The
The short answer
Taco Bell has no restaurants in Mexico. It tried twice, in 1992 and 2007, and both attempts closed within a few years. Domino's has no stores in Italy either. Its Italian franchisee went bankrupt in 2022 and closed all 29 of its outlets.
We found both while checking our own data. An earlier version of this guide described them as recent, quiet exits. They weren't: Taco Bell left Mexico more than 15 years ago, and Domino's left Italy in 2022 to plenty of headlines. Here's the accurate version, and what it taught us.
Why did Taco Bell fail in Mexico?
Taco Bell tried Mexico twice.
- 1992, Mexico City. It started with a food cart and a few outlets beside KFC restaurants. Reports say it sold soft tacos, burritos and nachos, and that the crunchy taco was renamed the Tacostada. It closed within about two years.
- 2007, Monterrey. This time it presented itself as American food, not Mexican, and sold fries and soft-serve ice cream alongside tacos. Accounts differ on the exact date, but the last outlets had closed by about 2010.
Most reviews of the failure make the same point. Taco Bell was selling an Americanised take on Mexican food in a country with thousands of taquerías and street stalls. There was little reason for locals to switch.
Why did Domino's leave Italy?
Domino's opened in Milan in 2015 through a local franchisee, ePizza SpA. The plan was to win on delivery, at a time when many Italian pizzerias didn't deliver. By 2020 it had 29 outlets and announced a target of 850 stores by 2030.
The pandemic changed the maths. Local pizzerias signed up to Glovo, Just Eat and Deliveroo, so delivery stopped being something only Domino's offered. ePizza's court filing blamed the pandemic and that new competition. It filed for bankruptcy in April 2022 and stopped trading at all its Domino's stores in July 2022.
How did these chains end up on our site?
Through our data sources. Our early data included a Taco Bell menu for Mexico, taken from a menu-price website. Taco Bell has no restaurants there, so those prices can't have come from a Mexican menu. Some menu-price sites model prices for countries instead of reading them, and this is the clearest example we've found of why that matters.
We took the Taco Bell Mexico page down in September 2026, and we don't list Domino's in Italy. If either chain returns, we'll add it back with prices from a real menu. You can read more about how we check sources in how we verify menu prices.
Which other big chains have left a country?
Exits are more common than you might think. A few well-known examples:
- McDonald's in Iceland (2009). It closed after the Icelandic króna collapsed and imported ingredients became too expensive.
- McDonald's in Bolivia (2002). It closed its restaurants after about five years of weak sales.
- McDonald's in Russia (2022). It sold its Russian business to a local licensee, which reopened the restaurants under a new name, Vkusno i tochka.
How can you check whether a chain operates in a country?
Use the chain's own store locator, on its website or app, and search for a city in that country. If it finds nothing, be wary of any menu or price list you see online. Price sites, recipe blogs and old news stories can all keep a closed chain's menu circulating for years. A recent review on a maps app is another quick sign that a branch is still open.
What does this mean for menu prices?
A price is only useful if the restaurant exists. When we check a menu, we now confirm the chain still trades in that country before we look at prices. If you find one of our pages listing a chain that has closed in your country, please tell us.
To see where a chain does operate, start from its brand page, such as Taco Bell or Domino's. Each one lists the countries we cover and links to the menu for each.