Arby's Releases a New Spicy Roast Beef Sandwich

When Arby's released its hottest sandwiches ever and conducted its Diablo Dare Challenge last January, the chain wanted to know if you can handle the heat. While some thought the items were just moderately spicy, others actually felt like the chain should tone it down a bit. Arby's obliged and this week introduced a milder version of the hot sandwich, more likely to appeal to the masses.

The new Spicy Roast Beef Sandwich is the hotter version of the chain's traditional roast beef sandwich. It features the iconic thinly sliced roast beef piled with lettuce, jalapeño, the same "fiery" seasoning, and a new spicy mayo sauce on a toasted sesame seed roll.

The spicy mayo includes relatively tame cayenne pepper in comparison to the habanero pepper used in the barbecue sauce for the first Diablo Dare sandwiches. The crispy chicken and smoked brisket versions of the Diablo Dare sandwiches also had ghost pepper cheese and were served on a toasted red chipotle bun, for a quadruple dose of hot stuff.

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The Diablo Dare version of the roast beef sandwich, which came out in late October, nixed the ghost pepper cheese in favor of cheddar, but still had all the other spicy accouterments, including the chipotle bun. The new Spicy Roast Beef Sandwich sports a simple sesame seed bun.

Overall it sounds much tamer than the Diablo sandwiches which required a special vanilla milkshake, called the "extingui-shake," to temper the burn. The Spicy Roast Beef doesn't need a wingman, and apparently, it doesn't need any fanfare either because Arby's didn't officially announce it, but slipped it onto menus nationwide for a limited time.

Early thoughts and reviews suggest that potential diners are happy about this new offering. On one Reddit thread, people expressed their thoughts on the two Diablo experiments and some didn't enjoy the stunt sandwiches, whether they thought they delivered on the spice or not. "I'm glad this is a tamed-down version of the Diablo thing. That wasn't fun spice," said one. "I found the 3 different flavors of spice jarring. Each on their own would have probably been fine, just didn't taste good together," said another.

Arby's also added a few other returning items to the menu with the new sandwich. Buffalo Boneless Wings, Loaded Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac 'N Cheese, and White Cheddar Mac and Cheese are also available on the menu. The chain's two fish sandwiches, the Crispy Fish Sandwich and King's Hawaiian Fish Deluxe Sandwich, have also returned for a limited time.

Arby's doesn't usually shy away from releasing its limited-time items with great fanfare, like the recent return of the Wagyu Steakhouse Burger or the Diablo Sandwiches. Some other wild products that Arby's released this year were Smoked Bourbon and meat-scented wrapping paper, so the chain seems to be slow playing this one.