Last Updated on January 31, 2023 by Jim Edwards
Contents
Del Taco History
The first ever Del Taco opened in 1964 in a small town called Yermo, CA. Yeah we had never heard of Yermo either! It’s near San Bernardino and its a very small town. A few laters when the 15 freeway was built in California, it passed the town by and most of the businesses in Yermo closed.
Back when they opened, tacos were only 19 Cents! Oh and Cheeseburgers were 24 cents! They sold $169 worth of food their first day in business – that is an amazing amount of food equivalent to 900 tacos at the time. So things were off to a quick start.
During the 1970’s Del Taco grew quickly and there were 50 of them by 1977 and they grew to 100 locations by 1978. Ten years later, in 1988, they grew by merging with the Naugles restaurant chain which greatly increased their size and also their geographic reach. They also began to stay open all night and became one of the first 24/7 fast food locations. By 2008, Del Taco had opened its 500th restaurant.
Del Taco Menu
Del Taco has an excellent menu for a standard fast food Mexican restaurant. Tacos are the #1 item, as you might expect! And burritos are extremely popular too. Their quesadillas and nachos are also very solid too.
Okay and now on to the insider hacks you really care about!
The Best Del Taco Secret Menu Items
Go Bold
Okay so technically this is a menu “hack” vs. a true secret menu item, but you will love it nonetheless! If you say to the person you are ordering with “Go BOLD!” they will add “secret sauce” and fries to the menu item you want. So order Chicken Tacos and say “Go Bold!” to have them with the secret sauce and fries!
Bun Taco
When we first heard about this, we literally said out loud “A bun….what?!”
If you ask for a Bun Taco, they will prepare the taco fillings inside a bun. It sounds weird, but it is definitely worth trying. It is more like a sloppy Joe in many ways. And we can’t think of any other secret menu anywhere that has anything similar. So try the Taco in a bun for sure!
Stoner Burrito
This is really an iconic secret menu item just because of the name. And also because if you are ordering this one late at night, we suspect it’s a case of the MUNCHIES! Also, since Del Taco is open 24/7 it can attract more people who have been drinking or partying. And we think you know what we mean!
When you order the “Stoner Burrito” you get a burrito that is stuffed with beans and cheese, crinkle-cut fries and then the drizzle BOTH the red and the secret sauces over it. So it has some seriously awesome flavors!
The Green Bean Machine
This is another funny name that might make you self conscious when you order – LOL! This is a burrito loaded with scrambled egg and beans. It is a good option for breakfast, or really any time of the day you crave some eggs at Del Taco!
To order: ask for a “green bean machine.” If the person behind the counter is confused, then just order an Egg & Cheese burrito, add some extra beans and get the green sauce.
Related: Torchy’s Secret Menu
The Chocolate Chip Cookie Shake
Del Taco has many dessert options on the menu, which is quite rare for the typical fast food restaurant. They have really good milkshakes the flavors are the rather standard and boring chocolate, vanilla and strawberry. But, luckily they also serve chocolate chip cookies. So when you order “the chocolate chip cookie shake” they will blend a cookie into your shake. It is like ordering a Blizzard at Dairy Queen.
The Combo Cup
This is a really good and interesting item. If you are eating low carb or Atkins or keto, this is a great option too! In short, this is a lot of protein in a cup. This is basically the fillings of a combo burrito without a tortilla shell.
That shell usually adds a TON of calories and carbs to any Mexican food. In general a large tortilla can have up to 300 calories and 50g of carbs by itself (depends on the size of course and the specific ingredients). You will get a nice combination of beans, beef, cheese and red sauce so that is a great way to reduce your carb intake.
To order – just order a combo burrito and asked for the ingredients to be put in a cup.
Extra Del Taco Sauces for Home
Totally random fact about Del Taco: If you are a huge fan you can order what is essentially a lifetime order of their hot sauces from their website! 300 packets of their mild sauce, del scorch, del inferno. And it comes in a storage tin for the kitchen. Amazing, eh? Order here.
Related: Taco John’s Menu
Video: Del Taco Secret Menu Tricks!
Ah, this is a fun video that will show you a few newer tricks.
Also this is also worth a watch:
Video: Secret Del Taco Items You Wish you Knew about Sooner
Another good video in which all the items are consumed so you can see them for yourself.
Another interesting Mexican Secret Menu is Torchy’s Secret Menu – be sure to check it out too!
Image Credit:
“The Original Site of the First Del Taco for Clearlight, Plate 2” by Thomas Hawk is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
I’m Jim Edwards and I started this website to share my love of Junk Food. We cover new junk food, desserts, snack foods, fast food secret menus, candy (of course!) and other related news. We love trying “secret menus” at restaurants. And we love trying new products too. So, we are trying to have some fun with our hobby and share some useful information with you, our community. Please feel to send us your suggestions and feedback through the contact form. And if you have products you would like us to try, let us know…!
