In the mood for a Meltdown?

Do you know anyone who doesn't like cheese? I don't think I do. Everyone I know either likes cheese or LOVES cheese. (I've heard that some people order cheeseless pizza. If you're lactose-intolerant, that's one thing, but barring that, what is the point of cheeseless pizza? Heck, I've got a friend who is lactose-intolerant, and she *still* loves cheese. But I digress.) It can be cheese on a salad, cheese on soup, cheese by itself, or cheese as an ingredient. Recent discussion of cheese (yeah, that does happen) resulted in a friend mentioning a restaurant that he'd heard of that specialized in grilled cheese. And that's how he happened to tell us about MeltDown etc. I decided to try it out for lunch today.




MeltDown is a very small establishment on Culver Blvd. (nearest cross street is Duquesne) in Culver City just across from City Hall and just southeast of Sony Pictures Entertainment. (The picture above of the front of the restaurant is taken from the restaurant's website.) I happened to be very lucky, and someone was pulling out of a metered parking spot right in front of the restaurant, so I parked there. I would assume that this particular week, it's a bit slower (though the restaurant was still quite busy), so parking might not be that hard, but during a normal weekday, I would expect that a metered parking spot might be a bit more difficult to find.

You order at the counter, and if you're eating there, they give you a plastic number that you put on your table, and when your order is ready, they bring it to you (or yell out your number if they can't find you). There are 3 very small tables inside and about a dozen small tables right outside. The ambience is obviously not great outside since you're basically on the sidewalk with the traffic passing by - the blaring sirens of the passing firetruck at one point was particularly jarring. Sitting inside might be a little quieter, but again, there's not much room. Since it was a little cold outside today, they did have standing heaters, which was nice.

There were a few things on the menu that I wanted to try, but I had decided to have a partial meltdown combo (1/2 sandwich with either a cup of soup or a salad), and the sandwich I had really wanted wasn't available as part of that combo, so I ended up going with the Reuben (swiss, lean pastrami, sauerkraut, thousand island, spicy brown mustard on rye bread). There's supposed to be a seasonal tomato soup and a soup of the day, but the soup of the day was a classic tomato soup this day, so I decided to have that. When I had initially perused the menu, I had noticed "house-made pickles", which had caught my attention, so I had a side of that as well. The person taking my order did let me know that the sandwich came with a slice of pickle, which I thought was nice of him to tell me, but I ordered the additional side anyway. There is also a fairly large assortment of drinks available, all bottled.

I took a seat at an outside table, and my order was brought out to me shortly thereafter. The side of pickles was a bit larger than I had anticipated. They were all cut in spears, but altogether, it was probably two whole pickles. The pickles were very crunchy, but they were only lightly marinated and didn't have much vinegary flavor, so I wouldn't order it again.

The tomato soup was good, flavorful, and a good size portion for being a cup serving, but while the website states that the soup was homemade, it had a pre-made quality to it. That's not to say it was a bad thing. I think most restaurant tomato soups are a bit more on the creamy side, and this was a bit more pure, which I liked and which I guess associate more with canned tomato soup. It had very good tomato flavor, which might sound weird, but some places make their tomato soup very light - I like the bold tomato taste.

The Reuben was very tasty, not too much on the sauces/condiments, and a nice proportion of cheese, pastrami and sauerkraut on nicely toasted bread.

The half-sandwich with the cup of soup and the side of pickles was perfect for lunch. On a future visit, if I'm hungrier and like the soup offering, I might go for the total meltdown combo, where if you order any sandwich, you can add a cup of soup for slightly less than the normal price.

There are a few other sandwiches on the menu that I'd like to try on future visits. The Italian Deli (fresh mozzarella, daily italian cured meat, fire-roasted peppers, basil, extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar on ciabatta bread) is what had really caught my attention. Of course, I'd have to try the classic 3 cheese (grilled cheese), probably with the roma tomato, maybe with the bacon or smoked ham. Some of the sweetmelts sound interesting (PBH&B - peanut butter, wildflower honey, banana on egg bread in particular), but I'm not sure if that works as regular lunch since it's sweeter than most things, and it would probably wouldn't work with any soup.


MeltDown etc.
9739 Culver Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
310-838-MELT (6358)
310-838-6359 (fax)
open Monday through Saturday 11am to 3pm