Kelly's Roast Beef

Kelly's Roast Beef
410 Revere Beach Boulevard
Revere, MA 02151
www.kellysroastbeef.com

Char's View:
Now I have lived in Boston for seven years and heard about this fairytale place called Kelly's Roast Beef that serves the best roast beef sandwiches. Unfortunately for me, I don't have a car and even though the chain has 5 locations, I can't get to any of them! Luckily, Vichu and our friend, Mary Ann decided to make my dreams come true.

Vichu and Mary Ann agreed that the Revere location had the best food out of all the locations so even though it was a pretty brisk night out, we headed down to Revere Beach. This location is only a stand and has no seating, but a big menu!

Being as that we were breaking my Kelly's Roast Beef cherry, I just kept it simple, a small roast beef sandwich with a touch of BBQ sauce and a small coke. Man! This was a meal and a heavenly one at that. The ratio of roast beef to bun was perfect and the roast beef was cooked perfectly so that with every bite, it is exactly that. A bite. Not a stringy, jerk your head back, pull out the rest of the sandwich filling kind of bite. The BBQ sauce added a little bit of wetness and sweet tang to the sandwich, but you could definitely have it plain and be just as happy. The bun gets toasted with butter so it has a little bit of a crispness and the sesame seeds just make the sandwich complete.

We didn't get to eat on the beach (I was told we'd be attacked by seagulls) but Mary Ann was gracious enough to let us use her BMW as our luxurious dining room. (Shoutout, Mary Ann!) All in all, if you haven't been to Kelly's Roast Beef...find a way to get there! If you don't have a car, you FIND someone to get you there. Which won't be too hard because anyone who's been there will suddenly get a craving when they hear the name and if they haven't been there, they'll thank you for making them take you there.

Vichu's View:
Revere Beach’s Boardwalk use to be Boston’s very own Coney Island but sadly it is now miles of beachfront condos stretching for as far as the eye can see. Every once in a while a small seasonal beachside stall would pop up with the sole purpose of feeding beach goers during the summer. One of these places is the venerable Kelly’s Roast Beef, a throwback to the hay-days of Revere Beach Boardwalk. The only thing that one might find strange in late October is why Kelly’s on the beach still open? Well it’s because the food is so damned good, people continue to make pilgrimages to this location despite having other Kelly’s locations to choose from, and no beach goers to support business.

When you first see the non-descript one story building that is Kelly’s standing in the shadows of the condos that tower behind it you might just drive right by it without giving it another thought. The only thing that might draw your attention is the neon sign out front announcing Kelly’s Roast Beef. You can walk up to the 4 windows and order what you want but where you eat it is your business. You can walk across the street and eat in a pavilion or sit on the seawall and enjoy your food but in late October, a BMW 740il seems to do the trick (Thanks Marianne for driving us!).

Kelly’s menu is surprisingly diverse ranging from burgers to roast beef to fried clams to New England lobster rolls. Anyone who comes here (minus the vegetarians) will find something on the menu they’d enjoy. My personal favorite and what I ordered was the large roast beef as rare as they have it with barbeque sauce. The roast beef is served on a nice soft buttered bun topped with sesame seeds grilled to perfection. The roast beef sandwich here is just incredible. I’ve never had a bad one, every time I have one I think wow that’s a really great sandwich! The combination of the melt in your mouth roast beef and the slight tang of the barbecue sauce offset by the sweet buttery bun is just a perfect comfort food. Just describing the food is making me drool. I love this place!