A brief history of the quesarito, Taco Bell’s visionary fast-food monstrosity

Before food influencers were deep-frying Chipotle burritos, putting an entire serving of mac and cheese on their Chick-fil-A sandwich, and making McDonald’s hash browns into ice cream sandwiches, there was another food-hack-slash-Frankenfood that ruled the internet: the quesarito. This week, Taco Bell brought it back to its official menu.

The quesarito is exactly what its name implies: a fully loaded burrito that, instead of being wrapped in a regular tortilla, has been lovingly sealed inside a giant quesadilla. It’s the epitome of fast-food gluttony, and as of December 18, it’s back in Taco Bell stores for a limited time for $6.70 (and a relatively modest 570 calories).

The quesarito feels like the glaringly modern invention of view-farming TikTok food scientists, but it’s actually been around for more than a decade—and before it ever hit Taco Bell’s official menu, it started as a humble secret menu item at Chipotle. In honor of the quesarito’s fleeting return, here’s a look back at the history of one of the weirdest—and most forward-thinking—fast-food creations to ever grace our palates.

The hunt for a quesarito

It was December 2013, and Fast Company editor Mark Wilson was going to get his hands on a quesarito, come hell or high water. 

That year, the concept of a “secret menu” was already popular at joints like In-N-Out and Starbucks, but company executives weren’t exactly embracing the idea. There was a bit of a “wink-wink” culture surrounding these off-menu creations, led by intrepid fast-food lovers: the internet could create a name for them, determined customers could order them, but CEOs would steadfastly deny their existence. 

That was the case with the quesarito, which, according to its dedicated Wiki page, is a concept that dates back to as early as 2011. While the very first coining of the term “quesarito” is unclear, we do know that it started as a menu hack at Chipotle. In one viral Reddit thread from 2012, a former Chipotle employee left a comment about the quesarito in which it was described as a full-blown Chipotle burrito wrapped inside a quesadilla, or, as Wilson put it in a feature story at the time, “a 1,540-calorie fallen angel.” 

But when Wilson tried to order the quesarito at a Chipotle, he was swiftly denied—and when he talked to Chipotle’s then-communications director, Chris Arnold, about the experience, Arnold denied the existence of a secret menu at all. 

Taco Bell eats Chipotle’s lunch

Chipotle never did acknowledge the quesarito as a true part of its menu. But where it faltered, Taco Bell picked up the slack. 

After some initial testing in 2013, the beloved fast-food chain introduced the quesarito as an official menu item in 2014, complete with seasoned beef, rice, Chipotle sauce, reduced-fat sour cream, all wrapped up in a grilled quesadilla loaded with melted cheeses and nacho cheese sauce. The item immediately received press after Taco Bell’s ad campaign to launch it accidentally interrupted the live draft of basketball star Nikola Jokić; but it soon became iconic in its own right. Taco Bell didn’t respond to Fast Company’s request for specific sales data, but, according to a press release, the quesarito was “an instant sensation.”

Despite its popularity, the quesarito was slowly phased out of the limelight and onto Taco Bell’s back burners, becoming an app exclusive in 2020 and getting cut from the menu entirely in 2023. Per Taco Bell’s recent press release, “After it left the menu, the demand only intensified, sparking tributes, fan petitions and countless pleas for its return.” A quick search for “quesarito” on TikTok confirms that the glorified cheese bomb has a genuine fanbase.

“Taco Bell brought back my favorite item of all time!” popular FoodToker Steph Pappas says in a new video on the rerelease. “I have been doing food videos for a long, long time, and this was always my go-to.”

A fast-food harbinger of micro-trends to come

The quesarito feels exactly like the kind of item that’s primed to go viral on today’s TikTok algorithm. That might be because, compared to 2013, the “secret menu” is a lot less secret these days. 

Internet menu hack culture got a major boost from the micro-trend economy on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels—meaning that, every few days, a new popular food combination picks up steam and starts to feel unavoidable. Brands are picking up on this, too: Starbucks launched an official secret menu this summer; followed by Taco Bell, which debuted a feature called “Fan Style” that let users build their own menu items; and, most recently, Chipotle, which just unveiled an Ozempic-optimized, protein-packed menu inspired by TikTok hacks.

Before all of this brand maneuvering, there was a humble, elusive creation that captured the cultural zeitgeist’s attention. Welcome back, quesarito—you were always ahead of your time.

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