by Bottom Line: The Double Crunch Pizza from Taco Cabana has some assembly problems and could use more heat, but with some tweaks it turns out pretty good.
Taco Bell has been making plenty of news by bringing back its Mexican Pizza and people have been streaming through the drive thru to snatch it up ever since (probably because they’re worried it will get yanked off the menu again). Through all this, apparently execs at Texas-based Taco Cabana have been paying attention and decided to get in on that sweet Mexican Pizza action by adding one of their own. So they now have the Double Crunch Pizza on their menu, and not just for a limited time.
Here is the rundown on this new item:
TC’s Double Crunch Pizza is composed of two crispy tortillas blended with corn and flour, layered with seasoned ground beef, refried beans, chipotle ranch dressing, Monterey Jack & cheddar cheese, topped with Pico de Gallo, shredded cheese and drizzled with sour cream.
The main thing that is different from the Taco Bell version is the lack of something like a “Mexican Pizza Sauce” which is somewhere between tomato sauce and salsa. Taco Cabana instead puts a big swirl of sour cream, cheese, and Pico de Gallo.
The core of the pizza is TC’s standard seasoned ground beef and refried beans, and those are always a good addition especially when combined. The chipotle ranch dressing adds some creaminess, but it mostly gets lost in the mix except for a few bites that delivered some smokiness. The two crispy tortillas don’t seem to hold the ingredients inside together very well making the pizza somewhat of a challenge to eat. The big swirl of sour cream does not add much (I’m no fan of sour cream with Tex Mex food) and one of their salsas, an enchilada sauce, or guacamole would be a much better topping (more on that below). The Pico de Gallo on top was sparse, but that can easily be rectified by asking for more if you are in the drive thru (it’s free) or walking over to the salsa bar and piling on as much as you want.
I added on their roasted Salsa Fuego, and that acted as a good alternative to a pizza sauce. If they had heated that and included it on top (and ditched that sour cream), I think this would have been a much better Mexican pizza (a dollop of guacamole could have sealed the deal). It is barely at the Mild heat level on my scale as assembled, getting just a tiny kick from that chipotle ranch sauce. But the Salsa Fuego amps it up a bit more so that it is approaching Medium level. You can add some jalapenos (also at the salsa bar) to kick up the heat as well. Hey Taco Cabana, if you are looking for a spicy food consultant, give me a call!
Calorie-wise I don’t know how many this will set you back because they have not released nutrition info on it yet. But I am going to guess that it is at least 600 cals, possibly more. If you hold the sour cream and put the Salsa Fuego (or one of their other salsas) on it, you will be doing okay. That will drop the calorie count and fat grams and salsa does not add too many cals.
If I were to compare this to the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza (you can see my review of that here), I would easily give that the nod over the Taco Cabana version. It is better assembled and quite tasty and just a little bit cheaper. The TC pizza is not bad, mind you, it just needs some tweaks, and they need to find a way to hold it together better. It is currently part of their 5 for Under $5 menu (it is $4.99 so it is just under $5) and will probably stick around as long as people keep buying it. The enchilada bowl (a cheese enchilada on top of rice and beans in a crispy tortilla bowl) looks like the better deal at the same price, though, and I will be trying that next. Taco Cabana is located throughout Texas and will be venturing into other states before too long. You can check for a location near you at their website.
