Fast Food Friday – Arby’s

Arby’s and I have a history.

When I was a wee lad, we’d pile into my grandfather’s blue Chevy Impala (huge boat of a car) and drive over a half hour to go to the nearest Arby’s.  Unfortunately, it also meant that we had to hang out at Frank’s Nursery and Crafts while grandma shopped.  But I digress…

So we’d go to Arby’s and it was a treat! I didn’t dig on the roast beast when I was younger, so GP and I would pick up a couple of ham n’ cheese sandwiches and curly fries and have ourselves a lunch.

Now to present day where while there are more locations, there never seems to be a convenient Arby’s.  As such, it usually falls off the old fast food radar.  If I eat at Arby’s say three times a year, that’d be it.

Well this week was one of those times.  Arby’s you are up!!  Time to try on the bacon cheddar Roast Burger ®.

Off the bat, I got to tell you this was a good lookin’ sandwich.  That’s a premium roll right there.  It had good size and genuinely looked appealing.  Let’s get this bad boy open and look at the bacon…

Oh no you didn’t!!!  Two strips of bacon???  AND TWO TINY STRIPS TO BOOT?!?  Arby’s, really?  REALLY?

The bacon was a little thicker than the standard fare at other big boy QSR’s and was flecked with pepper.  It had a good crunch but was slightly overcooked,  flavor was pretty ho-hum, even with the pepper flakes.

I usually like to throw some Arby’s sauce on my sandwich, but I didn’t want to overpower the flavor of the sandwich so we went au natural.  I got to tell you, it’s not a bad sandwich.  I liked the big amount of roast beef.  The cheese along with the shredded lettuce and tomato were great compliments.  The bun was hearty and tasty.  But we are not hear to rate the sandwich, only the bacon and I can tell you that I tasted NO bacon in any of my bites!  Sure there was a slight crunch here and there, but no flavor!  No sense in spending extra to get the bacon when you don’t even notice it!

This was the first time during a “Fast Food Friday”tasting session that I have been completely disappointed.  FAIL Arby’s…EPIC FAIL on the bacon front.

Without further review, let’s get to the BRS:

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Restaurant: Arby’s
Menu Item: Bacon Cheddar Roast Burger ®

Appearance: 1 2 3 4 5

Overall Coverage: 1 2 3 4 5

Bacon Per Bite: 1 2 3 4 5

The left end is “not enough and the right end is “too much”, so a perfect score would be 5

Pork Flavor
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Smoke
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Salt
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Sugar
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Fat
not enough << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too much

Texture
too chewy << 1 2 3 4 5 4 3 2 1 >> too crisp

OVERALL SCORE: 2.11 (and I think that is generous)

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Next week I’ll be re-posting the “missing” Checkers/Rally’s post, finally revisiting Wendy’s to try their new bacon burgers as well as visiting A&W.

One last thing that made me chuckle…I love how the box of the Roast Burger says “Never Fried. Never Greasy.” but then look at all the grease stains on the box. 

Nice.