With a quick trip to Columbus scheduled for this coming weekend, I remembered that I had not finished a restaurant review from my last trip up I-71. My family and I met up with a friend who is currently living in the Short North area of Columbus a couple of months ago. We wanted to grab dinner nearby and with our young children along for the ride, we settled on Melt Bar & Grilled.

Bar

Melt is a small chain of restaurants in central and northern Ohio, which serves a variety of grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers along with a great selection of craft beer. We arrived around 7pm on a Thursday and found just a short wait for a table of five, really a four top with a high chair added.

Inside

One look at the menu and I was quickly sold on the fried green tomato BLT with hickory bacon, southern herb remoulade, romaine lettuce, and cheddar ($12.50). The sandwich was massive and the serving of fries on the size was equally as large. The sandwich was actually so thick that it was hard to eat, and the grilled cheese aspect is definitely an after thought. This is more of a grilled sandwich that happens to have a little cheddar cheese on it.

Fried Green Tomato BLT

My wife ordered the backyard BBQ with pulled chicken, thick cut battered onion rings, sweet BBQ sauce, and sharp cheddar ($11.50). Again the sandwich is super thick, which way too much bread. With that said the flavors of this sandwich were strong enough to shine through, which was not the case with the BLT. I would order the BBQ again, but skip on the BLT.

Backyard BBQ

Calling these massive sandwiches grilled cheese is not really an accurate description. The bread is too thick and there is no emphasis on the cheese. This is a much different experience than I’ve had at Tom + Chee (which is expanding into northern Ohio) and I would go there for a more authentic grilled cheese. With that said the beer list at Melt is great and worthy of a stop for a few pints at their large bar.

Our last stop on our recent Caribbean cruise was Cozumel, Mexico. We knew it would be hard to find reliable transportation to a nearby beach with our young children who we don’t like to transport without car seats. So instead we opted for yet another cruise ship sponsored excursion, the All Inclusive Passion Island by Power Catamaran.

Isla Pasion

After a 30-45 minute boat ride (and a lengthy docking process) we arrived at the Isla Pasión for an all-inclusive stay of 3 hours at the private beach. A buffet lunch of barbecued chicken, mahi-mahi, pasta, and some of the best guacamole around was available throughout our stay. There were also multiple bars setup with complimentary drinks including margaritas and rum punch.

Beach

The water surrounding the “island” gets a ton of seaweed (at least during our visit) but the staff did a great job removing what they could. My mom even found a beautiful conch shell in one of the seaweed piles, definitely the largest shell we have ever seen on a beach. With that said the snorkeling was not worthwhile.

Conch Shell

While we mostly enjoyed the time relaxing, there is plenty to do for all ages. A roped off kids zone had swings, play sets, and even arts and crafts for the little ones. For the bigger kids and adults there are a couple of trampolines setup in the ocean, kayaks, and volleyball. If relaxing is your goal there are several hammocks for relaxing in the water.

Hammocks

The time went by quickly, but we all had a great time and came back to the ship relaxed and ready for another day and a half of sailing before disembarking back in Miami. We had a wonderful trip!

Cozumel on Dwellable