YDV Review: The Melt Bar and Grilled ~ Lakewood, Ohio
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Ya’ll, I have a confession. I am a grilled cheeze-a-holic. I could eat ten grilled ooey gooey sammies and still have room for cupcakes. (Great, I just made myself think about cupcakes) They are, for me, the ultimate in comfort food. I love bread, I love butter, and I love vegan cheeze. So naturally when I read the Vegan in Cleveland review for The Melt Bar and Grilled I wanted to go. And so I, along with one of my favorite vegans, did. First, we had no trouble finding the place or getting a place to park. We found a meter right around the corner. Score! I should mention, however, we went on a Wednesday and in the late afternoon. I’ve read other reviews that say that the place gets quite packed on a weekend and I can see where that would be true. The restaurant has a couple of […]
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Ya’ll, I have a confession. I am a grilled cheeze-a-holic. I could eat ten grilled ooey gooey sammies and still have room for cupcakes. (Great, I just made myself think about cupcakes) They are, for me, the ultimate in comfort food. I love bread, I love butter, and I love vegan cheeze. So naturally when I read the Vegan in Cleveland review for The Melt Bar and Grilled I wanted to go. And so I, along with one of my favorite vegans, did.
First, we had no trouble finding the place or getting a place to park. We found a meter right around the corner. Score! I should mention, however, we went on a Wednesday and in the late afternoon. I’ve read other reviews that say that the place gets quite packed on a weekend and I can see where that would be true. The restaurant has a couple of different sections along with an outside patio. Think hippy bar atmosphere. The menu’s are attached to old album covers which I thought was darling.
The menu was/is certainly impressive. This is seriously a grilled cheese heaven. I have no idea how many different grilled cheese sammies they have, but it’s alot. One of the best things (aside from the 2 different vegan cheezes) is the add on menu. Basically you can order whatever you want to go on your grilled cheese. I think that is really awesome. All the sammies come with “hand cut” fries and coleslaw.
I ordered this:
Grilled Cheeze w/bananna peppers and avocado
This is my grilled cheeze (vegan moz cheeze) with bannana peppers and avocado. I was stoked! My companion vegan ordered a grilled cheeze (vegan moz) with marinated mushrooms and veges.
I am completely disappointed to tell you that this sammie was gross. First, don’t the fries look yummy? I love fries like that. But, alas, mine were frigid. They were, according to my companion, the coldest, oldest tasting fries ever eaten. I ate 2 and didn’t (couldn’t) touch them again. Okay, I don’t need the fries, I’ve got this huge sammie to eat. I took one bite and it was as cold as my fries. The cheeze had melted at some point but it was hard by the time it got to me. The bread was cut into huge slabs, which to be honest I generally like. (See: bread lover above) But the combo of grease from the butter (a TON of butter that was too much even for a butter lover like myself) and the hard cheeze was just too much. I ate the bananna peppers and avocado and left the rest. And the coleslaw? Yeah, not good. It seemed, to me at least, that I got someone else’s plate of food from the week before. It was completely awful on every level.
We also ordered the fried tofu as a starter. It’s a $5 plate of 4 triangle shaped pieces of tofu (and four tiny slivers of red pepper?) that had no seasoning and a cup of commercially boring BBQ sauce. Let’s just say that we won’t order that again either.
Maybe I was unlucky and showed up on a day that the cook didn’t want to be there. I don’t know. I do know that our server didn’t want to be there that day because she left in the middle of our meal without telling us. We only found out after we asked for our check from a different server. This could account for the cold food but I’m not sure.
Overall I have to say I won’t ever go back. I’m sure that there are redeeming qualities about the place but I couldn’t tell you what they are. Maybe, if you like tons of grease and cold food, this would be the place for you.
Update 2013: Since originally reviewing Melt Bar & Grilled in 2009, I have revisited Melt for a second time. Although my overall experience was much more positive than the first- my server was very attentive and the food was hot. That said, I still don’t dig the coleslaw and the combination of huge slabs of heavily buttered bread dripping with greasy cheese still doesn’t appeal to me. To be fair- I know plenty of other vegans and non-vegans who LOVE Melt with abandon and have lots of positive things to say. It all depends on what type of food you dig.
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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.
Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…
I would definitely agree that you DID go on a bad day. I have gone to Melt many a time and always loved it. A lot of people I go with aren’t a fan of the coleslaw, so you can just say you don’t want any, and you get more fries, which for me have always been delish. I enjoy getting the mushroom melt with vegan moz, which is sooo good! Also, they have a monthly special, which in October was a Mom’s meatloaf sammich with vegan meatloaf and garlic mashed taters. It was intoxicating. I can’t wait to go and try this month’s sammich.
I recommend that you give it another try. To talk about Melt’s deliciousness, I have waited upwards of two hours for a seat.
Peace!
Lord have mercy.
That sandwich, looks amazing.
Seriously.