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.