Your First Look at Melt’s Fried Chx Grilled Cheese

Melt Shop, Grilled Cheese

The Citigroup area of Midtown is full of subterranean food finds, but most of them are inside. Not so with the newest spot, Melt Shop (on Lex btw 53+54th). It’s nestled in the corner of the outside public plaza by the subway entrance, a place easy to miss by those walking around upstairs. Once we get consistent better weather, Melt might find a huge audience, but I’m not sure how this will work when winter comes again. When I heard this new grilled cheese place was opening on Monday, I wondered what exactly the menu would contain. Then commenter ‘joer’ said he got a buttermilk-fried chicken sandwich and I was on it.

Fried Chicken Grilled Cheese

The fact that it’s just a take-out window might bother most people, but I’ll guess that most customers are planning on bringing their sandwiches back to their desks anyway. All of the sandwich choices are less than $10, the most expensive being the Fried Chicken and the Beef ‘n’ Blue-both $8.95. They also serve breakfast until 10:30am where you can get a toasted pb&j! Sides include the ever-awesome Zapp’s potato chips and soon you’ll be able to pick up homemade ice cream sandwiches.

Fried Chicken Grilled Cheese

Now for one of the best fried chicken sandwiches around! The buttermilk-fried chicken comes with jalepeño jack cheese, red cabbage slaw, and their special melt sauce on country white bread. The chicken is freshly fried and juicy with a nice crunchy breading, and by placing strips on both sides of the sandwich you get a nice piece in each bite. The tang from the buttermilk and crunch from the coating are intensified by the slaw, which makes up in texture what it loses in flavor. Then there’s the cheese, just spicy enough to warm your mouth and make this the grilled cheese indulgence you’re after. Not an everyday lunch in my opinion (unless your afternoons consist of naps at your desk) but definitely a must-try for the grilled cheese and/or fried chicken lovers among us.

The + (What somebody who likes this place will say)

  • It’s grilled cheese! You can get tomato soup! It’s your childhood in a lunch!
  • Grilled cheese with Fried Chicken, the perfect comfort/hangover lunch ever.
  • Did I mention they have Zapp’s, one of the best potato chips ever?

The – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place will say)

  • It’s outside, I don’t want to have to eat outside or at my desk.
  • Can’t we just go to ‘wichcraft? It’s closer and they have grilled cheese too.
  • I’m lactose-intolerant.

Melt Shop, 601 Lexington Avenue, (212) 759-6358

17 Comments

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    Totally going there, right now.

  • Finally tried the bacon and cheddar. It was pretty good, but greasy as all hell–I mean I know grilled cheese isn’t supposed to be health food, but this stuff is literally dripping, soaking right through the mildly corrugated box it comes in and two layers of napkins before leaving a nice oil smudge on my desk. “This is why you’re fat.” Actually I’m not fat, but I will be if I eat here on a regular basis.

    $9.20 for a grilled cheese+chips is a bit steep in my book, but I may go back once in a while when I feel like being a pig.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    What exactly is, “their special melt sauce ?”

  • I love Zapps potato chips but i’m a lactard. Dilemma :(

  • That looks unhealthily delicious.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I’ve been wanting to try the PB&J on the breakfast menu but even though their menu says 7am, they have not been open for breakfast any day this week. I come up from the E and was running late today…they weren’t open when I walked past at 9:30am.

    Also, If you look at the bottom of the box in the photo of the sandwich, it actually has raised lines in the bottom so that the bottom of your food doesn’t get soggy (or maybe so the grease doesn’t saturate the entire bottom) – either way, genius.

    • User has not uploaded an avatar

      Maybe it’s a good idea, but per my comment below, it doesn’t work. My office is less than a 5 min. walk away, and I didn’t drag ass at all getting back, but still my sandwich got soggy. Was still good, though.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    That cross-sectional shot makes it look like the sandwich doesn’t have enough chicken.

  • ah okay, i might go check this out. *hungry

  • line was around the Plaza… perhaps another day. Pizza by Certe FTW

  • At what point can we stop calling this grilled cheese? That is a chicken tender sandwich. And at $9, thats ridiculously priced

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    It was good. Bit of a line, one that got worse after I arrived.

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    I had the same meal yesterday, and it was good. Would eat ASAP, as taking back to my desk resulted in the bottom bread being soggy (I don’t think the slaw helped), but that’s how grilled cheese do when you put it down somewhere. The Zapp’s flavors they had are: original, salt & vinegar, crawtators, and voodoo (I buy the latter two whenever I see them up here, so this is a good thing).

  • The fried chicken sandwich sounds good!!

    They should get a spicy sandwich on that menu so it can MELT your FACE off!! :P

  • User has not uploaded an avatar

    The prices seem ridiculous for what appear to be very small sandwiches

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.