Serving after 6pm inside Pike/Pine’s affably dingy Bar Sue, Melt is the province of seasoned restaurateurs, and can taste like it. Townsend smoky jack, over house-smoked chicken. The very popular Bluesy Chick marries blue cheese with Mt. (Three claims to fame if you count the grilled mac and cheese.) The bigger combos can be pretty sloppy so grab lots of napkins or order something on the plain side, like the Classic (made of three local cheddars).

Grilled Cheese ExperienceĪnother grilled cheese truck-this one you see in front of the library downtown-has two claims to fame: a long list of sandwiches (a half-dozen of which are offered daily), and parmesan bread. The grilled cheese sandwich comes with a frothy serving of tomato soup, a brilliant light compliment. We adore this careful cocktail bar on Phinney Ridge for its tidy cozy senses of place and, frankly, for their exquisite New York white cheddar on Columbia City Bakery potato bread. But can we help it if the ham, egg, Beecher’s cheddar, and apple mustard biscuit fires on all the same cylinders? The cheese comes melted all over the ruffles of ham, the apple mustard grabs you by the lapels, and the biscuit makes such a tenderly satisfying base you may question all other sandwiches, forever.

Okay so now we’re just brazenly cheating: This slathered biscuit at Tom Douglas’s biscuit emporium in South Lake Union isn’t a grilled cheese in the slightest, and really isn’t a sandwich either.

We say go for what you feel like this lunch counter is rocking everything. Another variant subs out the American for Swiss, then adds pickles and thick sheets of ham. The latest darling of Southern food aficionados is Cycene in Pike Place Market, whose Double Grilled Cheese mingles pimento cheese with American cheese to most winningly gooey affect, with a nice pimento spank. The sauce bar and the fact that you can add bacon to anything tops up the charms.

(Like the Voldemortadella, the demonic lovechild of a grilled cheese and a muffaletta.) The original truck, often around South Lake Union, now has a tiny bricks-and-mortar sibling in Interbay. Something about the thinner bread and the golden product makes “toasted cheese” a more apt descriptor for the stunners at these fantasy-themed haunts, filled with cheese blends like Emmentaler with Jack, or dill havarti with mozzarella-and some lovely meaty elements.

Best grilled cheese