Place: Arby’s
Item: Chicken Salad sandwich
Price: $4.25
The farther away Arby’s gets from its roast beef roots, the more we
Lunch Guys seem to eat there. Namely, we’ve fallen head over stomach
for the Market Fresh line of deli-style sandwiches, one of our favorite sub-menus
of any franchise.
Yet when Arby’s rolled out commercials for the new Market Fresh Chicken
Salad sandwich, we realized what a divisive force chicken salad is. One of
us was incredibly glad; one of us almost gagged. Arby’s is striving
for a “premium taste not usually associated with fast food.” When
we’re talking chicken, mayo, grapes and celery, is that a good thing?
Chris: I swear, I blinked and the Arby’s server was
replaced with my grandma. Grandma was handing me this two-fister homemade
chicken salad sandwich fresh from her kitchen and said, “Eat! Eat!”
Seriously, this sandwich was worthy of her. I peeled off the top slab of toasted
honey wheat bread to gaze upon the dice-sized chunks of tender white-meat
chicken in a soft mayonnaise glaze luxuriating on a bright green lettuce leaf.
I think chicken salad turns off a lot of people because usually 50 percent
of the mass -- and 90 percent of the flavor -- is mayo. Those numbers were
10 and 10 here (though the numbers in the
as anything that’s ever come out of any franchise's
drive-through window. The healthy-sized chunks of chicken are great. Arby’s
thick, brown bread is perfect, the mayonnaise is even used sparingly enough
for my anti-mayo bias. It was, surprisingly good. But those damn grapes that
threw me off. My sandwich had so many grapes it practically needed a cork.
I thought the slivers of pecans and celery provided all the texture variety
I needed. And like you, I didn’t find any hint of apples. I was relieved.
I don’t need fruit on a sandwich.
Chris: The fruit is exactly what makes
this chicken salad sandwich so unique (I know Chick-Fil-A has one, but it’s
like a crepe to this Belgian waffle). I give major props to Arby’s for
reviving this classic lunch of the pre-burger era. I had forgotten what I
was missing.
Tom: Agreed. It is unique. But don’t
think because it has fruit it’s a healthy dish. This mega-sandwich is
so over-the-top on the calorie chart your Grandma would need to spend all
afternoon in the gym working it off.
Rating: 4 sporks (out of 5)
Food Facts: 860 calories, (47% from
fat,) 44 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 92 g carbohydrates, 26 g protein, 1270
mg sodium.
E-mail The Lunch Guys:
tomandchris@thelunchguys.com
nutritional data are well more than “10”).
And unlike you, Tom, I was actually thrilled that Arby’s was trying
to elevate this to specialty-grocery-store level by mixing in red grapes,
apples and pecans with the usual celery. But my minor gripe is that only one
grape gave its life for this sandwich; the slivers were miniscule. And the
apple I couldn’t find at all. Grandma would have punctuated this with
a little more fruit.
Tom: Remind me to skip lunch with your Grandma. Initially
I was horribly repulsed by the thought of fruit in a sandwich. However, I’ve
learned that some things that don’t sound good actually work. For instance,
I had a peanut butter and bacon sandwich on a golf course in New York last
week that was outstanding. So with that in mind I gamely sampled the Arby’s
Market Fresh Chicken Salad Sandwich despite knowing it was packed with grapes
and apples.
Not surprisingly, I would say that this is a beautiful sandwich that is just
as well executed
