What Kind Of Cheese Comes On Arby's French Dip?

Arby's, the American fast-food sandwich chain, is already somewhat famous for zigging where other restaurants zag. While burger joints were popping up across the country in the mid-1900s, the Arby's founding brothers opted to sell roast beef sandwiches instead. While some burger joints perfect a single French fry recipe, Arby's sells two different versions of fries. Even the restaurant's signature Red Ranch sauce has nothing to do with the creamy salad dressing staple. With all this in mind, we wouldn't blame you for believing that Arby's would deviate from the standard when it comes to a classic French dip sandwich recipe. But the restaurant actually plays it pretty straight.

The sandwich, which hails from Los Angeles rather than Paris, traditionally includes sliced roast beef layered inside a soft French roll (hence the name). The entire sandwich is then dipped in salty beef au jus bite by bite. Modern variations on the sandwich often include melty slices of Swiss cheese and a layer of caramelized onions. Arby's skips the onions but keeps the two slices of Swiss cheese. Along with the thinly sliced roast beef and beef au jus on the side, it's pretty darn close to the classic.

Swiss cheese is the cheese of choice on the French dip sandwich for a reason. While some recipes swap it for milder provolone — and even Arby's will let you replace it with cheddar on its version of the sandwich — nutty, buttery, slightly sweet Swiss cheese works wonders with salty, savory beef au jus. In addition to its flavor, Swiss cheese has a low melting point — just picture cheesy, melty French onion soup or the gooey decadence of fondue. That means that when Swiss cheese is layered with hot roast beef or dipped in warm beef au jus, it will reach that just-right melty consistency to coat your beef without a crazy cheese-pull mess.

Of course, when picking up a sandwich from a fast-food restaurant, temperature control can be hard to come by. For the perfect French dip experience, we'd recommend popping your sandwich under the broiler or in the toaster oven for a minute or two and warming up your beef au jus just slightly. The bread will get a little crisp, the tender beef will warm up, and most importantly, those perfect squares of Swiss cheese will start to melt into the beef. What's better than that?