Melt Bar and Grilled

Last night we were out celebrating a friend's birthday at Melt Bar and Grilled.  We were at the original location.  Fortunately, on weekends the parking is free.  I decided to try something new.  Pictured above is the Fried Green Tomato BLT.   It had romaine lettuce, cheddar cheese, and pork belly.   Really yummy!   I'm looking forward to eating the other half of my sandwich later.

Steve ordered the Backyard BBQ with pork.  It had barbecue sauce, sharp cheddar, and onion rings.   Again, there is enough food for later.

It seems that each time we go to Melt, we are able to pick two sandwiches and then narrow it further with help from the wait staff.   If you love grilled cheese, you should definitely go here!

Mango Brie Grilled Cheese

I know that many of you wonder if I ever eat at home with the dizzying number of restaurant posts that I have written.  Yes, I do.  I just don't cook very much.  What I cook is very specialized.   Pictured above is my mango brie grilled cheese.

Grilled cheese sandwiches are wonderful.  There are so many ways that you can vary them.   Some people stick with American cheese and white bread.  That's fine, but I prefer to be more adventurous.

I use Trader Joe's Multigrain Country Bread.  I like the bits of oatmeal and other grains in it.   It also keeps very well in the fridge.   When we buy it, we put it right in the refrigerator.

Belletoile is my favorite brie.  It's extremely rich, a triple creme rather than the usual double creme.  I like snacking on it but it makes for an indulgent grilled cheese.

My family brings these dried mangoes home from the Philippines.   They are by far the best I've had.   The ones you can buy at the Asian grocery stores and Trader Joe's are okay, but these are just sweet and perfect.

To make this sandwich, turn your stove top to medium and use your favorite frying pan. While the pan is heating, slice the brie and arrange onto the bread.   I don't cover the entire surface because it can get very runny when heated.  I leave about a half inch margin all around the perimeter of the cheese free.   Cut the dried mango into bite sized chunks and arrange with the cheese.  You can leave it in strips, but you'll find yourself pulling them out whole when you bite into the sandwich.   Cutting it with kitchen scissors works best.

Put a small pat of butter in the heated pan and disperse over the surface.  Immediately add your sandwich.   Brie doesn't take long to melt, so it shouldn't take more than 2 minutes.   Transfer the sandwich to a plate and put another square of butter in the pan.   Repeat cooking on the other side.   The surface should be golden brown.

The sandwich goes very well with a glass of milk or a glass of white wine.  Enjoy!

Melt Bar and Grilled's New Menu

Melt Bar and Grilled redid their menu!  Tonight we ordered takeout, because their wait time for dinner was an hour and a half.

Pictured above is one of my favorites, Peanut Butter and Banana.   It has caramelized banana, candied peanuts, peanut sweet cream cheese,  and mixed berry preserves.  The candied peanuts are a new addition.  The bananas before were plain, rather than carmelized.  I have half to enjoy tomorrow, as well as a large bag of fries.

Steve had the New Bomb Turkey.  It's basically Thanksgiving dinner in sandwich form.  It contains roasted turkey, mom’s sage stuffing, roasted butternut squash, homemade turkey gravy, cranberry orange jam, and muenster.  Yummy!  I hope it's a regular item from now on.

Melt has very large portion sizes.  One sandwich can easily serve two people.  I highly recommend splitting sandwich halves with a friend to experience the most variety.

Grilled Cheese Goodness!

We went out this afternoon for lunch at Melt with a couple of friends who had never gone before.  It's rather fun going down the list of sandwiches and pointing out all the ones that you have tried.  If you don't remember from my last review, Melt is a restaurant that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches with many different combinations of ingredients. 

I had the Wake and Bacon, which is eggs, bacon, and American cheese.   They actually ask you how you want your eggs.  I went with over medium, that way the eggs wouldn't be all runny when I bit into the sandwich.

My husband had the Cleveland Cheese Steak.  It contains slow roasted beef, shaved thin, garlic wild mushrooms, sautéed onions & peppers, provolone cheese.  

My friend had the Wake and Bacon, but substituted ham for eggs (foreground sandwich).   It is similar to the former menu item, the Porky Cheese Sandwich.   The Porky cheese sandwich contained honey ham, bacon, and Swiss cheese.  I don't know how long it has been gone from the menu, but it was pretty good.  The sandwich in the background is the January sandwich special, the Hungry Hungarian Paprikash Melt.  It has pulled roasted chicken, homemade dumplings, creamy Paprikash sauce, and provolone cheese.

All of the sandwiches we ordered had french fries and cole slaw.   None of us were really cole slaw fans.   However, Melt will substitute extra fries instead.   I'll keep that in mind for next time.  The sandwiches are served on Texas toast and they are really generous portions.  Each of us boxed half of our sandwich to take home.   Each sandwich is definitely two meals.

Melt Bar and Grilled

I love grilled cheese sandwiches!   There is just something so special and comforting about the simple combination of buttered bread and melted cheese.   Melt Bar and Grilled specializes in many varieties of gourmet grilled cheese and a large selection of beers.

This was my pick tonight, the Parmageddon.  2 potato & cheese pierogi, fresh napa vodka kraut, grilled onions, cheddar. 

My husband had the Turtle Pizza Roll Melt tonight.  Authentic pizza rolls, homemade marinara, basil pesto cream cheese, provolone, romano.  Notice that the pesto sauce resembles the mutagen slime featured in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series!   This was originally a limited time only sandwich of the month and I believed that we had missed it.  However, to our surprise, it is now a permanent addition to the menu!

We split the Wookie's Revenge bread pudding for dessert.  The website describes it as:
"Order 66 got you down? Tired of having your palatial treehouse paradise shot up by battle droids? Forget all your cares with Rich chocolate and banana bread pudding chock full of hickory smoked bacon and chunks of Reese’s peanut butter cups. Topped with a chocolate peanut butter glaze and toasted coconut and garnished with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, coconut flakes and crumbled bacon."

We were actually warned that it contained bacon and were assumed to be vegetarian tonight!   We just both happened to order vegetarian sandwiches tonight, so it was very nice of the server to make sure of our diet choices.

The bread pudding was very rich, but I think the most prominent flavor after the chocolate was the coconut.   I couldn't seem to locate as many peanut butter cups or bacon bits.  Still, it was very tasty.

My husband and I both boxed up one half of our sandwiches to go home along with a heaping portion of fries.   One order at Melt definitely yields two meals.