The Ultimate Guide To Arby's Breakfast Menu
After a slight COVID-related dip, fast-food breakfast is back and bigger than ever, according to Forbes, making up a quarter of sales for behemoths like McDonald's, but finding your early a.m. fix at roast beef titan Arby's might be a little bit more difficult. According to Secret Menus Guru, Arby's breakfast is only served at some of the chain's locations. If you're lucky enough to have a participating Arby's near you, you can savor fantastic items like the Swiss & Swiss flatbread or the Ham & Cheese slider.
Although Arby's famously has all the meats and a wickedly hilarious marketing department with its finger on the pop culture pulse (via CNBC), its breakfast options seem to be the equivalent of a fast-food unicorn; utterly elusive but glorious to find. However, it's not entirely impossible to sniff out a breakfast bonanza at a giant-hatted Arby's franchise if you know what to look for.
Arby's breakfast isn't offered at all locations
To avoid early morning disappointment, the first thing you need to know about Arby's is that it doesn't serve breakfast at all of its locations. According to Fast Food Menu Prices, daybreak diners in large cities have a better chance of cashing in on breakfast grub. While there are 3,000 Arby's dotted all over the country, only a few hundred actually serve breakfast. Those that do offer the meal start at 6 a.m. and finish around 10:30 a.m., which seems to be pretty standard hours for fast food joints (via The Takeout).
According to Slate, breakfast is a boon for several fast food chains, including McDonald's, although notable exceptions to the rule include Shake Shack, Wendy's, Boston Market, and Arby's. Arby's lack of morning munchies hasn't gone unnoticed, with Reddit lamenting the lack of breakfast options at all locations. We can only hope Arby's will take a cue from other fast food giants and start serving the morning meal universally soon.
Find a breakfast-serving franchise near you on the website
To find out if you're fortunate enough to be near a breakfast-serving Arby's, all you need to do is jump on the website and use Arby's store locator feature under the "locations" tab. You'll find the location hours and, more importantly for early morning diners, the location's services, including whether or not breakfast is an option. Even if you don't see breakfast listed, it's never a bad idea to call the location in question to find out for sure. You never know; they might have forgotten to update, and you could be in for a marvelous surprise.
The locator app seems to only work in the United States, despite the fact that you can find Arby's in Egypt, South Korea, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, and Canada (via The Travel). So if you're overseas and in need of breakfast, give Arby's a call or swing in.
Arby's doesn't feature a breakfast menu on its website
Arby's is downright secretive when it comes to its breakfast menu, and you won't find any information about early morning offerings on the official website. Fortunately, Arby's does have a PDF full of nutritional information, including what's on the a.m. menu. You'll find a bevy of brekkie options, like biscuits with different meats, scrambled egg sandwiches, wraps, and croissants. There's also coffee and orange juice, plus Arby's coffee-adjacent Jamocha shake with a negligible amount of caffeine but a whole heck of a lot of sugar to offset it.
Until recently, you could also get Arby's legendary potato cakes, but these found themselves on the chopping block roughly a year ago. Instead, Arby's rolled out the decidedly less decadent crinkle-cut fries. Unfortunately, removing potato cakes cut deep, prompting some Redditors to call for Arby's to "grow up" and bring back the cherished cakes for good.
Breakfast is heavy on sandwiches, wraps, and croissants
According to Business Insider, the best and most popular fast food breakfast items are also the most portable. Convenience sells, especially in the morning hours when you have to hustle, and this is another area where Arby's excels. Nearly all of Arby's breakfast options are mess-free, easy-to-eat options. Even the french toast comes in portable stick form. You just might need a few extra napkins.
Arby's locations that serve breakfast specialize in sandwiches, from croissants and biscuits to buns and wraps. So although we can't technically advise it, you could theoretically scarf down your Arby's breakfast with one hand on the wheel in rush hour traffic. Plus, Arby's breakfast sandwiches are legit, with Redditors claiming that the sourdough, ham, egg, and Swiss cheese "hits on a whole other level" and saying that Arby's breakfast is severely underrated. If only more people got to experience Arby's excellent morning fare.
Arby's is relatively new to the breakfast scene
In addition to being far from ubiquitous, Arby's breakfast is also relatively new. According to Fast Food Geek, the roast beef titan rolled out breakfast at select locations in 2015, with the first breakfast served in one of Arby's New York City locations. Arby's first foray into breakfast food included sliders and flatbreads, as well as current menu items like biscuits crowned with tons of different meats and cheeses.
When you consider that McDonald's first offered its first Egg McMuffin back in 1972 and Burger King followed suit roughly seven years later (via Live About), Arby's is pretty late to the breakfast table. We can only hope that Arby's relatively new step into the exciting world of fast food breakfast means that it will consider expanding the offering to more franchises. Still, there's no official word yet that this will happen anytime soon.
Arby's used to have a brisket biscuit
When Arby's first rolled out its breakfast menu to hungry Manhattanites, it offered a brisket biscuit that garnered an immediate following. According to Restaurant Business Online, Arby's brisket biscuit was the darling of New York; a fun fusion of brisket, cheese, and egg on a flaky biscuit. Arby's original brisket sandwich caused a massive ripple effect in the fast food world, prompting Restaurant News to claim that Arby's had taken things to a brave new level, so it stands to reason that fork-tender, perfectly seasoned brisket breakfast sandwich would find a home on the chain's breakfast menu.
Unfortunately for hungry early-bird diners, you'll have to make do with the regular brisket sandwich instead of the brisket biscuit if you want barbecue in the morning these days. On the other hand, the brisket sandwich is still plenty good, with LA Weekly championing its beefy and bold flavors and the fabulous ratio of meat to cheese.
Arby's breakfast is fairly healthy as far as fast food goes
Although Arby's might not be the first thing you think of when you envision healthy eating, the chain's breakfasts aren't half bad for you. While plenty of fast food restaurants have hugely caloric menus, Arby's tends to stick to the middle of the road, letting you keep your diet and have your cheesy, meaty biscuit too. According to WebMD, Carl's Jr.'s menu is substantially higher in calories than Arby's with a Loaded Breakfast Burrito that has 820 calories, nearly 200 more than Arby's equivalent option (via Breakfast Menus).
Subway doesn't fare much better. WebMD notes that its Footlong Mega Breakfast Sandwich has over 1,300 calories, nearly double anything you'd find on Arby's breakfast menu. Realistically, smart and conscientious consumers can easily eat a breakfast that contains 500 calories or fewer at Arby's. Pair your meal with a black coffee, and you're well within any reasonable calorie budget.
You can order ahead and pickup using Arby's franchise locator
Arby's has an undeniably sophisticated and user-friendly website, allowing you to peruse and schedule order pick-up from any participating franchise, but you don't even need to log in to your Google browser to get your Arby's fix. With Arby's super easy-to-use app, you can search for a location, schedule an order for pickup, and have any Arby's meal ready, waiting, and fresh when you arrive, including breakfast at locations that serve it.
Although the app gets high points for ease of use, it does have a few glitches. According to user reviews, some menu items don't show up, and it isn't easy to find or use the coupons. Prices are also sometimes incorrect. On the other hand, if you're familiar with your local franchise and want to order some hot french toast stix in a flash, you can with a simple click.
If you can't get coffee, try the Jamocha shake
Although sadly, you can't get coffee or breakfast at all of Arby's locations, you can enjoy a deliciously coffee-esque beverage with a big, bold sugary punch and plenty of chocolate running through it. Arby's Jamocha Shake is a chocolate-drenched dream crowned with a generous cloud of whipped cream and touched with just the right amount of coffee. At its core, the Jamocha Shake is a milkshake that gives a slight nod to iced coffee, although it doesn't even have as much caffeine as your average Coca-Cola (via Caffeine Informer).
Doubling as both a coffee and chocolate beverage and a sippable dessert, the Jamocha Shake is a thing of beauty. Reddit gives it glowing reviews, with some users citing the Jamocha as "the only shake I will still enjoy without guilt" and others posting copycat Jamocha Shake recipes for those who want to duplicate the magic at home (via Reddit).
Hack your breakfast for a unique and tasty riff on the original
Plenty of things are customizable at Arby's, and you can undoubtedly hack your breakfast to suit your personal tastes. According to Hack the Menu, Arby's lets you switch up its sandwich bread or swap in a new sauce to fully customize the flavors. So if you're feeling courageous, why not pop some horsey sauce on your sausage and egg wrap or ask for au jus or Arby's red ranch to elevate your breakfast croissant to delectable new heights? Although you have to pay extra for cheese sauce, it's worth it if you want to spice up that sammie with a blend of several cheeses.
You can also ask for Arby's bread switch to change what your sandwich is served on or order from Arby's all-day secret menu, which includes the Meat Mountain, a mammoth pile of all of the meats without a veggie in sight. While it might seem like the stuff of legends, the Meat Mountain certainly exists, and you can order it in all of its luscious, artery-compromising glory for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.