One of the best things about working for Lifehacker is getting to try takeaway meals and other food products as part of our Taste Test series. It enables me to indulge my sugar and fat cravings guilt-free, as it’s a legitimate part of the job. Sometimes however, this sweet-sounding gig can turn horribly sour. Enter Nachos To Go: an affront to Mexican cuisine and all food in general.
The Mexican Express ‘Nachos To Go‘ meal is a complete Nachos-in-a-box available from Coles supermarkets. It comes in Mild and Hot variants and includes everything needed to make a single serve of nachos in 30 seconds; from corn chips to salsa and “cheese”.
This ridiculously overlong video explains how it works:
The main image on the box points towards a tasty meal that probably wouldn’t look out of place in a Mexican restaurant:
Mind you, it’s somewhat telling that they have chosen to focus on the corn chips rather than the toppings. The cheese and salsa almost look like they’ve been buried away from view. Hmm.
Here’s what you get inside the box (the napkin is a nice touch):
Nachos To Go is a non-perishable food item that doesn’t require refrigeration. The downside is that the pack contains no minced beef or shredded cheese — the staples of any good nachos meal. Instead, you’re presented with microwaveable pouches of tomato salsa and a creamy liquid dubiously described as Nachos Cheese Sauce. Worryingly, the instructions warn you not to eat the meal if the pouches look “swollen”.
After nuking the contents in the microwave and pouring everything into the box we ended up with a meal that looked like this:
It’s not particularly appetising looking, is it? We think the cheese is the main stumbling block to success here: in addition to looking disgusting it wasn’t particularly tasty either (in fact, the same thing could be said about the corn chips, which were a bit brittle for our taste).
It also lacked bite for something that has ‘Hot’ surrounded by flames and chilies on the cover. We suppose the flavour could be improved by adding some fresh chili and cheese to the mix, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having a complete meal-in-a box.
However, the main issue we have with Nachos To Go is the price: it retails for around $6.50 which seems a bit steep for what you’re getting. As Angus pointed out, for a couple of extra dollars you could snap up enough salsa, corn chips and cheese to last you the whole week — and it would inevitably taste a lot better too.
All in all, we can recommend Nachos To Go for the convenience it affords the buyer, but not much else. Score: 5/10
Comments
21 responses to “Complete Nachos In-A-Box: As Bad As It Sounds”
I don’t think it looks that bad. I’ve seen worse looking nachos at pubs.
Worst nachos are at cinemas, Got some while going to see the new hobbit at village cinemas in doncaster, Tasted like cardboard with tasteless cheese
I remember having this, or something frighteningly similar, from a service-station in a time of desperation. I’m no stranger to sub-par convenience food, but I think that 5/10 is generous for this!
I saw this at coles the other day.
in the mexican section… i bought salsa, chips and dip, and made my own for the same price…
with nacho’s you can do it at work anyways in the microwave, so its reallly nothing that good at all..
I used to eat these all the time years ago (funnily enough I was only thinking about them yesterday). From memory they were pulled from sale suddenly for some reason and never returned.
These days I make my own, fry up some beef mince, onions, kidney beans and whatver, freeze it in ‘nacho’ sized portions, and serve up with chips, cheese, salsa dip, sour cream, avocado. Yum!
I just get Dorritos, Tasty cheese and salsa sauce, much better then this stuff, I would feel sort of sick eating this.
Corn chips (I use plain Doritos, flavoured ones turn black), Salsa (I prefer actual Nacho topping, it’s thicker and bean based rather than Tomato based) and Cheese. Chips, a few spoonfuls of topping and cover with cheese. Takes 10 minutes and if that’s too long you don’t deserve nachos.
Add diced bacon for a better Nacho. Sour Cream and Guacamole too if you like it.
I use flavoured chips that don’t turn black. Use the microwave!
It’s only really to heat it up and melt the cheese, can’t see the oven making much difference.
An oven (though a grill would be better) will make a difference depending on how high you heat the chips in that you’ll start “toasting” the chips rather than just heating them. Toasted corn > heated corn.
Yep toasting the corn chips with a Grill provides a superior crunch that doesn’t see the chips go soggy. If your smart you clean up while your waiting for them and than you can enjoy them guilt free. Except for the stupidly large number of Calories they probably have, I don’t measure I just make ’em look right.
Mission Corn chips are the best! They’re not triangles like every thing else, they are rectangle strips that curl at the ends. Epic!
just melt cheese, tomato sauce, and corn chips with some cooked mince, belnd it all together and you’ve got yourself nachos to go…or was it up and go…
For those that have seen Ted, it looks like a dirty Fozzy but with corn chips.
yuk
Looks like jizz
Is it just me, or does that look like a chip with some blood and puss all over it?!
Who would ever want to buy this? Nachos is already one of the most easy bachelor meals to make. Doritos, shredded cheese, can of chili, one minute in the microwave.
The reason for the price is that they are gluten free… Remove gluten add dollars. Unfortunately those of us allergic to wheat don’t have many options.. One of the better gf snacks, but worth the 5 mark.
Aren’t corn chips already gluten free? They don’t have wheat in them and even the cheap ones are now advertising gluten free, which the mainstream ones aren’t.
Not always, they use wheat to stick flavours etc to the corn chip..also some use wheat in the mixture. You’d be amazed what is and isn’t gf..
Nothing wrong with tomato salsa if you’re a vegetarian, or just like tomato salsa more than its minced beef counterpart. But that cheese sauce.. I feel really sick just looking at it.
My perfect nachos for a weekend is corn chips, self made tomato salsa, garlic guac (amole?), heaps of shredded cheese and sour cream. No artificial stuffs here, and tastes o so delicious!
I can see how this will do well in service stations, but again.. That cheese sauce..