Taco Bell Considering Big Change to Its Menu

Taco Bell may soon be asking if you want fries with your taco—and not just on special occasions. The Mexican-inspired fast-food chain is considering making fries a permanent menu item as it aims to bring in more customers for lunch. Taco Bell launched nacho fries as a limited-time menu item to huge success in January 2018 but has offered them only periodically since then. For instance, it launched its 7-Layer Nacho Fries nationwide last month, per Thrillist. "We offer fries half the time" as CEO Mark King put it Tuesday, per CNN.

But the idea of having fries as a permanent menu item—as it is in other countries, including Canada—has become more attractive as the eatery looks to nab some of McDonald's US customers earlier in the day. "If you were to look at how we compete against McDonald's in dinner and late night, we're absolutely even. When you look at breakfast and lunch, we're significantly behind," King said at a presentation for investors, per CNN. "There's a big opportunity just in those two dayparts to increase our business significantly over the coming years."

He said the chain plans to "commit" to breakfast after dabbling in meal options for years, per Nation's Restaurant News. It's also eyeing fries as a draw for lunch. "People that go to lunch want to have french fries," King said, per CNN. "So we're looking at and testing bringing fries permanently on to the menu, which would increase our lunch business dramatically." Indeed, nacho fries have proved hugely popular for the chain. It sold more than 53 million orders in just five weeks after the 2018 launch, "making the fries the most successful new launch in Taco Bell's history," even over Doritos Locos Tacos, according to Eat This, Not That! (More Taco Bell stories.)