Taco Bell – Portage
6314 S. Westnedge AvenueCall it a guilty pleasure. I’m not usually a fast food fan, but Taco Bell is the one place we’ll both think of when we’re in the mood for fast food. We don’t do fast food often, but sometimes, we just want something quick.
The Taco Bell in Portage is on South Westnedge and in front of the Southland Mall. It is a very small store with a tight parking lot. We actually were drawn in with a promotion on this trip. For Halloween, Taco Bell was giving away one free Black Jack taco from six to midnight.
We pulled in a little bit before seven. There wasn’t the rush that I was kind of expecting there to be. The tables inside were pretty full, but like I already mentioned, the place is pretty small for a Taco Bell.
Ordering took forever. There was a family in front of us that had a lot of special requests and just took forever. It really shouldn’t have taken more than five minutes, but that’s the way things go with us. The simplest things take forever. We were really just in the mood to get our food and get out.
The counter is sort of hidden. There are two registers, but if both were being used, it would be really cramped. We couldn’t have even gotten to the register in the corner. I know I keep mentioning this fact, but it was really uncomfortable to have the people behind us standing almost on top of us because there was very little room to the door and the people in front of taking up what was left in the space in front of us.
When we finally did get up to order, J got an order the Loaded Nachos and I got the #8 which is three hard shell tacos and a drink. After we put that order in, we asked about the free Black Jack tacos and the cashier said they were doing it and added two of them to our order. I’d have to say as far as the promotion goes, it worked. We wouldn’t have eaten at Taco Bell tonight, but we were both curious about the Black Jack taco. They made a profit of about eight bucks off us as our bill was a little over ten and the two free tacos cost them less than two bucks.
We grabbed our pops and filled them up. I got Pepsi. J went for a Tropicana Fruit Punch and got nothing but syrup, so she tried again and filled up with raspberry iced tea instead.
A few minutes later, after again tripping on others in line because there’s no place to wait, our order came up and we headed back home to finish laundry and dig in to our tacos.
As for the Black Jack tacos, we both liked them and thought it was interesting. I couldn’t really tell any difference in the shell, but the pepper jack sauce was pretty good. J thought it was good enough that she would order it again, but I actually prefer the Volcano Taco would go for that over the Black Jack.
My other three tacos were exactly what I’ve come to expect from Taco Bell. I wish there was a little more flavor to them either in the meat itself or with some kind of taco sauce, but it is what it is and I knew that going in. I like Taco Bell and I could eat the tacos by the dozen, so there’s no complaining from me.
J’s Loaded Nachos were really were loaded. There was a huge shell that had a bottom layer or refried beans then it was topped with taco meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, nacho strips and tomatoes. She could have gotten jalapenos for $.30 more, but didn’t. I would have stolen this if she had. There was a lot of food with her nachos and she didn’t quite finish. She offered them to me, but I don’t like guacamole or sour cream, so I passed.
I say this every time we go to Taco Bell, but sometimes, Americanized Mexican is just what I crave. We do taco night at home quite often because I crave the kind of tacos you get from the American fast food Mexican restaurants. I do like authentic Mexican as well and we do hit up those restaurants as well, but you will find me at a Taco Bell more often than you will at a Mexican restaurant. We’re not always adventurous eaters and Taco Bell is one of those go-to places that we can find no matter where we live.
SW Michigan Dining 
YOU MADE THIS FAT MAN HUNGRY……..HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!