Arby's — Restaurant in Colonial Heights

Around, the holidays life usually gets a little hectic. Am I right? Between working, family, and getting ready for Christmas sometimes there is little time to cook a good dinner. My wife and I decided on Friday, December 8th to do some Christmas shopping before heading home. It was getting late so we decided to get some take-out. I believe we ordered 2 double roast beef, a slider, mozzarella sticks, and a curly fry. The bread used for the roast beef sandwiches was stale. I don't mean day old, I mean bread that falls apart when you get ready to bite. I hadn't eaten all day so this was my only meal. Having worked at 2 bread companies in the late 90's through way past 2010 I can assure you I know what stale bread taste like. My duties were to order bread for Arby's and dozens of other restaurant chains. Our bread never stayed in the account more than 3 days to guarantee freshness. We didn't have computers back in the day so all records were written in a log book. I was trained to have enough bread for lunch and dinner the 1st day. Lunch and dinner for day two. However, only lunch for day three. We delivered daily except for Wednesday and Sunday. The bread I got was either old or is being kept in the walk-in to extend the shelf life.One company where I was the area sales director for the fast food division even made the onion rolls for them. Fresh bread is the cornerstone on a not just sandwich but the meal. I was exhausted and didn't want to "go back and argue with someone about the poor quality of food." Colonial Heights is the mecca of food choices around Southpark Mall. Over, the years we have written off several restaurants due to poor customer service, and getting food that is sold way beyond it's recommended shelf life. Having worked as a restaurant manager for a decade and I know how watching the bottom line is important. I can honestly say in both companies I worked for I increased sales by double digit because I was strict on keeping fresh food. It takes 4 minutes to cook fies, so no customer should have cold or old fries. My bread vendor was told upfront my expectations and it was enforced. This visit we spent $18.33. It's not a lot but if the rest of the family is home it can be as high as $60. We used the app for convenience and believe it is a good choice. I have noticed that it is easier for a clerk to read an order than hearing it in the drive-thru. For me, it's going to be a long time before I return to this location. We usually have hamburger buns or a type of sub bun I could have used but didn't. Since I had put sauce on my sandwich I was forced after removing the bread to eat it with a fork. SMH. Now I am sure I will be told the bread was within the expiration limits set by the bread company and/or Arby's corporate. However, we have eaten at this location and other Arby's around town to know that the quality of the bread...

The quality here really varies from visit to visit and the staff apparently just decides they know better than corporate SOP and does what they want instead. Why do I think this? Well because we ordered a French dip via a delivery service a couple weeks ago and it came without au jus (which is literally what makes it a French dip vs a roast beef sandwich). Not the end of the world, but kinda frustrating. So my husband goes through the drive thru the other night and orders a French dip again. And again, no au jus. Frustrated, he goes back and asks for the missing element of the menu item, and the guy argues with him that most people don't want the sauce so he doesn't put it in and if he wanted the au jus that is supposed to come with the sandwich, I remind you, then he should have asked for it.

Umm okay, I have worked fast food. I know it is a thankless job that pays peanuts, but dude, people literally get paid to sit in a lab at corporate and decide what is served with (or isn't) a dish and you are not qualified to make that decision for the company or its customers, let alone argue with a customer about the unilateral decision you have made that is not company policy when the customer asks for what they paid for. At best, if it truly is a trend that people tend to not use the sauce a dish comes with, you may ask the customer at the time they order whether they want the sauce or not, but it is not your place to just not include it in an order when it is part of it. This is not the same as not putting ketchup in a to go order, you are literally removing what makes the dish what it is. And the (incorrect) argument over a grammatical phrase during the ensuing conversation while trying to get what we paid for was entirely uncalled for.

So yeah, this is the closest Arby's to us, but I am off to find the next nearest one because this one apparently has staff with an inflated sense of self and purpose, and it is ruining both the meal and the overall...

Location is the cleanest ive seen and has beautiful landscaping.

Unfortunately today's visit was less than satisfactory. The order process and receiving of food was fine, but once we got back to our truck I opened my sandwich to put some arbys sauce on it and looked at several small chunks of rotisserie chicken where I expected a chicken sandwich to be. I immediately went in and expressed concern that this was an inadequate amount of chicken on a sandwich. The manager was very understanding and took my sandwich to the back to be fixed. After several minutes, an employee appeared and literally launched my sandwich down the food ramp to the manager. I could see the look on the employees face, which was less than happy. The manager reaction was clearly shocked and I'm sure my face dropped too. I looked at the manager and said something to the point of "well, that was aggressive". I could see the manager was apologetic, almost embarrassed. She stated that she was sorry and would take care of that. I hope I said thank you, but I was in shock and walked out.

Also, when I got back to the truck to look at my new sandwich...the meat chunks were cold. When I order a chicken sandwich, whether fried, roasted, or grilled I assume it will be warm meat. Maybe I expected wrong and that was an error on my part for not asking, but I would like for that to be made more clear as the counterpart of the sandwich is hot. (I ordered the deluxe chicken sandwich, which it states you can get crispy or roasted).

Overall, I was very disappointed with my sandwich, and the attitude of the employee who literally seemed to chuck my sandwich at her manager (so much that the manager had to re-close the sandwich packaging and I had to recreate my sandwich), but most interactions with other employees while we waited were positive which is why I gave it 3 stars. I honestly started with 2, but I understand there are flukes and it was a busy time of day, so I'll take that into...