I had a French dip at Arby’s just last night, and although it wasn’t the Greatest French Dip Of All Time, it was tasty and reasonably priced.
My thoughts exactly. Arby’s is about the most solid fast food restaurant out there when you add everything together. The food is good, and from good ingredients. The desserts are cheap and, though not great, they’ll do. The seats are uber-comfortable at the locations I go to, and they have Pepsi products - I am an unrepentent Diet Pepsi addict. If I want something cheaper than Panera (that is open later), Arby’s is right up there. Ask for the hot ham & swiss, BTW. It’s off-menu, but they’ll usually make it. It’s not only cheaper than most of their sandwiches, it’s really quite good.
Arby’s is pretty good. I would probably rate it a little higher if they still offered the option of normal fries. The curly fries are fine, I suppose, but it would be better if they were a fun change of pace instead of the only fries that were available.
It’s getting fucking expensive. I remember the five for five deals from about ten years ago and that was awesome. Then it went to three for five, which was still a pretty good deal. But I haven’t seen deals that good for my local restaurants in a while.
In terms of quality, though, I think Arby’s is as good as it gets. Being the pig that I am I like to load each sandwich with Arby’s sauce and horsey sauce.
Yep, beef-on-weck. Those are things of beauty. The thing with Arby’s to me is that the beef has a deli-meat type texture and flavor to it, almost like it was cured or something. It kind of tastes like what you’d get if you bought that Oscar Meyer roast beef cured product and stuck it in a microwave with a bun. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just not what I crave when I crave a roast beef.
(And, yeah, it’s gotten expensive. Not sure I agree with the “it’s as good as it gets” quality comment, though. It seems pretty middle-of-the-road to me.)
Good Lord I loved Arby’s. There isn’t one in my one-horse town so it was a big treat when I went to the nearest town with one or to the US. It’s pretty much the only thing I truly miss now that I’m vegetarian.
I used too. Two roast beef sandwiches, a mountain dew, and a cherry turnover that they always forgot.
But then one day, the sandwich tasted horrible and I took a break. Recently they’ve been a little better.
That’s because it is.
7 lbs of beef chunks, place in bag.
Pour in a paste/slurry of ground/paste beef, fat, water, salt as a binder.
Seal bag and freeze.
A 10 lb roast would shrink about a half pound while cooking.
ETA: those were the ratios when i worked there. Don’t know if they’ve changed.
When I was there in '07ish the beef came frozen in the bag to the store. I don’t remember it shrinking while being cooked but it did take forever (about 4-5 hours) to roast.
Arby’s was my first restaurant job, in 1983. By that time, the Hot Ham & Cheese sandwich came on a 6" sub roll, with mayo, lettuce, and tomato. But on the cash registers, there was still a button labeled, “Original H&C”, for the benefit of those customers who still wanted the old one, which was just ham & cheese, no condiments, on the regular round sesame-seed bun.
For the OP, yes, I still love Arby’s. Alas, I don’t go there much any more. The one I worked at closed down a couple years ago, and the other two in my town are inconveniently located for me.
I have the “distinction” of being the kid who built the very first Arby’s Philly Beef & Swiss sandwich in my town when that sandwich was first introduced. My Arby’s location was the only Arby’s in town at the time, so I know nobody beat me to it 
I have a fondness for a beef with lots of horsey sauce.
It’s not great or anything but I don’t think Arby’s deserves all the grief they seem to get.
Like many in this thread, I worked at an Arby’s (summer of '88). Must have made a lot of sandwiches, because I can still remember the beef weights of nearly everything – Junior (2.5 oz) , Regular (3 oz.), Super (5 oz.), Beef & Cheddar (3 oz.).
Ate it nearly every day that summer, and I still crave a Beef & Cheddar every now and then. Plus the Jamocha shakes and potato cakes are mighty tasty.
Yeah, it’s pretty expensive compared to other fast food, but I’ll take Arby’s over pretty much anything else in that line.
Same here. I wish they would bring back the Homestyle Fries. Apparently, some locations still offer them but none around here have them. They have Diet Mtn. Dew, though. 
I like Arby’s. Honestly, bring up a thread about any fast-food, or even any chain, and you’ll have people that love it and people that hate it.
Thing is, in my experience, most people seem to like Arby’s just fine. I’ve never noticed it being particularly singled out for grief–what I do notice is they’re becoming more and more difficult to find in the Chicago area.
Was Arby’s ever made from whole muscle roast beef rather than the beef-in-a-bag thing? I suspect if it was, it probably was before my time, but I really do remember it tasting better in the 80s. Like, to me, McDonald’s and Burger King still tastes exactly the same as I remember it. Arby’s doesn’t, and neither does Wendy’s (I remember loving those Big Classics.)
We were using the “composite” roasts in the 1980s.
Jon Stewart regularly mocks Arby’s.
The Simpsons poke fun at them.
I think South Park lobbed a few jokes their way as well.
Yeah, I figured the 80s sounded like it would be too late for whole muscle roasts. So it’s probably just my tastes that have changed. Oh, and you can add Mr. Sub to the list of places that aren’t as good as I remember them. Maybe that whole topic is worth its own thread.
Huh. I watch all three of those and never noticed. Of course, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m sure I’m going to see it all the time. Isn’t there a name for that phenomenon? Like when you learn a new word, it starts appearing everywhere?
They’re better than most fast food places. Back when I lived in Bozeman, the whole city shut down on national holidays, and fast food places where the only place you could get lunch. In that context, Arby’s was the best option. Now, though, I’m blessed with a lot more options (including at least two better fast food places), and as a result haven’t been to Arby’s in a couple of years.