Beef-A-Roo

Favorite fast food for locals. Prices are higher than a normal chain but so is the quality. Food cooked to order, not sitting under a heater to kept warm. Would put the onion rings and fries up against any others. Rotate monthly sandwiches so you have something new to pick from. Their places are always clean.

Great roast beef sandwiches here. Don’t go to Arbys when you can have Beef A Roo. It is so much better. Took my order to go as I needed to hit the road, but I always try and hit this place when I am in town or passing through. What a great local chain. And their restaurants are decorated in a very neat way– each location unique. This particular location has a lot of really neat historical photographs of Rockford hanging on the wall.

Beef-​A-​Roo has some great food on their menu. I personally like it because they have more of a healthy sandwiches yet tasty along with all the classics. Sweet potato fries are great (be careful of too much salt).
Overall, good times and good food.
BTW, they have the best lemonade in town. It’s still from the tap yet it’s awesome!
Customer service training here is pretty obvious, so I appreciate that a lot.

I thought this place might be good when I saw the long drive up window line at lunch. And the guy I was with said people calling into a radio show said it was the best beef sandwich around. So we decided to give it a try.
Well I should have known when I ordered a beef sandwich ‘dry’ and the cashier had no idea what I was talking about, that I was probably at the wrong beef sandwich place. Then when the sandwich was delivered to our table on a hamburger bun instead of a french roll, and looked like sliced cold cuts, I was tempted to just pitch it in the garbage and skip lunch.
You see I worked at a beef place in high school. We cooked beef roasts, sliced them on a meat slicer, added spices and juice and served them hot. THAT was a beef sandwich. PORTILLO’s has a real beef sandwich. MR. BEEF has a real beef sandwich. Arby’s and Beef-​A-​Rooni have beef loaf! If I wanted processed lunch meat I would have gone to the grocery store deli.
My friend and I were totally confused by the popularity of the place and said it must be because the rest of the food was great. From what we could see on other people’s plates, it looked like their non-​beef meals were good. Which confused us even more seeing as the name of the place has the word BEEF right in it.
The place is clean, well decorated. And the cashier came by each table with a basket of melt-​a-​ways and peppermint hard candy and said, «Are we enjoying our meal? Would you like a mint or peppermint?» So it’s not like it’s not a nice place to visit, atmosphere wise. But if they can’t have the best type of meat that’s PART OF THEIR NAME, why bother going there?!
I probably won’t return.

Their cheese fries and their seasoning salt are some of the best I’ve ever had and I’ve traveled to the west coast and back. Their burgers aren’t the best out there, competition among burger places in Illinois is fierce, but their roast beef and poultry items are usually always top notch in addition to the aforementioned fries.
I eat here at least once every time I visit Illinois.

My husband got the blackened tuna sandwich and chili. He loved them. The burgers were very good. The cheese fries were very basic, but good. The sweet potato fries were delicious. We will definitely come back when we are in town again.

I love their turkey bacon club sandwich. Can’t go wrong with their peanut butter brownie either. Eat there at least once aweek. Good food, good service, comfortable: what more could you ask?

I went to Beef-​A-​Roo a few days ago with my g/​f to finally check this establishment out due to being an «out of towner». The restaurant itself looks really nice inside and out! However, do not let this fool you. The food is awful. I had a bacon cheeseburger with sweet potato fries and a regular drink. I took three bites out of it and tossed it. The burger was cold and completely processed! Yuck. Five guy’s will crush this on any given day.

Super kale salad with the house dressing, Oh so good. It is fresh made as well. The manager even showed me love with a free pumpkin square. I am coming back soon.

For a fast-​food type restaurant, we were very happy with the good & atmosphere. We were passing through Rockford looking for a dog-​friendly patio so we didn’t leave the dog in the car on a hot summer day. We found the workers friendly & efficient, the Big Beef was delicious & tasted more like home-​roasted beef than a place like Arbys. Burger was good, toppings fresh, prices appropriate. Building was clean, bathrooms needed updated, but the landscaping & patio were nicer than any fast food restaurant I’ve been to. Overall, we’d come again & would recommend!

I wander in to Beefaroo after jumping off the bus. I was headed to the Library to work on a presentation. I knew I was going to require something healthy to eat to nourish my overworked brain. Unfortunately, East State Street is a pocked with unhealthy fast food (fast death) establishments. But tucked away just off off the main highway is a Rockford Icon. BEEFAROO. I love this place. I don’t eat here too often because I often cook but when I want a quick bite that is not so deadly I will wander in. Today, I was greeted by DONNA, I asked her what is your healthiest offering? I didn’t even bother looking at the menu — I wanted her advice. Without hesitation she describe a few offerings including their KALE SALAD… I stopped her when she got to Avocado. She suggested the Balsamic Dressing. I asked her the cost and she replied $ 8. I hesitated for a nano-​second and said fine. That’s a good investment for my main meal of the day. I had a water with my salad. The salad was nicely presented. Dense. It includes Sunflower seeds, Avocado, Dates, Grape Tomatoes, and Grilled Chicken. Kale is a dark green veggie. It’s dense and is related to Broccoli. I found it quiet satisfying. I asked Donna for a different kind of dressing as this robust flavor I felt was better accompanied by a sweet or citrusy dressing. She offered me a raspberry dressing which was perfect! Donna was on top of her customer service game. Paige showed up with her illuminating smile. I asked her why the big smile. She replied I am happy. She added she like Beefaroo because it’s a cool place to work with cool people. Her smile says a lot about the environment. Keep up the good work and offerings ‘Roo!!!

Probably one of the worst hamburgers I have ever eaten. Ground beef with a lot of bone chips mixed in… Plus, it was cold. Not very appetizing. Needless to say I am one-​and-​done with Beef-​A-​Roo!

What do you mean you don’t have REUBENS?!
Are you aware that it is, in fact, March. Not that it’s a huge deal, but I mean, c’mon. St Pats is just a couple weeks away and the Shamrock Shake has been out for quite some time…
Get with it already…
#2014reubenchallenge

I’ve heard many wonderful things about how Beef-​A-​Roo is the Greatest Restaurant Ever. This isn’t the greatest restaurant in Rockford, IL, much less the entire free world.
One of the main problems is that there is just too much salt on some of the food items, such as the fries and onion rings. I nearly got sick about halfway through a serving of a large fries because instead of making good fries, Beef-​A-​Roo got lazy and just decided to add lots of salt. Salt is fine in moderation, but I felt I was eating out of a jar of Morton’s. The funny thing is, the items that needed the salt, such as their bland hamburgers, lacked any. Their milkshakes were not much better — all I tasted was the milk!
Beef-​A-​Roo also cuts corners by serving Pepsi instead of Coke as well as not accepting American Express cards as payment. I can forgive the former, but I have a fundamental opposition to businesses who do not take AMEX.
Sorry, Beef-​A-​Roo. Your service was very friendly but that doesn’t make up for the other inadequacies your restaurants have.

Is it bad that I dream of their food in my sleep???
Say what you want… blah blah… it’s like Arby’s…its just a fast food joint… but their food is delicious!
Their cheddar roast beef with horseradish makes me drool just thinking about it. The french fries… oh the french fries! Fried perfectly with a dash of their seasoning salt. Quite possibly are the only french fries that taste good even when cold!
I always recommend to people visiting Rockford… go to Beef-A-Roo…easy on the wallet and always great food!

I love Beef-​a-​Roo! But I am originally from Rockford, so obviously I would. You can’t try to compare it to another fast food place because Beef-​a-​Roo will always have something that’s better. They have a great menu with a variety of burgers and tons of different sandwiches. I would say they have the best sandwich selection of any fast food place. They also change their sandwiches and salads seasonally.
You have to get their cheddar fries! It’s not Beef-​a-​Roo experience without them!

I asked a Rockfordian what the one thing should I do when I’m in Rockford and she responded with the unexpected «Beef-​a-​Roo,» which I had to have her repeat. Ok lady I don’t know, I trust you.
Apparently a local fast food-​ish chain in the same vein as Portillo’s, albeit more sandwich and burger forward, Beef-​a-​Roo was distinguished by its cheap gourmet items and friendly staff. I ordered the ‘gourmet’ bacon bleu cheese burger which had a thin patty slathered in bleu cheese with two slices of crunchy bacon. Normally the patties on these kinds of burgers are monstrous, so it was a pleasant surprise to have a more gut-​friendly option (and wallet-​friendly at just over $ 4 with tax) with quality toppings. Admittedly the bleu cheese drowned out the flavor of the thin burger at times, but overall it was a successful sandwich. My wife ordered the pulled pork which came with a very respectable amount of pork that was of surprisingly good quality; the barbecue sauce, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired.
I believe we committed the cardinal sin of Beef-​a-​Roo by not ordering fries, but we’re on a diet so we’re doing the best we can here. I did taste the «special seasoning» and found the garlicky, slightly lemony salt to be quite tasty. And then there’s the adorable old woman handing mints out to every table, a nice touch. I can see why Rockfordians prize their Beef-​a-​Roo.

Oh boy, do Rockfordians love their Beef-​A-​Roo.
It’s just okay, you guys. It’s just fast food that’s slightly better than your everyday Mcdonalds. That’s all.
Oh, the shakes are good.

Name one thing that can make a gorgeous day on the links just a little better, Give up? The prospect of Beef-​A-​Roo afterward. Like the snow cone at the end of a t-​ball game, like the cigarette after a long romp under the covers, Beef-​A-​Roo was the right reward to top off the experience.
I think I build this place up to be better than it actually is, and I’m okay with that. It’s basically high-​quality fast food. The menu isn’t as large as, say, Portillo’s, but the food is on par. The roast beef club on a pretzel roll was the choice for me, and it was fantastic. As was the hand-​made chocolate shake. The fries are pretty good too, they remind me of BK’s fries from like 10 years ago. Thank you, Beef-​A-​Roo, for being the cherry on top of the sundae.

Beef-​a-​roo, even though it is a fast food restaurant, it’s not one you find all over the country. I remember growing up and loving this place. As I got older, I didn’t love it as much as I preferred a more complex meal or burger. What I will tell you is that they are on the same level as some of these gourmet burger establishments.
My favorites here are their Bacon Cheeseburger, Western Cheeseburger, and Olive Burger. There cheese fries are good, but it’s just regular fries with liquid cheese slathered on top. The key to them is the special seasoned salt they use. I like their onion rings as well, and I think they have the best out of any fast food restaurants I’ve been to.
I also like their Sante Fe Chicken Salad with the Southwest ranch dressing. I tried their fat free dressing once and it was unappetizing. It was like fat free mayo, with even less flavor. BLEH
This location is generally pretty clean and service is good for a fast food restaurant. Since they do make everything when you order it, there can be a wait from the time you order until the time you get it. The drive through does move reasonably quick.