Kelly's Roast Beef — Restaurant in Salem

I think I had high expectations based on Kelly's Roast Beef, Ive been to the one in Medford, & always have loved the one on Revere Beach which always has been my favorite, and have also been to the one in Salem, NH just as many times since it opened so I don't feel great about posting a negative review but today this location really negatively changed my opinion about Kelly's all together. The only thing that was really refreshing was the service, the kid at the register was super polite and brought us our food instead of having us walk to the counter to pick up our tray...he was very nice & after he dropped off our food, he started cleaning tables & made sure greet each customer as they came in & stopped to take a second to thank them for coming on their way out. Other than that, the food was bland barely warm, Ive never have experienced anything from them like that, there was a meeting going on where they cook and i wasn't able to get an ice cream because not even the supervisor knew how to work the machine?? really?? Apologies Kelly's but for the price you have upped to crazy amounts & and the obvious smaller portions there is so much more out there to eat ans be satisfied hat bring nostalgic ambience ! I was warned beforehand but i had to find out myself where i was so loyal to this place i just couldn't imagine it being anything but what ive always remembered.... boy was i so wrong ! i should have listened we would've saved $$$ and the...

So much disappointment, but we were warned by other reviewers. Did we listen? No. We forged ahead and slogged through Saturday traffic on the boarder. What a wasted trip when we live just down the street from excellent roast beef on 101a in Amherst. The good news is the service is good, the food was delivered promptly and the bathrooms were clean. The buns on the roast beef sandwiches were buttery and toasted - although squished flat like a Pizzelle cookie. As others have mentioned, I can confirm, the roast beef is served cold, a slice of American "cheese" is slapped on top and is not melted. I ordered horseradish sauce on mine, I think it was there, a thin spread could be seen under the cheese. I never tasted horseradish, definitely not the nasal clearing sauce I've come to expect in a great roast beef sandwich. The onion rings and fries also disappointed. Neither had any trace of flavoring, no salt. So bland. The batter on the onion rings was thick, the rings had a thick cut, that could have been ok, but the batter tasted like cornmeal. Neither the onion rings nor fries came out piping hot. Strange considering the meal arrived quickly, I'll jump to the conclusion they were both made earlier and not on demand when we ordered. The selection of soda came from those new machines with 100's of variety, so good options if you like soda. I'll take my $30...

So my family gave Kelly’s Roast Beef in Salem, NH this evening. We were driving home from NYC and needed something quick and we try to avoid typical fast food. I had Kelly’s once in in Peabody, MA in February 2020 and was not too impressed, but I thought I would try it again to see if 3 years and a new location was better.

The Salem location is very nice inside, big parking lot, the cashiers (one being trained) were very nice. We got 3 roast beefs, with fries and onion rings and a kids Mac and cheese and drinks. It took around 20 minutes for our order to arrive, the fries and onion rings were lukewarm at best. Our sons liked the fancy Coke machine with a million flavors. The roast beef sandwiches were well loaded with meat, but the meat was virtually flavorless other than the BBQ sauce. The mayonnaise was very thick and weird tasting. The bun was nice and toasted. I tried just the beef, it was very thin, moist, rare as expected and very tender, but it barely tasted of anything. The fries were your basic fries, nothing special. The onion rings had a very light batter and they too were nothing special. The sign inside said “Legendary Roast Beef, etc”, I am not sure what was legendary about the food, maybe back in the 1950’s it was not it...