Michael J’s

Everything you could want in a dive. Dark, crappy bathrooms, great drinks, good people, jukebox, keno, darts. If you don’t like dives, this isn’t for you. They have an ATM now (cash only bar!) and yes, in Waltham, you must close on Sunday if you don’t serve food.

It is such a great place that you get grilled when you walk into the place on Sunday to watch football and it is closed. «We aren’t open! ««Oh well I just figured you were since you had a large open flag outside and it is Sunday.» «Oh ya, I am too lazy to take the flag down. We are closed every Sunday.» Great business model.

Fantastic dive bar. So hard to find a place like this in the Boston area these days. The bar was named after Michael J. Murphy, a Marine from Waltham and brother of the original owner, who died in Vietnam. Cash only, but $ 3 PBR’s and $ 5 for a glass of whiskey make that quite alright.

This is the biggest dive I’ve ever been to. So, as someone who like dives, I give 5 stars.
The food is surprisingly delicious, at least when cooked by Curtis, it’s doubly surprising because he only has a panini grill to work with (which he uses as a grill).
The bathrooms don’t have sinks, and the mens room doesn’t have a lock, but there is a sink just outside the bathrooms that are shared by both genders.
There’s an outside area with a couple of lawn chairs, it’s great on a warm day or night.
All of the bar tenders are incredibly cool and friendly, there’s usually at least one really sketchy guy there, which is key for a good dive (I’m not excluding my self from the sketchy people list if I’ve been there all day). Sometimes there’s a dog there (a min-​pin).
If you dig dives, this is mecca, if you don’t like dives avoid at all costs.

This five star rating is for «Woohoo! As good as it gets!» for a dive bar. If you don’t like grimy, cash only, local, kinda sketch joints, you can take this rating as a two star.
Like I said, its cash only. You are there to drink, not enjoy the scenery, not to enjoy Waltham’s best that Moody street purports to offer. That being said — I LOVE the owners, they are friendly and accommodating. Drinks are cheap, they have a juke box & they have a dart board. Usually we decide to head over there on a random weekend night when we want cheap, easy fun. There are some locals that hang, but really we are the ONLY people in the back room with the dart board and have free reign of the juke. So, depending on your spin that’s awesome or totally not your scene.
If you’re like me & appreciate a TRUE dive, not some place in Cambridge that is a «dive» aka they have red light bulbs and serve bud light with leather cushioned barstools, then go check it out. You’ll be supporting some good people.