Melt Bar and Grilled - High St

I love this restaurant! There are two locations in Columbus, but I frequent the one on High Street in the Short North. The melt serves GIANT grilled sandwiches. What's so great about melt is their long list of vegan substitutions both for "meat" and "cheese". My favorite is their vegan chicken, YUMMM! They also have vegan ranch for salads or a as a dipping sauce. My go to? Appetizer- the wild tofu wings with bbq dipping sauce, and for my main dish- the summer chicken made vegan using vegan cheese and vegan chicken and leaving off the sauce that originally comes on the sandwich. If you haven't tried Melt YOU NEED TO!

EDIT: I recently found out that any of the fried items (fries, tofu wings, etc.) are fried in the same vat as the meats. If this bothers you, there are typically other vegan sides to choose from.



Updated from previous review on 2016-09-20

Love going to Melt! Many items can easily be made vegan and are clearly marked. Their tofu "wings" are fantastic! Everything we have gotten there has been delicious.

Updated from previous review on 2017-01-18

The place is big but always packed. Always good grub and tons of great beer on tap. Menu is very flexible for dietary needs such as vegan and veg. Staff is knowledgeable and cool about menu mods.

Yes, there are vegan options, but not as many as you think. And you will pay dearly for them.

Any animal flesh can be substituted with a veg product; cow cheese can be substituted with vegan cheese. However, it will cost you $2 to sub the cheese and $2-3 to sub the meat per sandwich. Furthermore, many items require complete removal of sauces and other toppings in order to be veganized. For example, on the Fried Green Tomato BLT, you can pay $3 to sub the bacon with tofu, but you will also need to remove the tomatoes and the remoulade sauce-- so what, then, is the point of a fried green tomato BLT?

But the surcharges do not end there-- you will also pay $2 extra to substitute fries with another side. This is not likely to be disclosed to you before the order is filled. I was charged $2 to sub a salad for fries. And, although the waiter was insightful enough to have the cheese removed, the salad contained hard boiled eggs.

In addition, the food is very heavy and greasy, bready, not healthy, not that tasty (especially after removing all the non-vegan items from the sandwich that you paid an additional $4-6 to veganize).

Reserve this one for those times you get an uncontrollable nostalgic craving for your pre-vegan greasy sloppy grilled cheese days. Otherwise, I would suggest avoiding Melt.
Updated from previous review on Sunday January 04, 2015

Love visiting here with family and friends. meat eaters and vegans alike will have tons of options, an i believe they also have gluten free bread, almost everything has veg or vegan options. good atmosphere. sometimes a long wait, but usually not. we visit often.

Beside the food item on the menu the code it for vegan or vegetarian options which is great however, they bring you items on your plate that are not what i consider vegan.

Everything is cooked in one fryer. Chicken, onion-rings, fries, everything! I didn't find this out until my 3rd visit. Once i was told, i said no, please do not bring me fries if deep fried with meat. They still brought me my sandwich with onion-rings on it and fries all over my plate.

The server yesterday apologized & said wish you were not told that they were vegan, that was wrong information. She truly looked concerned.

A server who recognized me from the last visit Just said, "well, it was probably an accident" ! I'm sure your last server didn't do it on purpose!

I love Melt! Almost anything on the menu can be made vegan. You can substitute tofu, seitan or vegan chicken for any meat on the menu. They also have two types of vegan cheese: cheddar or mozzarella. The tofu wings with the vegan ranch are the best vegan wings you can buy anywhere. Unfortunately, it's very overcrowded because of its huge popularity. Hopefully they will open a second Columbus location soon.