Restaurant Review: Arby's, Hillsborough Rd

Behold, the first of many reviews of area restaurants.  Today's victim is Arby's, located at 3311 Hillsborough Rd, Durham, NC.  I give it 4 out of 5. Hit "read more" for the full story!



I visited Arby's today (09-Dec-2011) at about 11:45 AM.  My first impression was that the parking lot is poorly designed.  This was most likely a symptom of the available space in the lot, and there really isn't any particular way to fix it nicely.  Not so good job, Civil Engineers.

I held the door for two employees who were entering behind me.  The one closer (apparently a manager) thanked me.  Good job, Apparently Manager Guy!

The restaurant was not heavily patronized.  I estimated the dining area was roughly 35% occupied, and the occupancy didn't change appreciably while I was there.  There were two cash registers, but only one of them was manned at the time I placed my order.  That being said, there was only one customer ahead of me, and I did not have much of a wait before I was able to give my order.

A young man named "Kedron" greeted me and took my order.  Kedron made eye-contact and appeared attentive.  He did not have any trouble keying my order into the register, and he spoke clearly and distinctly.  Good job, Kedron!

My order was ready in under 60 seconds; I was still filling my cup with Mt Dew when my name was called.  Good job, Line Cooks!

The dining room area was in good shape with regard to cleanliness.  There were some crumbs on a few tables and on the floor, but nothing bad enough to warrant a "fair" assessment.  The windows were clean.

I looked inside the men's room before leaving and saw that it was, unfortunately, not nearly so well-cleaned as the dining area.  The floor had several small puddles.  Not so good job, Custodial Staff.

The quality of the food was on par with other restaurants in the chain.

Overall score: 4/5.

Some other observations:
- Employee morale seemed very good.  The manager worked alongside the other workers and engaged in positive rapport.  I got the impression that the employees were happy working there.  Good job, Management!
- The ketchup containers are too darn small, leading to a particular logistic problem when paired with the Arby's Curly Fry:

Ketchup container rating: ZERO STARS!

As can clearly be seen, fry-in-ketchup dunkability is severely impeded.  Bad job, Ketchup Container Selectors!

In conclusion, the end.