Arby's Steak Bites - A Review

[Huskee]

This is in response to a post by Allon the other day asking if anyone's tried them. I mentioned I intended to try them. Well I did, and here's my brief review.

WOW. These things are wonderful. True story.

Smell:
Upon opening them I was hit with this REAL smell of wood smoke. I know, I was as blown away by it as you are by reading these words. They smelled legit. I didn't even know they were supposed to be smoked. I thought they were supposed to be grilled steak bites. Actually to be honest I'm not even sure what I thought they were supposed to be. I just didn't have high hopes.





Flavor
Ho-lee-cow. These things are legit! They taste like you smoked a brisket and reheated some chunks of tender point. And they don't taste like pellet smoke. They taste like real wood smoke (no offense to pellet users, but objectively speaking there is quite a difference between different forms of wood). Honestly it reminded me of reheating my leftover brisket. The salt is perfect. There's even some pepper coming up in certain bites.

Texture:
Perfect. (Yep, I know, "what?!") Tender, moist, the whole 9 yards.



However Arby's main or contracted kitchens prepares these to ship to the stores, whether it's actual stickburners I'm not entirely sure, but it makes me want to research this to find out. I've used all manner of smoker and I've never tasted gas or pellet smokers' product this good. It tastes like that big, hardcore, charcoal and wood or straight wood smoke flavor.

I couldn't quite tell if there was a smoke ring, if so it's minor. Sometimes beef has pinkish shreds anyway so it's hard to tell.



What I'm not saying is that these are as good as brisket fresh from Franklin's or Black's or your own brisket that you're proud of or a fresh brisket off of a KBQ or any of that, but what I am saying is that these babies blew me away. They taste like authentic wood BBQ, exactly 100% better than I was expecting. If this is some fake liquid smoke concoction then Arby's is onto something special because they've fooled me and I want a bottle!

The main con: price. I got the 9 piece, and in my area it was $9.29 plus tax. Just shy of $10 for 9 nuggets. But man, they are the bomb. They also offer them in a bowl with what looked like onion strings and cheese...you better believe I'm trying that next.

If you're craving a meal of real smoked brisket but don't want the hassle, give these a whirl they will scratch that itch for sure. They get two thumbs up from this guy, and I went in with my BS meter on high.

(YMMV, maybe I got there at one of the best times to get these fresh and moist, maybe I had a good crew at my local Arby's and you may not experience what I did- it could happen. Fast food can be like that as we all know.)

[Panhead John]

Damn, now you got me wanting to try them! 😳

[Allon]

See what I've done?

[fzxdoc]

Ditto.

[DavidNorcross]

I agree Huskee . My go to when I am need to eat fast food.

[Spinaker]

Huskee has the MEATS!

[Allon]

What's that? About $250's worth?

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Huskee I just found out our Govt cost me almost $1mil in profit... (well my ignorance of wallets did but whatever). I had a lot in Binance and Americans had to shut their accounts and at the time I wasn't sure if I trusted Binance.US so I just cashed out. Their native token was made available on Robinhood the other day so I looked at the price... A had a couple hundred dollars worth at less than $2 average and sold for less than $10 a share after tax/fees... last weeks high was $1,300+

[Alan Brice]

Ya pays ya money n ya takes ya chances.

[DennyWoo]

Oh man. I wish you'd posted this yesterday. I hadn't had Arby's in a long time, and a beef and cheddar sounded good, so I grabbed one last night. I will have to head back to give these a try.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Looking at Reddit, a couple people got to try them at the test kitchens and were big fans BUT there's allegedly a couple steps in prep at the store and ALOT of the stores are half assing it. Lots of complaints comparing them to slim jim or overcooked pot roast texture and excessive liquid smoke flavor. If my Arbys wasn't at such a horrid location I'd go try 'em, but maybe I will anyway. If they are good here they should be good anywhere. Typically a month after the corporate trainers leave a chain here, it immediately goes to crap.

[Huskee]

That's pretty much what I expected. I suppose it's bound to happen at some locations, managers telling workers to skip steps to save time and such. But if they smoke them they shouldn't taste like liquid smoke, unless it's a new really good kind of liquid smoke.

[CaptainMike]

I make monthly trips back to my home town and tried an Arby's on the route at a Love's Travel Center recently. I'm kind of liking their food, prices, and convenience. Breakfast or lunch is tasty, whether eating in or to go, and it's pretty quick. It tastes like real food and I haven't gotten that bloated fast food hangover that I get at most other joints. Their meat looks like meat, and I like that.

[Allon]

barelfly

Love them curly fries

[Huskee]

Their Big Montana was pretty much my favorite fast food sandwich back in the day. Beef & cheddar pretty good too. The chicken cordon bleu is a fave too.

[dpearce]

Horsey Sauce! I'd get two regular roast beefs, and about 10 packets of the sauce. And Curley fries were always the best. Been awhile since I've done that as their prices, at least where I'm at, were a bit high.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the review, Huskee . Sounds like I'll have to sleuth out an Arby's location in one of the neighboring towns to do my own research. I was pretty skeptical until I read your comments.

Kathryn

[WI Bubba]

Definitely not what I was expecting to see. My GF loves Arby's and to me it's the worst choice for fast food. She going to be surprised when I suggest going there.

[Huskee]

Well sir, I really hope if you do try it that you like it. But like I said at the end of my post, YMMV. I have friends who rave about Five Guys and to me it was the lamest and most expensive cheeseburger I've ever purchased, they tell me it was simply the location I went to.

[FireMan]

It sounds like the rill deal. Also the rill deal splains the cost maybe. It is 100 hunnert percent choice sirloin, smoked and seared with salt, pepper and garlic seasonings. As "they say" it is rill good ingredient not fakely cooked.
Ol Huskee has for me yearnin fer a taste, yessir.

[Huskee]

What you describe is how it tasted to me, so it makes sense. I wonder if they'll start making shredded (pulled) beef smoked that way. Might be cheaper for them, and they've already got the method down for authentic flavor, something Dickey's and Smokey Bones could never do.

[smokenoob]

I may have to break my promise to never set foot in an Arby’s again….. I guess if they have a drive thru I am ok…..

[Huskee]

I always thought they were unnecessarily expensive so I haven't been to one in many years, but now all the others have come up in price to match so it's just another one of the many to me. I did always like their food though.

[DennyWoo]

Well, I went to my local Arby's to try these out. While the taste of smokiness was definitely there, I think the prep was lacking. The bites were dry and chewy, reminding me of over-microwaved beef. Apparently, my Arby's didn't follow the correct preparation method. Too bad for me. 😪

[Huskee]

Man that stinks. I did wonder if I just happened to hit the lotto when I ordered mine. I guess you just never know.

[DennyWoo]

I've always maintained that with the amount of money that fast food joints put into their menu R&D, that if each individual restaurant followed the correct procedures for preparing food, almost everything would be delicious. Most of us have experienced the difference between a properly made Whopper or Quarter Pounder. When they're properly made, they are dang good, so I suspect that these steak bites are no different.

[Huskee]

Totally agree.

[synodog]

Recycling this gif because I know I’ve posted it here before. I just had Arby’s a few weeks ago and wonder why it isn’t in the regular rotation on our occasional fast food fix…gonna have to try these the next time we go there.

[jayjordan]

The steak bites are no longer on the Arby’s menu.

[Huskee]

Booo!

[RichieB]

Missed this thread. Here's a recipe from Neil. Of course he does on the griddle, which I've done. It could easily be done on a smoker in a C.I. pan to add smoke. I've done rib eye but brisket would work. It is good. I think next time, I'll do that for the smoke.

https://theflattopking.com/garlic-butter-steak-bites/