Arby’s is one fast food establishment that I tend to neglect for one reason or another. It’s one of the more unique options consumers have when it comes to quick eats, focused largely on the roast beef side of things, which is a side I can appreciate. Recently they announced that for a new sandwich, they’d be stepping up the quality of their roast beef. To what, you ask? Angus. What else?

The new sandwich is called the Angus Three Cheese & Bacon sandwich, which may seem self-explanatory, but it’s not. When I got mine, I had quite a bit of trouble figuring out what the three cheeses were; there was white cheese on bottom and yellow on top. I was afraid my sandwich had a case of binary dairy. Fear not, though, cheese lovers. The sauce, which I had assumed to be simple peppercorn ranch, is actually Parmesan peppercorn ranch. Kind of a trick cheese, but I’ll let it slide.

Now that we’ve got our cheeses established, the sandwich is comprised of multiple slices of their new Angus roast beef (which has a garlic and onion rub), swiss and shredded cheddar cheese, Parmesan peppercorn ranch sauce, and peppered bacon on an Italian roll. No veggies here, Reggie. Overall though, it sounds like pretty normal fare from Arby’s. The focus here is on the upgraded roast beef, so how did it pan out?

Although I was pretty doubtful at first due to the ostensible lackluster of the item, not to mention the $5 price tag. However, as I made my way through it, I grew more and more impressed. First of all, the Angus roast beef is noticeably better in many ways. Even though they call it thin-sliced, it seemed thicker than their normal roast beef. It was certainly more hearty, and it had a delicious savory flavor to it that was nicely rounded out by a hint of sweetness. The garlic and onion rub subtly shined through, too. Compared to their regular roast beef, which can be slimy and almost mushy sometimes, the Angus beef is more textured and pleasantly moist. The cheese, the bacon, and the sauce in combination with the savory nature of the beef really makes for a knockout flavor, too. The soft Italian roll accentuates the textures nicely. It could maybe use something crunchy, but it’s pretty good how it is.

So what seemed to me like a rather common sandwich turned out to be better than expected due to its execution. The Angus roast beef was really the make-or-break aspect of this sandwich, and I’d give it a passing grade. It’s a very meat-heavy sandwich, which is something to keep in mind when considering it, as is the 780 calorie count it entails. I would absolutely get this sandwich more often, except for the fact that it’s $5. And that’s by itself; I got the large meal with it, and it came out to almost $9. Value menus are my friends. Arby’s has some other Angus items coming up, like the Ultimate Angus Wrap and the Ultimate Angus Classic Deli Sub, which will also likely be as expensive, unfortunately, but at least the quality will be better. If you’re up for spending the dough, you should definitely give this one a try.