Review: Arby's Almost Gets It Right With Two New Smoked Meat Sandwiches

As its commercials boldly proclaim, Arby's "has the meats." In recent years, the chain has expanded beyond its unique to fast food menu of mostly thin-sliced roast beef sandwiches to include premium chicken and fish sandwiches, and meatier, restaurant-quality beef and pork options. As the hot months of 2025 beckoned, so too did grilling and smoking season, and Arby's ventured into replicating the offerings of backyard cooks and all-American joints run by experienced pit bosses with two new sandwiches featuring slow-cooked meats and brand-new sauces.

On April 28, 2025, Arby's started selling the Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich, as well as the Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich. Each is sold with one of two recommended sauces also making their debut at Arby's, one brown sugar-based and the other built around smoky chipotles. The Takeout tried both sandwiches, as well as the sauces, and we've got some thoughts. Along with our review of the brisket and pork sandwiches, here's everything you need to know about Arby's 2025 barbecue menu.

Over its six decades in business, Arby's has mastered the art and science of making sandwiches out of large hunks of meat cooked over low heat for long periods of time. For its new to 2025 barbecue culture-inspired sandwiches, Arby's stepped up its technique. The Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich begins with a 13-hour treatment of the beef in a smoker where it grows embedded with the rich taste of hickory. That same wood is used on the key ingredient in the Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich, smoked for six hours. Both meats are then carefully sliced or shredded, respectively, and formed into a sizable mound inside of a toasted sesame seed bun. These sandwiches are far more than just meat-on-bread. They really come together with the addition of dill pickles heavily flavored with garlic.

What transforms smoked meats into "barbecue"? The sauce. Arby's partnered up with outside parties, collaborating with the two celebrities who run AC Barbecue to contribute their signature sauces. Cedric's Sweet Bussin Brown Sugar Sauce, conceived and marketed by comedian and "The Neighborhood" star Cedric the Entertainer, is a malty, sweet, caramelized blend. Anthony's Spicy Chipotle Smoke Sauce, brought to Arby's by comic and "Black-ish" lead Anthony Anderson, is made from smoky, spicy chipotle peppers. According to Arby's, either sauce works great with the sandwiches.

The Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich and Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich made their debut on Arby's national menu on April 28, 2025. Available all day during regular business hours, both sandwiches can be found at all Arby's locations that choose to participate in the promotion of the limited-time-only offerings. At the end of June 2025, both sandwiches will disappear from the Arby's menu, as will Cedric's Sweet Bussin Brown Sugar Sauce and Anthony's Spicy Chipotle Smoke Sauce. Depending on location, either Quarter Pound barbecue-style sandwich of smoked meats may cost customers as little as $5.99, while the regular menu price of each could be set as high as $10 or more.

As far as the nutritional content of the sandwiches is concerned, Arby's made the information available upon rollout. The Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich contains 510 calories, 24 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 37 grams of protein, and 1,130 milligrams of sodium. As for the Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich, it packs 340 calories, 10 grams of fat, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 24 grams of protein, and 1,190 milligrams of sodium. (That heavy salt content would place these sandwiches among the unhealthiest items on the menu at Arby's.)

Both optional but recommended sauces are heavy on the sweeteners. A full packet of the Sweet Bussin option adds 90 calories and 21 grams of carbohydrates to the meal, while the Spicy Chipotle Smoke variety adds 80 calories and 19 grams of carbohydrates.

There aren't many elements to an Arby's Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich, which means each of those few ingredients has to be perfect or nearly perfect to pull off the idea of a barbecue establishment-worthy entrée at a chain fast food restaurant. It's impressive that Arby's pulled it off. The brisket looks like it just came out of the smoker, all pink in the middle and slightly charred on the outside. You can even see the faint hint of what looks like a smoke ring on the meat, which is cut thicker than Arby's usually cuts its roast beef, but somewhere just short of thick cut bacon.

A very meat-forward sandwich, it flops all over and falls out of the bun, a giant, soft, and bouncy sesame seed variety, but it's easy enough to stuff it back in or just eat it on its own because it's just so tender and of a much higher quality than what can usually be found at Arby's and in fast food in general.

It takes a long time to smoke a brisket, and to impart that strong, pure, and delicate beefy flavor. While the meat here was promised to have been smoked for 13 hours, it tastes like Arby's corporate cooks didn't quite trust themselves, as there's a strong finish of bottled smoke flavor at the end of the bite. That, fortunately, fades away with the complement of either of the crafted barbecue sauces being offered by Arby's at the moment, as well as the ample, garlic-heavy pickle slices.

When one makes pulled pork in a backyard smoker, or gets it in a barbecue joint's signature sandwich, the kind Arby's is taking inspiration from for its spring 2025 offering, the Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich, it ideally finishes with a balance of dry and fatty. The visible fat cooks up like the white parts of bacon, adding moisture to the otherwise dry and tender smoked muscle. The pork on the Arby's Quarter Pound Pork Sandwich is unfortunately quite dry. That texture doesn't affect the taste, as the meat still packs all the flavor imbued into it via the six-hour smoking process — it doesn't bear any signs of processing or artificial tastes, with a rich, salty, woodsy taste.

The consistency of the pulled pork is also somewhat off the park. Pulled pork is called that because forks are used to pull the smoked hunk of pork apart. The meat in the Arby's pulled pork sandwich comes out less shredded and more as crumbly nuggets. It's nonetheless still piled high on the bun, so soft and squishy and fresh that it keeps the pork, which could easily fall out because of its dryness, in place atop the tangy pickles that counteract the inherent sweetness in the pork. Among chain pulled pork sandwiches ranked, the Arby's Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich would fall somewhere near the low-middle.

One misses out on the full barbecue sandwich experience if they eat their meal dry. Most any barbecued or smoked meat requires a sauce as carefully concocted as the beef and pork were prepared. The Quarter Pound brisket and pulled pork sandwiches at Arby's debuted in 2025 alongside two condiments made just for the meat-loving chain by the brains behind sauce and rub maker AC Barbecue. The "A" in AC is Anthony Anderson, and his visage graces the generous packet of Anthony's Spicy Chipotle Smoke Sauce. His business partner, Cedric the Entertainer, is responsible for Arby's new Sweet Bussin Brown Sugar Sauce.

Arby's lets customers decide just how much sauce they'd like on their Quarter Pound sandwiches, and they hand out large, sealed packs of the sauce that come free with purchase. Both sauces really do pair well with both sandwiches; it's a matter of personal preference for the customer. The Spicy Chipotle Smoke Sauce packs fruitiness and heat that linger for a while after eating, while the Sweet Bussing Brown Sugar Sauce is a balanced blend of luscious brown sugar with the sweetness toned down by a maltiness and mild kick. Both additions work well with beef and pork — they drown out the artificial smoke taste in the brisket and solve the dryness of the pork.

There's such a strong barbecue tradition in the United States because the individuals who run those restaurants dedicate their professional lives to perfecting the art and science of slow-cooking meat with smoke and fire. It's a labor of love for them, and a barbecue joint's brisket and pulled pork sandwiches are probably going to be a thing of beauty. Arby's did its best to bring that sensibility and those menu items to a national base of customers who maybe don't have access to real barbecue, or who have never had the opportunity to eat a slow-smoked brisket or pulled pork sandwich. 

All the elements are there, as the meats in both of its new to 2025 Quarter Pound sandwiches are lovingly and authentically prepared. Both the brisket and pulled pork options end up feeling like imitators, as developed through the lens of fast food and the limitations put in place by mass production, distribution concerns, and quality control. Can the smoked meat sandwiches at Arby's compete with an independent barbecue restaurant? No. But are the brisket and pulled pork sandwiches better than most other fast food specialty and premium offerings, including almost everything usually sold at Arby's? Absolutely.

In March 2025, Arby's and its public relations team reached out to The Takeout regarding its then-upcoming rollout of two new seasonal barbecue sandwiches for the spring and summer months. We sent a writer to their local Arby's outlet on April 28, 2025, the first day of nationwide availability of both the Arby's Quarter Pound Brisket Sandwich and the Arby's Quarter Pound Pulled Pork Sandwich, as well as the specialized sauces designed and marketed to be served on or with each sandwich.

Once in possession, and after taking photos of the subject matter, The Takeout's representative tested the freshly made sandwiches and rated each on their own merits, as well as in relation to one another and to other fast food and chain restaurant brisket, pulled pork, and barbecue-style sandwiches. Factors examined included taste (with attention paid especially to sweetness, spice, and smokiness), texture, the makeup and of each meat, and how the overall sandwich was constructed, considered other toppings. and the quality of the bun.