Arby's Curly Fries Review: "Do They Have the Fries?"

Headquartered in Atlanta with over 3,300 store internationally, Arby's is known for its roast beef sandwiches that pack loads and loads of meat between their buns, making their buns look miniscule compared to the stacked protein. And although these maxed out sandwiches capture everyone’s attention on billboards and marketing, we hope their fries should be just as eyecatching and tasty. Arby's slogan is “We have the meats.”. Well, we want to ask: do they have the fries?

Arby's has two fries variants - curly and crinkled. Today, we are reviewing Arby's Curly Fries.

Look at those stacked roast beef sandwiches. Yes, there is meat!

Texture (7/10)

The texture was nothing short of great. These fries definitely were dipped in some batter or coating which enhances the texture. The edges and exterior sides were at a very good crisp, and the crunch from these wacky curly fries has been superior to most other fries. As soon as you crunch into these fries, the innards of the fry are soft and welcoming. The issue though was the consistency throughout the serving portion. Many fries were half burnt, half twigged, and these just ruined what could've been a perfect texture.

The curly fries have phenomenal texture, if you are lucky enough to get a decent piece.

Many pieces were incomplete or twigs broken from the original curly sticks. Arby's needs to think about quality control and consistency.

Flavor (6/10)

There was a nice attempt at making the flavor of these fries fitting with the meat of their sandwiches. There was a good mix of bold seasoning, most likely including onion, pepper, and maybe some paprika. They definitely have an attitude and we like it! Also the seasoning was blended into the batter rather than spinkled on the outside, again, being more intentional. However, Arby's was not able to balance the salt levels well. The flavor feels just a bit off with minimal salt, but that ends up making the flavor boring very quickly.

Shape (3/10)

While some of these fries were nice and curly, just like their promise, a few too many were burnt, broken, tiny bits and pieces of potato and batter, that all snapped instantly when touched. Consistency here is low. On the other hand, there were also some globs of tangled potato, batter, oil, and fat all clumped together in huge chunks, making them hard to consume, creating lukewarm pockets in the middle, and have a hollow and mushy texture inside. We feel this is just carelessness and ruins what could've been amazing curly sticks. For the normal fries, that were intended by the original design, were not floppy nor did they have any structural issues.

The entangled curly fries, bonded with batter, create these massive globs. Unforunately, the oil does not get to the center creating undercooked pockets without crisp or crunch. This should not be happening.

Presentation (7/10)

The fries came in a tall carton that looked like it was designed for straight fries. Although there's nothing wrong with this, the carton was not very effective in holding the fries in itself. Given the curl, we were hoping that a wider container may be used as it is difficult to pack curly sticks well. However, they looked great, especially as the large amounts of fries naturally spilled out in a potentially intentional overflow. The way that the fries naturally were laid out, created by the momentum of the carton tipping over, certainly was more picture-worthy than most fries.

We like how the container was tipped over with momentum to create this natural spill.

Experience (4/10)

The texture was quite nice at first, but was drowned out by all the little twigs and massive clumps of fries that were just pure batter and burnt or undercooked potato. The flavor started off quite nicely but died down quickly, as it was not interesting enough and got old very quickly, making it hard to finish each bite of the large quantity that was given. We were excited by the way it came out on a tray, but realized all the shortcomings as we munched through. With just a bit of changes and attention to detail, we think this could have been an amazing experience.

Texture	7
Flavor	6
Shape	3
Presentation	7
Experience	4
Overall	5.4 / 10

Conclusion

In the end, Arby’s had a very strong strive to make a solid, if not industry-leading fries. We can definitely see that the original design and intent should have resulted in an amazing experience - the curls, the crunch, the bold flavor, and even the presentation. But all of these strengths are drowned out by the lack of attention to detail and coming short in many areas, whether it is inconsistency or missing salt, making the fries quite difficult to fully enjoy as it was originally intended. Overall, Arby’s has created a phenomenal menu item. Unfortunately, the poor execution makes the entire stack fall. We hope this is just a one-off incidence with this particular branch or this batch.

We love the bold pride. We love the ethos. Hope that we can ring the bell next time.