So, my buddy Tim and I were in Cleveland, OH not so long ago. We traveled to the land of “all the little chicks with the crimson lips” to witness the awesome spectacle of Heavy Metal icons Manowar live. While planning our trip it was decided that we would look up some tour stops from Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in the area and hit a couple up.
Our first stop was at Melt’s Bar And Grilled, which is exactly as it says it is. The primary menu items are about 100 different incarnations of grilled cheese and an entire menu of beer ranging from local to wildly named imports. The Melt we ate at is their newer location in Cleveland Heights but we chose it because it looked much more touristy than the original! Adorned with a giant grilled cheese and crossbones sandwich above its door and old-school plastic Christmas lawn decorations around the restaurant, we knew we were in the right place.
I had a Tokyo Tuna Melt, which was unbelievably good. It had a nice thick piece of seared tuna steak, globs of cheese, and some wasabi mayonnaise, in between the thickly buttered sourdough bread. When you consider the homemade fries and slaw on the side to complete the platter, it’s a wonder that I ate again for a week! This was a whole lot of food, but the price tag wasn’t much above what you’d pay for a nice dinner at Applebee’s or Ruby Tuesday or any comparable chains.
The homemade fries were about on par with anyone’s fries but the slaw had a really lasting taste- primarily the taste of onion. It was a memorable slaw that I really liked but anyone that had to smell my breath over the next few days I’m sure would advise me to skip it on my next trip. The Tokyo Tuna Melt was easily the highlight of the platter (as it should be). It was seared just right, allowing you to taste all the spices but also the full flavor of the tuna steak. It reminded me of how little canned tuna fish actually tastes like tuna. I think Tim was les impressed with his choice but he raved about the import beer he had. He also later noted that (and this was very true) that the flavors of the melt were so powerful that you literally tasted it still three days later. Admittedly, that was a wee bit annoying.
Our trip to Melt’s Bar And Grilled was truly wonderful. If you are ever in the Cleveland area I would suggest hunting this down and experiencing it for yourself. The novelty of it all is as much fun as the actual food, making it worth the wait to get a table. Good food and good company always make for an enjoyable time though, right?!
