Jimbo's Famous Roast Beef & Seafood

I'll admit I'm wary of restaurants that praise themselves in their names, throwing around words like "famous." Was that part of the original name? Were they "famous" on the day they opened?

I'll also admit that Mur-Mac's, a now-closed Stoughton, Massachusetts shack o' beef, ruined all other roast beef sandwiches for me. For reference, I'll re-post a Yelp review that I wrote:

I grew up a town over, and Mur-Mac's was an institution. Roast beef is ruined for me; it'll just never measure up to a simple Mur-Mac's sandwich with A1. The toasted buns were always perfectly done: soft and buttery on the inside and lightly crispy around the edges. The meat was so rare, I'm surprised we never heard it moo. And the fries....oh, the fries. The place was grungy and kinda creepy, but that was part of the charm.

A few years go, I was meaning to go back for the first time in a long time. Kept putting it off. Then, one day, it was closed, and now the epic roast beef sandwich is only a memory.

I hadn't bothered to search for a replacement - or an acceptable substitution, at least - until recently, when I realized that several roast beef places with good reputations were within walking distance of my apartment. First, I tried Roast Beef and Pizza King and found the roast beef a bit dry and salty. Not terrible, but definitely not a contender.

A few days ago, I found myself having to walk to Union Square (Somerville) to pick up a certified letter from the post office. Turns out it was about an NSTAR gas inspection...totally not worth the 25 minute walk each way.

But all was not in vain. There was roast beef en route: Jimbo's Famous (there's that word) Roast Beef & Seafood. The reviews looked promising.

While melt-in-your-mouth should only be used to describe M+M's, I can't help but use it here. (I just drafted several sentences expanding on this thought, but they all came out with a rather X-rated and probably unappetizing vibe, so I'll just tell you that the beef was extremely thinly sliced, rare, and tender.)

The bun that comes with the Junior Roast Beef Sandwich, as shown above, is not very exciting, but the bigger sandwiches on the menu come with other options, like an onion roll.

My ideal roast beef topping is A1, but I decided to give Jimbo's BBQ sauce a try. It was more like a sweet and sour sauce than BBQ. Not bad, but in the future, if I'm taking it home, I'd probably get it plain and add my own A1.

While this is no Mur-Mac's replacement, it certainly satisfies my roast beef craving, and I will definitely return.