This past week, Qdoba added bacon jalapeno queso to its queso lineup, and I was invited to give it a try. It’s a winning formula: hard wood smoked bacon and jalapenos mixed with creamy queso. I ate a spoonful (yes, a spoonful) and was impressed–lots of bacon and a good kick.
Inside a steak burrito, the bacon jalapeno queso was more subdued and cleaner to eat, but I recommend if you want to experience the full flavors, order it smothered on top of a burrito. In the case of the latter, I thought the bacon jalapeno queso enhanced my chicken burrito so well that I’m surprised Qdoba didn’t develop this earlier.
On my next visit, I’m going to try adding guacamole to the queso to make a super dip for tortilla chips. Yum!
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Keeping on the topic of bacon, Pizza Hut offered for a limited time the cheesy bacon stuffed crust pizza ($11.99 for one topping, but it’s now gone). I’ve never been a fan of the stuffed crust, as usually by the time you get the pizza (carryout or delivery), the cheese has solidified. Adding bacon was thoughtful, but it didn’t wow me, though I did appreciate the generous portions of bacon.
What’s still on the menu are the sauce drizzles–balsamic, honey Sriracha, BBQ and buffalo. Although it looks pretty as a swirl in advertisements, in reality the sauces just get absorbed into the pizza. So while I couldn’t see my BBQ drizzle, I could still taste it (BBQ was a bad choice on a pepperoni pizza).
Also new to Pizza Hut are crust flavors, such as toasted cheddar and salted pretzel. I was excited to try the garlic buttery blend, but I could barely discern it was there. Maybe I’ll ask for the toasted parmesan next time.
It’s easy to drive or even walk past 
Among the appetizers, I tried the five-spice beef shank ($6.25), which is thinly sliced beef served slightly chilled with some garlic sauce. This is a fairly bland dish, requiring heavy use of the chili oil that sits on every table. Meanwhile, the egg rolls ($3) were densely packed with meat (shrimp and pork, along with shredded taro) and perfectly fried.
One last item I had was the doner kebab ($7.50), comprised of Turkish lamb and chicken sausage, slaw, chili-mayo and cucumber yogurt sauce. As you can tell by the ingredients, it was a excellent mashup of flavors and textures. On my next visit, I’ll probably order the Swedish meatballs ($6.50) or the Drunky Ducky ($8; made with maple bourbon duck sausage).
