Arby's is selling a fast-food staple it's never offered before

WBAL Baltimore ^ | May 23, 2022 | Jordan Valinsky

[COBOL2Java]

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Better known for its roast beef, the chain is adding a hamburger to its menu for the first time in its nearly 60-year history. Arby's announced Monday it's adding the "Wagyu Steakhouse Burger," which costs $5.99, as a limited-time offering beginning Monday through July 31.

Fast-food chains are constantly competing for customers' dollars and attention, and specialty offerings are a way to attract new customers and maintain existing ones. That's important for Arby's, which has 3,400 U.S. restaurants, according to industry research firm Technomic. That's a substantially smaller footprint compared to other chains, like McDonald's (roughly 14,000 locations).

As prices surge, fast-food customers are growing increasingly picky about where they go out to eat, McDonald's noted on a recent call with analysts. More than ever, quick-serve restaurants are fighting for loyalty.

A surprising but popular item might do the trick at Arby's. Its new burger is blend of Wagyu beef and ground beef and will be "highest-quality burger the market has seen yet," the company said. The company spent more than two years developing the burger.

[teeman8r]

in before the milkshake references

[beethovenfan]

Gagyu

[Jane Long]

That Jamocha shake is awesome.

Haven’t had one in decades.

[Bobalu]

That’s what I was thinking, it would be like a deli-slice
of Wagyu... you could see light come through it.

The Arby’s around here used to be Burger Chef restaurants..

I dimly remember Burger Chef, I think there still is one
inside a mall about 70 miles from here...

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I’ve heard a lot of slander lately about Arby’s quality, but I have no idea what that’s about - they make a nice roast beef sandwich, the chicken salad ain’t bad, and the curly fries are excellent. Good, inexpensive fast food is (seriously) one of America’s greatest gifts to the world - paying $25 for some bad-tasting burger made with heirloom this and artisan that is for idiots.

[RandallFlagg]

I’m still cheesed off that they got rid of their potato cakes.

[Musketeer]

There are steaks and there are misteaks. Misteaks become hamburger, “ground beef”, or any combination of ally all in for free.

[MercyFlush]

I vaguely recall Burger Chef as a kid. I remember stopping there along I-80 when travelling with my folks. Like 1975-ish. I recall it was good!

[BBQToadRibs2]

“I never cared for their “roast beef” that looked like wet paper towels.”

Back in the 1980s, their roast beef was real whole muscle clods of beef, marinated, actually roasted in-store, shaved to order. It was great. Now it’s the typical cheap deli compressed rounds of beef that’s nuked to warm, and you’re right. Pretty underwhelming. You need to sauce the holy be-jeezez out of it for flavor.

[MHGinTN]

Ground round or ground sirloin ... I prefer the ground round since it is much less fat. I make meatloaves using ONLY ground round for the beef.

[NWFree]

If I wanted that crap I wouldn’t have gone to Arbys 🤪

[Carriage Hill]

The flavor’s in the fat, not so much just the meat.

[Quilla]

They massage the cow’s ego....

[Nifster]

Wendy’s is noted for that

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Matt’s or the 5-8 Club?

[Nifster]

I still live the classic Like their French dip too

[monkeypants]

I had one of these yesterday so here is my report FREEPERS

Overall size - A+ definitely bigger than a quarter pounder at ..6lbs
Taste - Solid B - it tasted like a pub burger

Texture - a bit “meatloafy” but not too bad - it was just a little to perfect in form leading to a “looks manufactured” kind of thing.

Assembly - C- The dressing was thin and runny and carelessly “squirted” around vs spread on the bun.

Bun - B - did not hinder or help

Attention to detail - D, I asked for no pickle and no tomato. I repeated that when they entered it into the system and the special order mods did not show up and the “seemingly reasonably intelligent” order person repeated it back to me. When i picked it up he repeated “no tomato and no pickles...”

You can see where this is going, right?

Then I sat in my car and peeled off the tomatoes (2 on top) and pickles (3 on bottom) before eating. If you like either or both of those you will probably be satisfied with what they supplied as it appeared fresh.

At that point, the flaw in the goopy special sauce became apparent as it just leaked all over while trying to eat the burger. But, I had grabbed about 10 napkins and used on every two bites...lol

C+ overall. I think I would have rated it a B+ if they had remembered the bacon, cut the sauce in half and left out the tomato and pickles. With those specs it seems to be a good value - but I also like meatloaf.

[algore]

My children will not eat at Arbys

I do once in a while. Once in a long while now that they don't have Potato cakes.

I went to my local arbys last year and ordered a 1/2 lb roast beef and potato cakes. the drive through drone said "we dont have those, duh"

I asked "since when?" and he said we have not had those since last week.

Whatever

Will I ever purchase an Arby's Burger? the future is hard to predict but I am going to say 99.44% probability the answer is no.

Would I buy a McDonalds Roast Beef sandwich ? Nope

Definitely would not hire a posse on Broadway for limp Dick's frys and a side of Big Butts.

Mix-A-Lot on Broadway

[MHGinTN]

You show such good taste! Jomocha shakes ... yum

[Captain Peter Blood]

It was real good $0.12 a burger and the frys were good. McDonald’s fry were to the best until they changed the oil from Beef Talon to something else, destroyed their brand.