideration. When the responses were added up, Taco Bell prevailed. “Taco Bell’s marketing is ubiquitous, so it wasn’t surprising to me that they came out on top this year,” Amir Kanpurwala, the survey director, told Yahoo! Finance.
Honestly we're not all that surprised at the news: People getting married at Taco Bell and tattooing themselves with the chain's logo. The stats are there, too: The Bell led the charge in new product launches last year, with menu items including the Naked Egg Taco and the Nacho Fries. The latter was Taco Bell's most successful launch to date. Plus, they didn't give anyone a food-borne illnesses.
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