Restaurant Review: Arby's

Note: this review is being written as I eat the food! My mouse is getting all greasy.

I was paging through the Voice the other day when I saw one of those fake-out ads, you know, where they try to make you think it's editorial content but really it's an ad? It was along the lines of "Restaurants You Must Visit While in Town!" or something, and the first one I saw was ARBY'S. At first I was all, "nice try, Arby's," but then I was like, "Wait a minute! ARBY'Sis in Manhattan now?!" And sure enough, the copy said something along the lines of:

Enjoy the Midwest's most famous roast beef sandwich, now in the heart of Manhattan!

And I was like, "oh my god! I'm from the Midwest!" (where some of the Arby's signs actually still look like the one in this picture*). When I was a child I used to have Arby's for dinner about once a week. (It was the second-closest fastfood joint. McDonald's was first, but we had our standards.) So I had to go. Of course, back then it was the good ol' chicken breast fillet with nothing on it but bun. Now I go for the famous roast beef, and curly fries, because I like to claim that Arby's invented the curly fry, which may or may not be true.

Though I've been living in New York for more than three years now, this was actually the first time I'd ever been in Manhattan Mall, and I approached the food court with excitement. I wasn't the only one excited about my dinnertime race up to the Arby's counter, either. Because no one was even near the Arby's counter, the two employees stood side-by-side behind the counter, looking forlornly (I like to think) at the lines from Wok & Roll and Charley's Steakery, which were overflowing with diners who were broke and/or didn't care about their nutrional needs. As I strode confidently toward them, the second employee raced back behind the burger-shelf divider, and quickly dispensed my regular roast beef value meal, which, from the taste of it, had been sitting out all afternoon.

The fries, however, are the original. Mmm...tastes like home.

*Note the sizzler