Kelly's Roast Beef - Revere, MA

Posted By Michael Stern on September 4, 2007 11:05 AM

Roast beef is a true local passion in the Boston area, as much as chili in Cincinnati or sourdough in San Francisco. In Lynn, Saugus, Salem, Beverly, and up towards Cape Ann, dozens of quick-service eateries boast of beef. When we went looking for Kelly’s Roast Beef in Revere (the original, and now one of four Kelly’s around Beantown), we asked a gent outside an auto body shop if he knew where Kelly’s was. “Whaddaya, hungry?” he asked with glee, pointing us to what he promised would be “one hunnerd fitty percent satisfaction.”

Service is eat-in-the-rough: place your order at the broad window, then linger on the sidewalk until it’s ready. Gather everything in your arms and dash across Revere Beach Boulevard to find a bench under a covered pavilion by the beach. Dine in true summer-vacation style – overlooking the ocean, surrounded by greedy seagulls.

The roast beef, available in a small or large sandwich, is lovely: soft, pink, thin-sliced, and piled high on a butter-toasted, sesame-seed bun. But the shoreline seafood is even better! Wonderful fish and chips: moist, fresh fish heaped on the plate in crunchy hunks with French fries. Also pretty wonderful are the fried clams, which vastly overflow the clam box into their surrounding bag no matter what size you get. They are golden-brown, toasty-flavored, and a joy to chew – much juicier than rubber-textured clam strips, yet not as gushy as a North Shore whole-belly clam. A clam plate includes French fries, sweet onion rings, and homemade tartar sauce.

Note the drink nomenclature, also utterly local. Carbonated beverages are here called tonics. What the rest of the world knows as a milk shake (ice cream, milk, flavoring) is a frappe.

Overall Rating

roast beef

fried clams

Lobster Roll

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Posted By Dave on June 10, 2011 7:08 PM

I love this place. Don't forget, they have great lobster rolls!

Overall Rating

Lobster Roll

roast beef

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Posted By Patricia Beninato on September 25, 2006 8:19 PM

When planning my weekend trip to Boston, one of my friends up there asked me if there was anyplace in town I particularly wanted to go to eat. "Kelly's Roast Beef" was my immediate answer. It's fortunate that Kelly's has more than one location--with the near-Gordian knots of Boston beach traffic in summer we got frustrated trying to find the original Revere location, which isn't exactly on the beaten path. So we headed up Route 1 to another Massachusetts garden spot, Saugus, where the Kelly's there is sleek and modern, all brick and glass. Don't let the clean lines of the place fool you, though--this is some good eating.

The roast beef sandwich is terrific. I opted to get mine only with some horseradish sauce (I know the purists prefer BBQ sauce, but I love horseradish). Every bite was juicy and tender, so good that I didn't mind that it was a little more well done than I usually get, and the sesame seed bun was butter-toasted and tasty. With the sandwich came some very good french fries and a cold root beer. However, I would avoid the onion rings next time, as they were extremely bland. We wanted to try the fried clams but were a little taken aback by the price, about $15.50 for an order, although we did consider getting a clam roll which is a bit cheaper. But it's Kelly's Roast Beef, not Kelly's Fried Clams, right? Service is efficient, and the woman who took my order was delighted to hear that I had come all the way from Virginia to eat there. "It's gonna be worth your trip!" she enthused. And she was right.

Overall Rating

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