Taco Bell breakfast menu debuts: We review the waffle taco, more

It's salty, it's sweet, it fits in the palm of your hand, and you can order it starting at 6:30 in the morning at Taco Bells across Long Island. It's the new bacon waffle taco, and it heads a list of 13 new breakfast items debuted Thursday morning at the popular chain.

“The bacon is smoky and works well with the sweet waffle,” said Glenn Feinberg of Melville, one of the first to try it at the Huntington Station Taco Bell. It weighs in at 320 calories.

At a taste test at the opening bell, the waffle wrap came across tender and pliable, a good stand-in for a tortilla. But even without adding syrup, the whole sandwich ($1.99) was a bit too sweet, a trifle greasy. This was true, as well, of the version made with a sausage patty. My preference was for the lighter grilled A.M. taco ($1), a slightly crisped flour tortilla filled with sausage, egg and cheese. A bit overorchestrated was the dense hexagonal A.M. griddled tortilla "crunchwrap," fully loaded with egg, cheese, hash browns and meat.

Also sampled off the new menu were a sausage burrito ($1.69) and a simple tortilla-wrapped sausage patty ($1). For those with a morning sweet tooth, Taco Bell offers Cinnabon “delights” ($1.49 for four) — cloying little sugar-dusted pastry balls that, when bitten, explode melted frosting into the mouth.

Most Taco Bell restaurants on Long Island will now have an earlier opening time of  6:30 a.m. to accomodate the breakfast crowd. To find the one nearest to you, go to tacobell.com.