When it comes to fast food, people often care most about how cheap it is.
Jack in the Box and Taco Bell are both well-known fast food places with value choices and options that are easy on the wallet.
But which one gives you more for your money? To find out, we got $10 package meals at both places that included two tacos and a sandwich-style main dish.
Even though both stores have cheap options, the winner of our taste test was clear.
Join us as we compare the food and prices at Jack in the Box and Taco Bell to help you get the most out of your fast food budget.
Jack in the Box Stacked Grilled Cheeseburger Munchie Meal
The Jack in the Box Munchie Meal Menu is for late-night snacks, but these specials are offered all the time.
We chose the Stacked Grilled Cheeseburger, which comes with an extra-large bread cheeseburger, small Halfsie fries, two tacos, and a small drink that is actually quite big.
That gives you a lot of food to share with a friend, but the single drink shows that this is a party in a box for one person.
At $8.00 plus tax, this generously overpriced box left us with a little bit of spare cash.
When it came to the food, the special touch of using bread instead of a bun gave the burger a bit of deli flavour, even when compared to Jack’s extensive menu.
The tacos were typical fast food tacos, which aren’t very good, and the Halfsie fries were a mix of curly and normal fries with seasoning. We chose to drink a sparkling and delicious Diet Coke.
A Stacked Grilled Cheeseburger costs $6, two tacos cost about $1, a small Halfsie fries costs $3, and a small Diet Coke costs $2.99.
If you order these items separately, they will cost you $12.99, which is significantly higher than the cost of the mix.
Taco Bell Cheesy Gordita Crunch and Crunchwrap Supreme Combo Meals
The days of Taco Bell’s.59-.79-.99 menus are long gone, but the $5 Cravings Box is part of its ever-changing cheap menu.
With two choices and a drink in the bag, these meals from Taco Bell have a lot to offer for only $5, which is more than fair.
At $10 plus tax, our order of two separate meals, the Cheesy Gordita Crunch and the Crunchwrap Supreme met our price goal.
The Cheesy Gordita Crunch Cravings Box came with two crunchy tacos, one with a Doritos shell and the other with a layer of cheese and a soft taco shell, making it look like a quesadilla.
The Crunchwrap Supreme Cravings Box came with a crunchy Doritos shell taco and a Crunchwrap Supreme, which is an overstuffed burrito made into a hexagon using the magic of culinary origami.
As single items, a Cheesy Gordita Crunch and a Crunchwrap Supreme both cost around $5.
This makes them two of the best deals when it comes to getting the most out of your food money.
Both combos came with a medium Mountain Dew Baja Blast, which is a hearty 30-ounce of drink at Taco Bell.
What’s the nutrition of Jack in the Box food?
Not surprisingly, the nutritional information for a Jack in the Box isn’t very good for your health.
The total number of calories in the Stacked Grilled Cheeseburger Munchie Meal is 1640. Fat accounts for all 840 of these calories, which is a whopping 93 grams of fat, of which 27 are saturated.
At least this has 55 grams of protein. Whether or not it makes up for the less nutritious macros depends on how you feel about it.
Choosing a Diet Coke as the drink is a smart move as it does not add any extra calories or sugar, especially when considering the other nutritional values of the food.
It’s important to know that this Munchie Meal has the second-most calories, fat, and salt of any item on the Jack in the Box menu.
Even though you get a lot of food for your money, there are other, healthy options on the same menu.
For a once-in-a-while treat, this Box mix may be a good way to get more for your money. But even if the price is good, it is a big loss in terms of nutrition.
What’s the nutrition of the Taco Bell food?
To figure out how many calories are in a Taco Bell Cravings Box, you have to do some math.
A Cheesy Gordita Crunch and a Doritos taco together have 670 calories, 37 grams of fat (13.5 of which are saturated), and 870 milligrams of salt.
Both the Crunchwrap Supreme and the Doritos taco have 710 calories, 30 grams of fat, 10.5 grams of which are saturated, 1560 milligrams of sodium, and 23 grams of protein.
However, these numbers are quite different. Mountain Dew Baja Blast adds 280 calories and 74 grams of sugar to both meals.
So, a chef probably won’t be praising us for our Taco Bell choices any time soon.
However, the total cost of nutrition for $10 worth of food shared is less than half of what the Jack in the Box Munchie Meal costs.
The only exception is the Crunchwrap Supreme, which has a very high amount of salt.
Because the Taco Bell double deal is more than enough food for two people, splitting the already low bill in half also means splitting the questionable nutrition.
Taco Bell gets extra points for having fair prices and food deals that don’t hurt your health too much.
How does the Jack in the Box food fare?
With so many different options, Jack in the Box is almost always a good bet for tasty food for under $10.
As promised, the Jack in the Box meal was fresh, hot, and gooey. However, it was mediocre at its best, if that’s even possible.
The sourdough bun on the cheeseburger gives the bread layer more flavour than the normal double-stacked burger, but everything else on the sandwich is standard Jack.
The Halfsie pack had just the right amount of both curly and straight fries to please both tastes.
Many people like Jack’s tacos, but they’re not as good as Box burgers, and they were the worst part of this meal.
They were greasy and dry, mushy and tasteless. Somehow, these tacos don’t follow the rules of food physics, which makes them less enjoyable in a number of ways.
People who know what Jack in the Box serves won’t find anything new in the bag, and people who like bad tacos will be right at home.
But the quality isn’t great for a so-called value meal that costs just under $10.
How does the Taco Bell food break down?
The food at Taco Bell was very filling and tasted great, but each item had its own clever twist.
The Doritos shell on the tacos, the double layers of the Cheesy Gordita, and the overstuffed goodness of the Crunchwrap Supreme made the boxes feel like a treat instead of just a reworking of regular Taco Bell items.
The tacos were better than those at Jack in the Box because they were more true to the Tex-Mex style.
Adding nacho cheese to the taco shells gave them a hearty dose of familiar flavour and a fun zing, like getting a tortilla chip surprise without adding more food or cost to the meal.
The Cheesy Gordita is a great example of fast food creativity. It combines the fun of a quesadilla with the crunch of a traditional taco.
The Crunchwrap is a lot of fun, like a sandwich and a burrito all in one. Its math is scary and hard to understand.
Not only did Taco Bell’s food taste better, but it was also filling without being too heavy.
Even though there was a lot of food and none of it was especially light, the extra veggies made a difference in how good the food was overall.
Strange as it sounds, these bites were both comfortable and soothing.
Which restaurant came out on top?
Even though both deals had tempting choices, Taco Bell was able to feed two people for only a few dollars more than Jack in the Box.
The Bell’s $5 package meals give you more options to mix and match, so you can go further with a ten spot.
As a satisfied fast food meal for less than $10 is the golden-horned unicorn of drive-thru eating, being able to get not one but two meals without taking out a second mortgage was a high point.
Even though the Crunchwrap Supreme has more salt, Taco Bell wins when it comes to nutrition.
Both Cravings Box foods had a reasonable amount of calories and fat.
Choosing zero-calorie drinks would have tipped the scales even more in favour of Taco Bell since two people can eat well at The Bell for about the same price as one person at The Box.
In this tasty $10 throwdown, Taco Bell is clearly the winner, while Jack in the Box is just a close second.
If you want fast food fun for two that won’t break the bank, you should head for the border.
Conclusion
In the end, both Jack in the Box and Taco Bell have low prices, are easy to get to, and have a lot of choices.
But if you want to know how far $10 will get you, Jack in the Box is the better choice.
Both chains have something for everyone, whether you’re in the mood for a burger or Mexican-style food.
So, try Jack in the Box or Taco Bell the next time you want fast food.
FAQs – Jack In The Box Vs Taco Bell: How Far Will $10 Go?
Both chains have a good number of choices for $10, but Taco Bell’s menu is a little bigger and gives you more ways to customize your meal.
Fast food isn’t usually thought of as healthy, but both chains offer salads and grilled chicken as healthier choices. Taco Bell also has a vegetarian menu, which some people may choose because it is healthy.
This depends on what you order, but in general, Taco Bell’s $10 meals are a little bigger than their $8 meals.
People have different tastes, so this can be different for each person. Both chains, though, have their own special tastes and menu items that people like.
This can also change based on what you order, but Jack In The Box is usually a little cheaper than Taco Bell.
This can depend on where you are and what you like. But both chains have a lot of sites and drive-thrus to make things easier.