Review: Arby's - French Dip & Swiss Toasted Sub

Arby's French Dip & Swiss Toasted Sub features Arby's trademark thin-sliced roast beef with melted Swiss cheese on a toasted ciabatta bun served with a side of hot aus jus. It's priced at $3.89, but there's usually a coupon in a mailer that shaves the price down to two for $5 (It used to be two for $4!).

I've stated before that I'm not a big fan of Arby's Roasted Beef; it's too much like Buddig Roast Beef, which isn't bad, but Buddig is cheap and I can just buy it from the supermarket. I really wish that Arby's would just slice their meat thicker so you can feel the texture of the beef because as razor-thin as they cut it, it comes out very mushy. Arby's Horsey Sauce fixes the mundane character of the beef... by distracting you with a better flavor, but I forgot it on this occasion... boo me.

There was also a bit of a distribution problem with the meat which you can see in the pictures; there's more meat at the center than at the edges, resulting in uneven bites.

The ciabatta, while toasted with some rather nice charring, didn't quite have the crisp exterior and was fairly soft, which is really par the course for fast food. It's a rather chewy bread.

What I did like was the au jus; it had a good beef flavor (more so than the actual beef sadly) and was not too salty. Without it, Arby's French Dip & Swiss Toasted Sub is really just too plain.

But for $2, I'd still get Arby's French Dip & Swiss Toasted Sub, if only for the aus jus (yes, I am well aware I'm saying "the with juice"). I wonder if you can just get the aus jus with one of their other sandwiches...

Arby's Restaurant Locations

Nutritional Info - Arby's French Dip & Swiss Toasted Sub (314g)
Calories - 500 (from Fat - 140)
Fat - 15g (Saturated Fat - 6g)
Sodium - 2200mg
Carbs - 61g (Sugar - 2g)
Protein - 29g