HC Reviews

Meltdown Etc.

Located in picturesque downtown Culver City, Meltdown Etc. is a little food shop nestled in amongst several other food establishments and right across from City Hall. From all the reports I had read and based on the menu prices, I assumed that this was a casual yet gourmet sit down restaurant.

I was wrong. It's an "order your food from the guy at the register" type of place. Which is fine, except I wasn't expecting that. Now, the food itself was yummy. I mean, I love cheese, I love buttered and toasted bread, so I liked the food. The cheese in the sandwich I got (the 3 Cheese with Bacon) was nice and melty and had flavors that all complimented each other. A friend got the Chedder, Ham, and Apple Butter sandwich and it was actually better than my sandwich. Something about the sweet and savory together just hit the spot. And the tomato soup I tried was delish! Very fresh, no lumps of tomato. We also enjoyed the peanut butter, banana and honey melt. Honestly though, I should've really thought about that. I mean, I laugh at the folks who go to Johnny Rockets and order a PB&J sandwich. I'm all "dude, you could've made that at home for less than the $5 your paying here." And yet I did the same thing. I'm kicking myself for not trying the cheese sweet melts.

However, grilled cheese for $7? That's kind of pricy for what amounts to basically a fast food place. Granted, it's a more upscale fast food place, but still. The problem is that all you get for your $6-$8 is the sandwich. That's it. No drink, no side dish. Just the sandwich. I would've been okay with that if the sandwich had been huge but it really was just a fairly normal sized sandwich.

What it boils down to is that I really could've bought my own breads and cheeses and it would've been cheaper. And even the added convenience of labor doesn't factor in here because it's not as if they had a hostess they had to pay to seat us, a waiter take our order or a bus boy clear our baskets (although, they did have some guys who brought us our orders and cleared our table after we were done so I guess that's close). No, my friends. I think the Meltdown is good for an occasional lunch treat but other than that, I'd skip it.

(except I still want to go back and try the Caprese and 2 of the Sweet Melts (Brie & Apricot and Goat Cheese, Fig, Honey).

Pictures below the cut.

Cheddar, Ham, and Apple Butter

3 Cheese with Bacon

Tomato Soup

Peanut Butter, Banana, and Honey

Pepsi Lime

So is this new Pepsi Lime stuff all it's cracked up to be? Mom and I took a taste and this is what we found out.

It was on sale. We'de seen commercials. Why not?

Well, folks, it tastes like Pepsi.

Just Pepsi........with a wee little tiny itsy bitsy eenie weenie lime flavouring.

Please forgive the sarcasm, but I honestly coult not taste it. Mom barely could. Seriously, just buy a Pepsi and a lime. It's much more worth your time and money.

5 pitchforks for misleading the customers.

Cheers!
Dusty