The sense memory of a Del Taco near the place where I’m getting a slow-leak tire checked and they don’t have a soda machine.

One of the ones I used to hit in the ‘80s, always Del Taco and never Taco Bell if I could help it. Bonus points when it’s as vintage as that makes it feel—only the most superficial updates, still one of the old ones when they really were exalted taco stands.

Del Taco v Taco Bell can inspire vigorous debate in Southern California.

Taco Bell loyalists are fierce. And it’s fine with me if that’s what they love. But my top metric is quality and Del Taco’s was always much better across the board—like, they actually make refried beans from scratch instead of reconstituting dehydrated bean mix, etc. They had a good green sauce. And they’ve always had fries.

@Holberg Okay, but it’s LA. I feel like I would live at Guisados.
@judd Ha! I almost never eat fast food for this exact reason so will not argue with you. At this point, my Del Taco preference is mostly relevant when my choices are chains.
@Holberg To be fair, I’ve never had Del Taco bc I’ve never lived anywhere near one.
@judd Nothing you ever need to try except as an academic exercise. It’s kind of like the Wendy’s to Taco Bell’s Jack in the Box—a higher-quality version of basically the same thing except that a lot of people still prefer the lower-quality version. If you ever get there, try a bean and cheese burrito with green sauce and add sour cream. The best thing in my opinion and it’s only like two bucks.