Cheese Grille — Restaurant in New York

So let me start by saying that the food was very good and the place was super cozy. Nothing was inherently wrong. I had the following:

3 Cheese + Bacon Crispy Goat Garden Mac & Cheese

All of which were made exactly to order and were great for what they were. However, my problem comes down to the definition of what a grilled cheese is suppose to be, or rather the intent of the device itself.

Grilled cheeses are suppose to be simple in nature, to feel like you're home, trigger an emotional response of being a kid. It's modest food, like Kraft Mac & Cheese or a PB&J. Putting all these extras with Gruyere cheese and 'Levain Pullman' bread (I honestly had to look that up) ruins the concept and really is no longer a grilled cheese but rather a 'toasted sandwich' (or some would say adult grilled cheese but you're just lying to yourself).

This food, while well prepared, don't get me wrong, is totally self-indulgent and drips with entitlement (especially considering some of the patrons there were your typically high-society sort of folk, condescending in nature talking about Lamborghinis and their respective hatred for millennials).

I'm a southerner who grew up with southern parents with not a whole lot of income. To see this sort of thing is a bit insulting to the concept of grilled cheese when all they had to do to make a awesome 'higher-end' version with an emotional impact is to do what you would do with a poor sandwich and change some stuff (like use Boar Head's american instead of Kraft/Velveeta, as an example). It's not complicated.

However, my gripes are really a reflection of NYC culture as whole and is one of the many reasons why I don't live here anymore.

TL;DR

If you're looking for a unique 'toasted' sandwich, this place is pretty good but expensive for what it is. However, if you're looking for a grilled cheese that is going to make you feel better when you're down or depressed like Mom/Dad use to, you're better off going to the store and making it yourself and saving yourself a...

I had quite a unique experience here and I doubt that it will ever be repeated, so I struggled with how to rate this place. The food was pretty solid, but definitely not life changing. So maybe a 4/5. But The immaturity of the people working there brought the score down to a 3/5.

While I was ordering at the register a TV prank was happening in their very tiny sitting space. While I was just far enough away to be able to try and ignore it, my mother was sitting right in the middle of it. She eventually got freaked out enough to leave her seat and come up by me at the register (there was a man wearing 3D glasses who was freaking out, knocking things off tables, waving his arms frantically and bumping into people). Finally, the actors stopped, let everyone know it was a prank and that it was for a TV show. Too late, my mom was already pissed and didn't find it amusing. Frankly, I didn't either. But I'd just paid, so they already had our money.

My mother expressed her concerns and was visibly upset, but it didn't seem to phase the man at the counter. In fact, he could barely keep from giggling as he explained that they had signed an agreement with this company and couldn't do anything to stop what had happened.

We're I the business owner, I would be concerned about losing a costumer. I would, BARE MINIMUM, offer to add a drink or side dish for free, get the order out ASAP, and continue to check on the guests to make sure they were comfortable in every other way. But again, all he could do was giggle.

Thank goodness the TV people were better. Maybe because they just wanted us to sign their paperwork. But after hearing my mom's concerns, they immediately offered to pay for our meal.

We got a a grilled cheese with bacon and avocado. Pretty good! We also got a side of sweet tots. They were great with the chipotle sauce (which was extra $).

Not sure I'm dying to come back to...

Came into Cheese Grille on one cold and rainy Tuesday night with a friend. Since we were doing our own mini LES food crawl, we decided to just share a few things in order to save room for the tacos we were planning to stuff our faces with next.

You order at the counter, grab a seat (which wasn't difficult since again, it was cold and rainy so nobody was out), and then they bring the food to you. Here is what we ordered:

Buffalo Chicken (cheddar, breaded chicken, pickled jalapeños, bleu cheese dressing, Frank's Red Hot on Levain Pullman) ($9) - the bread and the chicken were good. The pickled jalapeños were a nice touch. But something was off about the cheddar. Either there wasn't enough of it, or it wasn't melty enough and I think it was the latter.

Large Onion Rings ($7.50) - definitely opt for the small. The large is probably enough for three people. These were too greasy for me and they were bland. The dipping sauce helps (ranch or chipotle aioli) but they charge 45 cents for each. Wack!

Small Tomato Soup ($3.50) - this was on the opposite spectrum of the onion rings. It was quite salty and pretty much just tasted like tomato sauce. Wouldn't recommend this as it didn't really complement the grilled cheese.

Overall, it was an okay experience but I would say the pictures and descriptions look/sound better than the food actually tastes. Probably won't be back unless someone really wanted...