Grilled Cheese is one of my food groups. Grilled Cheese, Cheese Curds, Mac and Cheese, Cheese Pizza...you may notice a trend. Seeing as I'm slightly obsessed with all things cheese (especially all things "carbs + cheese"), the Melted truck has long been at the top of my "MUST eat at" list. A couple of weeks ago I finally had the chance when I was up on the Square during lunch time. I chose the Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese, which is made with pickled jalapeños, sharp cheddar, cream cheese and ranch drizzle. I was pretty excited, because one upon a time I made a similar grilled cheese at home, and it was quite fabulous (if I say so, myself). Unfortunately, I was left totally underwhelmed, longing for my homemade sandwich. Here were my issues...
1. The sandwich was small. Really small for $8. I know it's a grilled cheese, but...I just felt like for $8 dollars (and considering it's considered "gourmet") that it should look a little nicer. But, nope. It looked like a pretty run of the mill sandwich. I've seen some complaints about burnt sandwiches, and while mine wasn't burnt, it was sorta close. It's obvious that they need to cook these sandwiches quickly and probably have the heat up pretty high on their grill. It didn't have the nice "browned" sides of a sandwich that had the luxury of being cooked slowly. I wonder what they put on the sides - oil? Didn't seem like butter...
2. "Pickled jalapeños" really means "pickled jalapeño relish with other stuff in in." Like carrots. I'm sorry, but carrots have never been an integral part of the jalapeño popper, so why are they in my Jalapeño Popper Grilled Cheese? There was also a LOT of relish...way more than the sandwich needed. It was kind of awkward.
3. This one is a really bad complaint. I know it. I'll probably get made fun of...but...the cream cheese...I think I was expecting your run of the mill processed Philadelphia-type cream cheese. This was not that. You know how cream cheese has this sweet, rich taste to it? This cream cheese almost had a goat cheese like taste to it. I was looking forward to a spicy/rich combination...and it just didn't happen for me. I'm sure this was some super natural, locally made amazing cream cheese. I kind of just want the fake stuff. (Hanging my head in shame.)
4. Was there even cheddar? Or ranch drizzle? I honestly don't know. I didn't notice them. The whole sandwich was just peppers and suspect cream cheese. The flavors didn't meld together at all. I only ate half of my $8 sandwich.
So, this is kind of a scathing review, but I'm still giving Melted three stars because a) they were crazy quick to answer my questions on social media regarding their hours and location, b) the employees were very nice, c) they had bottles of Dr. Pepper (yes!), and finally, just because I didn't like the one sandwich I tried doesn't mean they are bad all around. I would like to try again...and I'm hoping to come back and bump this up a star or two.