Sunday, February 5, 2017

Bacon Cheeseburger Queso - Qdoba Restaurant Review


Bacon Cheeseburger Queso - Qdoba Restaurant Review
I have risen from the candy-wrapper-ashes! What a week.  
In short-sale-home-buying-hell news, (which I'm sure you're all sick of, and believe me, I am too) I had 5 different inspections this week and only 1 went well/passed. So, that was really awesome. (She said, sarcastically.) I'm waiting to get all the estimates back before I renegotiate, so I'm in for another month's worth of all this legal-goodness before I can say with confidence that I'll be moving in to a new place. BLAH.

In other, cheesier, news someone from Qdoba contacted me asking if I knew about their new queso of the month menu, and since I'd never eaten at their restaurant before, they sent me a $30 giftcard to try them out. (And an awesome cheese hat.) Last weekend my little family spent hours shopping for a new (used) car, so we were cold, cranky, and I really didn't feel up to making dinner, so I took Qdoba up on their offer.

As someone who has never eaten at Qdoba, if I had to describe it, I'd say it's a mish-mash between Chipotle, Panera Bread, and Taco Bell. It's quick food, made fresh to order right in front of you, that's affordable, and the eat-in area is pretty swanky as far as fast food is concerned.

Our food was ready lightning fast, they were handing it to me as I paid, and that $30.00 giftcard went a LONG way.
We got:
- A Cheese Quesadilla (Which was HUGE)
- Chips & Guac
- A meal of 3 different Tacos (not pictured, it was b/f's)
- Nachos (with ground beef, cheese, guac, sour cream & normal queso)
- Bacon Cheeseburger Queso & Chips
- 3 fountain sodas (Which pushed me over my $30.00 so I paid $4 out of pocket
Not bad, right? The guac was really refreshing, K and I were all about it, but the whole reason I was there was for this Bacon Cheeseburger Queso, so I'm going to focus on that for the rest of the review. 
The bacon cheeseburger queso comes in a little to-go paper cup with a lid and big basket of tortilla chips. The liquid yellow-orange-gold smells salty with a hint of smoked meat, so there's definitely bacon in there!

On the surface you can spot a few different mix-ins, there's ground beef, a few different colored peppers, tomatoes, and little meaty cubes of thick-cut bacon. Pretty sure there was some white onion mixed in there too.

The chips were crisp and fresh, more on-par with sit-down restaurants like Chili's than typical fast food tortillas, which was really nice, and when I used one to scoop up some the the queso I could instantly tell that this was truly bacon-ified. This stuff is savory and salty. Really salty. These little cured bacon cubes do NOT play. Overall, this is a meat-lovers dream. It's super meaty, salty, and savory. It also has a dry chili powder heat to it, which ranks on the low-medium side of things, so it may not thrill heat-seekers, but it's enough to keep my tastebuds interested and on their toes. The saltiness from all the meaty inclusions was a bit too much for me on it's own, but...
What made this queso really work for me was adding it to my nachos. The guac and sour cream helped offset the saltiness from all the cured meat, making it much more enjoyable for me, but carnivorous bacon lovers would likely prefer this queso as-is.
This flavor of queso was interesting, but my favorite thing from Qdoba was the ability to build your own nachos in a Chipotle/Panera-like setting. I'm a big fan of nachos, more-so than burritos, tacos or bowls, so having the ability to build your own so quickly and affordably on-the-go is really awesome.

When we were done we packed up our leftovers and had the rest as a late night snack, so you get a LOT of food for your money. This was my first time ever eating at Qdoba, and I really enjoyed it. I'll be keeping my eye on each month's queso flavor, but really, it'll just be an excuse for me to go back and get more nachos.
Full disclosure: I am not, nor have I ever been, paid to do any reviews. I have been sent free food products or giftcards to buy food on my own (although it's really rare). So before you call me a sellout, know that I write this blog as a hobby, and it doesn't make enough to pay for the gas to fill my car. So if someone offers me free food, you bet your buns I'm going to take them up on it. #frugalfoodie
 © Maria Smith http://poison-and-antidote.net
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