Restaurant and Food Blog April Archive

Chicken salad or chicken salad?

By Ariel Dovey at 04/30/07 11:01

I went to Arby's the other day to get some lunch. After my experience there, I am left wondering whether one of a couple things needs to happen:

• Hearing aids need to purchased for all of their employees
• I need to go to therapy for a speech impediment
• They need to screen their employees a little more closely for intelligence levels
• They need to have some more training on what food products they actually offer

When it was my turn at the counter, I said to the employee that I would like to order a chicken salad sandwich. That sounds pretty easy, right? Well I though so anyway. She proceeded to ask me some more questions, which perplexed me even further. What kind of dressing would you like on that? Now, I had to think on that for a moment before replying. I said, "Don't you usually mix the chicken salad up with like mayonnaise or something?" She looked at me really dumb like. She moved on to the next question, taking that answer from me as a negatory. Do you want that crispy or grilled? Getting to the point of annoyance, I said, I ordered a chicken salad SANDWICH, did you understand that?

Well, apparently not, because she called her manager over. She asked me if she could help me (as if), and in my most patient voice I indicated that I would like a CHICKEN SALAD SANDWICH. She looks at what the employee has entered on the computer which was CHICKEN SALAD. Ok, I thought, we are finally getting somewhere.

She tells the employee she has misunderstood what I wanted and cleared that out and replaced it with what I was asking for. Then, the manager asks me what kind of bread I would like. At this point, having NEVER been asked this question about an Arby's chicken salad sandwich, I begin to lose my grip on my sanity. I not so calmly said that I want the darn sandwich in the picture above her head. Exactly like that and nothing else. Ok, she says and would ou like fries with that?

I turned around and walked out the door. I walked down the street thinking that maybe Subway was a better lunch choice for today.