Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last few weeks, you know that Arby’s has been making headlines with all the viral jokes it has revolving around its food, most of which has been negative, thanks to viral memes about it like the Rod Wave Arby’s takeover. 

Many people have been trying some of the items and explaining that it’s basically the real life version of the Chum Bucket from SpongeBob SquarePants, so I wanted to see for myself if it was good or not.

I decided to go to Arby’s with my friend Jose. We both agreed to try out some of the menu items to see if they were truly bad. I was thinking of getting the popular item which is the Beef and Cheddar, but I thought I should try different items instead. 

When we walked in, there were only two customers. I went in at 4 PM which was before the dinner rush most fast food places experience, and also Arby’s is basically towards the outskirts of Salinas, so having only two customers did make sense. Off the bat, the store felt really clean, which shouldn’t be too surprising since there was barely anyone there.

There was an ordering kiosk if you didn’t want to talk to a worker to order, but I wanted to order with a person so I could see if the customer service was good or not. 

Ordering food was quick, since there was no line to wait and the workers were really kind, so the customer service was great as well.

I spent $70 dollars buying a huge chunk of the menu, which may sound like it was overpriced, but at the same time, it was a huge meal consisting of 4 entrees, 6 sides, 2 desserts, and 2 drinks. The items I got were a Chopped Brisket Sandwich, a Buffalo Chicken Sandwich, 3 piece chicken tenders, 2 medium curly fries, medium crinkle cut fries, 4 piece mozzarella sticks, 5 piece jalapeno bites, 3 piece potato cakes, an apple turnover, a cherry turnover, a large diet coke, and a chicken slider with a vanilla shake (which I paid for my friend). 

The food came out super quick as well since after I ordered I went to Love’s next door, and after around 5 minutes, they called out my name saying my order was ready.

When I got my food, I was surprised with how good it looked, since I had a thought buried in my head that it would look gross.

I decided to start with the sides, specifically the curly fries, since it’s the only item I heard good things about online. 

After my first bite I was quite surprised that the fries were really crispy and had tons of seasoning, with a bit of a kick to it. 

On the other hand, I also tried the crinkle cut fries, which were honestly the worst thing I had out of the whole meal. The fries were a bit soggy and lacked flavor. It seemed like the fries didn’t even have salt, the only thing going for the fries were that they looked nice, but I guess looks can be deceiving with these fries.

The next item I tried was the mozzarella sticks, which were good, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of them. I tried to eat it as soon as possible so the cheese could still be soft and have a cheese pull, but it felt a bit cold. Then flavor wise it was lacking since I felt like it had no seasoning and that they were relying on the cheese to do the heavy lifting, although it wasn’t bad, I wouldn’t take these mozzarella sticks over any other side. 

The first entree I had was the chicken tenders and I was totally blown away. The tender was super crispy and warm, which was surprising, since the last few items weren’t as warm as this. Also the chicken was juicy and was well seasoned so I definitely thought that this was a highlight of the meal. 

Next up was the jalapeno bites, which I was skeptical of since I don’t like peppers, and I wasn’t really aware what it had inside. It was filled with some sort of cheese, which was pretty good. Also they weren’t spicy which was a good thing, although these weren’t my personal favorites, they were still pretty good.

One of the best items on the menu are the potato cakes, which are basically Arby’s version of hash browns.  

I was looking forward to this and they did not disappoint. They were nice and crispy, well seasoned with salt, some hint of pepper, and were very warm so it definitely was one of my favorites. 

Comparing it to McDonald’s hashbrowns, Arby’s might be better than theirs since it had everything that makes McDonald’s hashbrowns good, but they just did it a bit better.

After a bit of mental preparation, I finally had the courage to try the chopped brisket sandwich. Honestly, I wasn’t the biggest fan of it. It was definitely not gross, but it wasn’t really that good. It tasted a bit bland, but also this is advertised to come with barbecue sauce, but they don’t put it on the sandwich, instead they give a packet on the side which I felt was a bad choice since without the barbecue the sandwich was definitely bland. 

The next sandwich was actually really good, I had the buffalo chicken sandwich. 

I was looking forward to this from the start since I love chicken and this seemed like an item I would like. I was sort of right about this, since the sandwich itself was really good, and I liked the buffalo flavor. Also the ratio of everything was perfect, I felt that everything balanced out well with each other.

The star of the show was definitely both the apple and the cherry turnover. At first, I thought it was going to be like any other dessert, but I was wrong. When I had my first bite I was just shocked by how good it was. It seemed like a mini piece of soft pie with a filling of your choice being cherry or apple. It was so good that when Jose tried it, he instantly got up and bought himself one. “After I tried it I thought it was a way better apple pie than McDonalds’ apple pie,” he said. “I would recommend getting both turnovers and stacking them on top of each other since it was super good.” 

A couple of weeks later, I returned to Arby’s with all my friends, and this time I tried out their mac and cheese and their peach cobbler, which was 10 dollars for the both of them combined. 

The mac and cheese had a good flavor, which reminded me of Disneyland’s mac and cheese, but the only thing I didn’t enjoy about it was that the pasta itself felt way too under cooked and also was a bit too watery. 

The peach cobbler looked similar to an egg roll, but instead had a peach filling on the inside. It was pretty good, but I felt like I needed more filling inside it since I felt that the ratio was off, it felt like I was eating only bread with a hint of peach. 

Honestly, Arby’s was pretty good. Even though I didn’t eat the infamous half pound beef and cheddar sandwich, which is the item Arby’s gets the most criticism for, I think everything was good and nothing was truly as bad as people make it seem. 

For me, Arby’s doesn’t deserve the hate it gets online. Although the food isn’t on the level of Chick-Fil-A (my favorite fast food restaurant), I think it still should get more recognition since the food was pretty good. 

Overall I would give Arby’s a 8 out of 10, it was good, but I wouldn’t pick it over other fast food restaurants, but I would eat there again, if Chick-Fil-A isn’t nearby.