With great sandwiches comes a great responsibility to rank them. Sandwich making is a precise art. It takes patience, great knowledge, a sharp knife, and an even sharper mind. These culinary masters along the North Shore have perfected their craft, concocting these behemoths of bread, meat, and cheese for hundreds to enjoy every day, and oftentimes have been doing so for decades. Here at The Daily Item we had to ask ourselves an important question in creating this guide: What actually makes a Super Beef, well, super? In pursuit of this question, we spent thousands of hours alongside the brightest minds and came to the following conclusion.
For starters, if you are ordering a Super Beef, you must (unless allergy restrictions apply) order it three-way: meaning it comes with cheese, barbecue sauce, and mayo. This is the only way to get the true North Shore roast beef experience (sorry, we don’t make the rules). Our guidelines for what qualifies as a superior Super Beef are as follows: It must have a roll that is capable of sustaining what will likely be close to a pound of meat without crumbling in your hands, a healthy number of slices of white American cheese (min. 2), a heaping amount of that tangy yet spicy barbecue sauce, not too much but not too little mayo, and above all, perfectly rare and flavorful beef to help tie all of these elements together. All 10 of the sandwiches featured here nail those requirements, with some even going above and beyond them. All categories (roll, cheese, mayo, sauce, meat) are rated 5/5 with 5 being the highest score.
So, without further adieu, here are the top 10 Super Beefs in the North Shore that you should be eating.
Mino’s Roast Beef, Lynn: $10 244 Broadway, Lynn, MA 01904, (781) 581-7577
Roll: 3.5
Cheese: 3
Mayo: 5
Sauce: 4
Beef: 4
Impossible to miss while driving through Lynn is Mino’s Roast Beef, mainly because of their iconic sign, but also because of their iconic beef. While their sandwiches might not be quite as lofty as some of the others on our list, they make up for it with their delicious and just rare enough beef. The onion roll holds together long enough for you to eat this saucey concoction –– with no sparing of the mayo –– but I had no issue with this as their tangy yet slightly sweet sauce helps finish off this beauty.
Roll: 4
Cheese: 3
Mayo: 3
Sauce: 5
Beef: 5
There’s a reason there’s only one Roast Beef shop in Nahant: there’s no need for another with Seaside Pizza serving up these monsters. Filled to the brim with perfect rare beef, and smothered in their super tangy sauce, this sandwich is nothing to sneeze at. The classic onion roll comes perfectly toasted and the flavor of the white american snakes its way through the mayo at just the right moment. Be sure to grab extra napkins as you’ll need them after mopping up your plate with the leftover beef that fell off while eating.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 4
Mayo: 4
Sauce: 5
Beef: 4
If there was ever a time to use a Spongebob reference in a Roast Beef review, it would be for this pretty patty. Immaculately plated, Superior Roast Beef clearly doesn’t play with their food –– they master it. The shredded beef makes for a soft and clean bite, and their signature sauce has a nice twang to it, leaving a little spice on my lips after finishing it. The onion roll was just toasty enough to keep my sandwich together without losing its softness, and the mayo wasn’t dripping all over me when I finished –– a huge plus in my books.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 4
Mayo: 3.5
Sauce: 4
Beef: 5
Although Loui’s is tucked away on a corner street off of Route 1, this spot is worth pulling a U-turn for. If I was a teacher, they would be getting an A+ on presentation alone, but alas I am merely a [calloutbox][slideshow]purveyor of beef. Loui’s lets their meat speak for itself by putting it front and center, with some of the most flavorful, rare, beef that I tried on my journey. The cheese here is a standout, and uniquely placed on the bottom of the roll. My tongue was left tangy from their sauce, and my tastebuds left longing for the toasted onions on their rolls.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 3.5
Mayo: 5
Sauce: 5
Beef: 4.5
If you can manage to find a place to park, Peter’s is the place to be. You’ll find yourself among the local brass of cops, nurses, and firefighters grabbing lunch, and for good reason. The interesting spin on Peter’s Super Beef is their Big-Mac-esque addition of the middle bun. I was skeptical at first, but soon realized how much flavor and structural stability the buttered-bun adds. Pair all of this with succulent sauces, beef, and cheese, and you’ll realize why Kelly’s isn’t the Revere selection on this list.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 5
Mayo: 3.5
Sauce: 3.5
Beef: 4.5
Celebrating 50 years of slinging beef is Land ‘N Sea in Peabody. The iconic joint –– with the interior to match –– serves up insatiable sandwiches. Grab your order after hearing it ring over the intercom and join me in this celebration of meat. The beef is (super) packed into this sandwich, giving it a deceiving look. The cheese, which is normally lurking in the background, cuts through their sauces and really compliments their toasted roll. After demolishing this one, you’ll get why they’re still here five decades later.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 3
Mayo: 4
Sauce: 4
Beef: 4
The sheer height and weight of this sandwich is truly something to behold. There is no denying, this is a SUPER BEEF. This sandwich more closely resembled a volcano –– with beef piled mountain-high and lava-like sauce –– than a super beef. Make sure to bring a friend if you want a fighting chance at tackling this beast, though if you’re brave enough, one could attempt the impossible feat of eating it alone. The standout of this beast was surprisingly the roll, due to the sheer fact that it somehow held everything together without collapsing.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 4.5
Mayo: 4
Sauce: 5
Beef: 4
With few options in Marblehead for savory beef, Village Roast Beef and Seafood is the clear-cut favorite. A super fluffy onion roll is one of many stars on this sandwich, and held everything so tight that I barely had any meat or sauce left on my plate when I was done, a true rarity. Here, all of the basics are done correct and the sandwich really fires on all cylinders with no single flavor overpowering the others. For the bold and the brave, they even have an option on the menu to beef up the super beef: the King beef, with an entire pound of meat.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 5
Mayo: 3
Sauce: 3
Beef: 5
Now, I know what you’re thinking. One of these sandwiches doesn’t quite look like the rest. And you’re right, because at Tony Lena’s they’re not trying to be like the rest. Their beef’s are piled high on a monster sub roll rather than the classic onion. Everything about this sandwich is premium, from the bread, to the impeccable cheese, and the super flavorful meat. Those three do most of the lifting on this sub, with the sauces coming in at a normal amount instead of dripping all over your plate, hands, and face.
Roll: 5
Cheese: 4
Mayo: 3.5
Sauce: 5
Beef: 4
And for the final place on our Super Beef Guide, we have, fittingly, Mike’s Place in Saugus. They serve what could be a textbook definition of a North Shore super beef. Their rolls are fluffy and their onions crunchy, their rare beef spills out the sides alongside the sauce and mayo, and the cheese helps carry the sandwich from the first bite to the last one. After you’ve cleaned up your plate and licked off all of your sauce, the only thing you’ll be left asking yourself is this: Where’s the Beef?
