How Arby's Roast Beef By The Pound Actually Works

Arby's has the meats, but imagine if you could have them, too. Not just a little bit of meat, a lot of meat. Arby's will share the goods if you order from its catering menu. There, you can buy roast beef by the pound. There is a little catch to how this works, though; you can't just load up a sandwich with a pound of beef at your leisure. To order from the Arby's catering page, you need to purchase at least 5 pounds of roast beef at a time.

You can always order double meat on an Arby's sandwich in-store, but that's nothing compared to the catering menu and its 5-pound deal. A typical Arby's roast beef sandwich is made with around 3 ounces of beef. That means you're getting just over five sandwiches per pound. This aligns with the info on Arby's catering page, which suggests a pound will make four to six servings. One pound of beef is $12. Five pounds works out as 20 to 30 sandwiches for $60.

A classic Arby's roast beef sandwich with the bun costs $4.59. That's $22.95 if you buy five sandwiches, compared to just $12 for the beef alone, so it's a decent deal. Beef by the pound means every sandwich costs between $2 and $3. You also need to consider the cost of buns, which should be relatively cheap. In fact, Arby's offers beef by the pound plus 24 buns for $68. That's $2.83 per sandwich.

At $12 per pound, Arby's roast beef works out to $0.75 per ounce. That's cheaper than some brands of roast beef you'll find at Walmart. It's also cheaper than the roast beef at Publix, some of which is nearly $20 per pound. The unique way that Arby's prepares its beef makes it a lot more appealing to some than typical deli meat, so this is an attractive deal.

If you're not interested in 5 pounds of beef, Arby's has other items on its catering menu. Ten packs of pre-assembled sandwiches cost $47.90. You'll notice there's a steep jump in price for these. Buying 10 individual sandwiches from the regular menu would be cheaper than ordering the same amount from the catering menu, so it's hard to account for why you might want to order them this way.

There are platters of turkey, ham, and cheese with or without sub buns, sandwich platters, slider platters, and boxed meals. The boxed meals are questionably priced at $10 to $11 each and feature a single sandwich and potato chips. A turkey, ranch, and bacon sandwich, which landed in the middle of the pack when we ranked Arby's sandwiches, normally costs around $8. The catering menu lists potato chips for $2 a bag, so it's hard to imagine you're getting $3.31 worth on the side.

Other items on the catering menu are a decent deal. A dozen turnover costs $24 compared to around $27 in store. Chicken tenders are $36 for 25, which is about $5 cheaper than buying them in store. The big draw is definitely the roast beef, so if you're in the market, you too can have the meats.