Color me an Arby’s fan. I love the Super RB, which is just roast beast plus lettuce, tomato, and catalina dressing. The dressing compensates for the dryness of the roast beast, which otherwise, um, ugh. But in any case, it’s better than a fast food burger. Oboy!
But one time I tried their (new at the time … hopefully not still available) Reuben. I’m a big Reuben fan, but I didn’t expect it to be much like the real deal. Well, it was way, way worse than I had hoped or feared. The worst part was the “bread”, which was some artificial looking/tasting/feeling stuff with the swirl of rye bread kinda dyed into the plastic congealed mass. The stuff inside wasn’t enough better to be memorable. Ick! I shoulda known better.
They offered both styles (the “Homestyle Fries”, as well as the “Curly Fries”) side-by-side for a number of years, as well as Potato Cakes. I would have to assume that they discontinued the Homestyle Fries because they were the poorest-selling of the three – they were my preferred ones, as well, but I don’t necessarily dislike the Curly Fries.
That’s what they told me when I complained. I, OTOH, loathe curly fries, mainly because they are “seasoned,” which destroys the carefully constructed flavor of my ketchup/Arby Sauce dip.
These threads about fast food places always make me chuckle. You can guarantee there will be posters talking about the FrankenMeat or mixed from powder meats, etc.
Have none of these posters ever been to the deli counter at a grocery store. See that basketball sized piece of Roast Beef… or Turkey Breast… or Ham… or Chicken… those loafs weren’t cut straight from the Steer, Hog, Chicken or Turkey. Nope, it is the same type of thing they serve at Arby’s… and it tastes pretty good for the most part. No, I’m not going to get a deli Turkey Breast for the family at Thanksgiving, but if I’m packing sandwiches for a picnic I have no problem picking up a pound or so.
Back to the quality… the one big difference I notice from the 70’s is they used to steam inject the sandwiches. There was a little station that once the sandwich was made, they stabbed it down on 3 little spikes that then shot a blast of steam into the middle of the sandwich. That to me is the biggest difference between then and now.
And, the Rubens aren’t bad… the only thing is the bread isn’t grilled. Often I’ll get one, bring it home and toss it in a hot pan with some butter in it to grill the bread. Not bad for very little effort.
I always preferred the homestyle fried myself - they dip better in the condiments.
So I was surprised when I stopped at Arby’s a couple of weeks ago and was asked what kinds of fries I wanted - they had homestyle fries back on the menu.
According to their website they are limited availability at participating locations. I haven’t been to Arby’s in a few months so I don’t know if they have them around here again.
Well, that’s part of it. When I want a roast beef sandwich, I kind of want something like actual roast beef, not something like a deli-loaf of roast beef (plus around here many groceries have their own home made roast beef that really is a big whole muscle roast [like top sirloin or top round] that they cook and slice. Turkey breast sometimes, too.) Don’t get me wrong, I like deli meat and even eat some of those funky “loaves”, but for a hot sandwich, something that has the texture and flavor of actual roast beef is what I want. Like the Buffalo chain Anderson’s does a decent job with something more like this–roasted beef, sliced to order, and it sounds like Arby’s used to do this back in that day. I don’t know for certain they use whole muscle or not, but its texture and flavor is closer to what real roast beef tastes like. I wish Arby’s were more like that.
I had to reply to this, which was my sole purpose of registering it. I realize its a little old and im committing the ancient sin of bumping old threads but, oh well. Arbys is a franchise based company, meaning corporate has very little involvement on a store to store basis. They give the franchise owners a pretty good amount of control over which items their store sells. There is usually a combination of things that goes into play here, mostly demographics. Freezer size is also an issue, and the volume of the store. The franchise owners then play around with what works and what doesn’t. Alot of stores still have straight fries. There is one store near me that still has the ham and swiss and a few other sandwhiches right on the menu. Some do baked potatoes all of the time. My old arbys had soup!. Arbys discontinues very few things. A lot of other things are brought on as LTO items. Also, the brisket is juicy and not dry, if its dry they are cutting it too thin and microwaving for too long, it is a tad fatty but it adds to the moisture and is locked in under the waxy flesh of the gouda… Im not a gm, or anyone that would or should care but you guys seemed to be misinformed and I wanted to help clarify… I make the sandwiches, put away truck, and prep the food in the morning. I also used to be an assistant gm a few years back, so I do have quite a bit of know when it comes to slicing up freshness…
