ARBY'S HAS THE MEATS! (AND THEY ALL TASTE LIKE LUNCH MEAT)

We remember the "Big Hat" Arby's stands from our youth. You know, the ones that have a big neon cowboy hat with the slogan "ARBY'S ROAST BEEF SANDWICH IS DELICIOUS". We don't know what happened to Arby's, but now to get a real roast beef sandwich fast, you have to go to a Roy Rogers (if you can find one).  

Nowadays, the "Big Hat" is mostly gone. All the new Arby's joints have a kind of a red doodle of a cowboy hat somewhere in the signage. But even in those places which retain the "Big Hat" sign, the food has changed from what we remember. 

They've done something to the roast beef to ensure it slices in whole, uniform pieces without any ragged edges. And not too juicy, either.  When we bite into it, there's s subtle rubberiness to the texture. And the taste is more akin to lunchmeat ham slices than beef. 

And when they started offering a Rueben sandwich a few years ago, we tried one. We couldn't tell the corned beef from the roast beef. 

Now they're offering Italian hoagies and meatball subs. We  tried a meatball sub about a week ago. It was adequate; but really why should we go out of our way to eat an Italian meatball sub at Arby's  when there's a Subway that does the sandwich better on about every third block in town? 

Arby's used to be worthy of that big neon hat. It's sad what's happened. Very sad.