I tried my first ever Taco Bell - and it was greasy

I never really thought tacos were a great idea. A flimsy crisp, folded over with some stuff shoved inside so that when you bite into it the whole thing shatters. How does anyone manage?

To find out, I went for my first ever meal at Taco Bell in Leicester city centre's Gallowtree Gate - somewhere I'd passed a hundred times without ever feeling any urge to go inside. A lot of people were waiting for food and all of them were probably half my age or younger - young enough to still enjoy the thrill of being showered in grated cheese and tortilla shards.

To give them a chance of proving my prejudices wrong, I ordered the most expensive meal they had - the Deluxe Box. It cost £10 and came with a taco, a burrito, chips, a drink and a couple of churros for pudding. But no actual box, disappointingly.

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I paid my money, was handed my cardboard cup and went to the drink dispenser, where I chose orange Tango. So far, no complaints - it wasn't stupidly expensive and you got a bottomless drink.

The food took about five minutes and I went to find a table upstairs where I had nice views of the busy city centre through the grimy windows. Determined to justify everything I'd ever believed about tacos, I bit in.

And I was totally right. Bits of crisp tortilla flew in every direction, shreds of lettuce dropped out and, as for the stuff that I managed to bite off, it was a very dry mouthful. Down at the bottom, near the fold, there was the opposite problem of lots of juicy beef, dripping grease out of the sides.

The grease at least helped the whole thing hold together towards the end and I mopped my chin and moved on. Next I tried the chips and they were great.

They had a coating of something delicious and they were the perfect balance of crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Five out of five for the chips.

Next was the burrito which was well wrapped up in silver foil and greaseproof paper. I don't know how they make them but when I got through all the layers I found the outside of the burrito was covered in melted cheese, which I don't think they're meant to be.

I didn't have nearly enough knapkins for this challenge. It was going to get messy.

The insides, which included cheese, meat, rice and lots more grease, was a strange mix. I chewed it around in my mouth trying to decide whether or not it tasted good while searching for something else to use as a knapkin.

I ended up emptying the remaining chips out onto my tray and using the little paper bag they came in to wipe grease off my face. Eating the burrito was a bit boring because the filling had congealed into a textureless mass and it was hard to describe the flavour or decide whether or not I was enjoying it.

It started tasting okay. Maybe almost nice. But by the time I'd chewed through the whole thing I was pretty sick of the wet cheesy meatiness.

Luckily there were the churros to finish and they came with a pot of caramel sauce. They were pretty tough but had a nice flavour and took my mind off all the grease.

Our rating: 1/5. The food was mostly hard to eat and not very tasty, so there aren't many nice things to say about the meal. But the chips were good and I was very pleased to realise I'd been right to avoid Taco Bell all these years.

Official food hygiene rating: 5/5

Taco Bell did not know we would be visiting, and we paid for our food.