MGM Roast Beef

My husband’s work, rather than having some half-assed Zoom holiday party, decided to comp everyone’s lunch today. We are not really “lunch people,” so we decided to order from a place that we’ve driven past a billion times but never been into because it is a place for lunch people: MGM Roast Beef. You know, that place tucked away in the Brentwood industrial district, between the postal distribution center and the social security office, right around the corner from the auto auction. Yeah, that place. It could be delicious. It could be a front for a dogfighting ring. I guess we’ll find out!

Not firsthand, of course. We ordered Uber Eats. After MUCH deliberation, my husband ordered the French dip sandwich and I got the roast turkey salad so I could feel like I was somewhat sticking to my usual lunch routine. I will say this–they were fast!

He ordered no sides, so it was just a straight-up sandwich on an onion roll. He took this picture, and it was mostly demolished by the time I got out of my class, but we were both…eh…less than impressed. It kind of just didn’t taste like anything? Even the jus that came with it was just brown water. The beef was chewy. And when there are three words in the name of your restaurant and two of them are roast and beef, I feel like you should be able to make roast beef.

My salad was custom made and I got to pick alllllll the things, so it got a little intense.

Besides the roast turkey, I had hardboiled eggs, avocado, hots, tomatoes, cucumbers, and kalamata olives. They didn’t skimp on anything, really (maybe the avocado). I think they actually threw in the entire jar of olives. So I was not upset with the quantity of that. All the veggies were fresh. But the turkey itself was dry and full of inedibly chewy bits. I did more than a couple of half-chewed spits while consuming this salad. And even though I always like when I get to pick all the things I want in my salad, it’s like…this is no longer the restaurant’s salad. This is my salad. All they had to do was read my order and then put things in the bowl. They didn’t even mix it for me–the dressing was on the side.

While I sat and stewed over this all day, I realized that MGM Roast Beef is a perfect metaphor for Ward 5 life–a tussle between old and new, the establishment and the anti-establishment, the down-to-earth vs. the pretentious. The grown-ass adults smoking weed on the playground vs. the shiba inu owners at the adjoining dog park. I like a good down-to-earth meal just as much as a pretentious one. The problem is that it has to be good. And I think MGM has a loyal following just because it used to be the only game on this side of North Cap. Or maybe the dogfighting thing. We’ll never know now.

Price: $15 per person.

Bottom line: SO many other worthy sandwich places around. Don’t waste your money.