The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen
(at 2nd St)
San Francisco, CA 94107
Neighborhood: SOMA
Rated: ♣♣
A grilled cheese sandwich has to be THE #1 comfort food. If I take a WFH (“work from home” for you noobs) day, all I want to do is stay in my PJs and cook me a toasty grilled cheese with a side of tomato soup for lunch. Well, it’s obvious the guys behind the American Grilled Cheese hit a goldmine when they opened their shop in the South Park district of SF. If you couldn’t guess, they exclusively serve different variations of grilled cheese sandwiches.
The scene:
The restaurant has limited hours and it gets packed so come early. It’s more of a workday lunch place, so there’s not much seating other than a few barstools.
The food:
Mushroom Gruyère sandwich with fontina, gruyère, roasted wild mushrooms, gold potatoes, melted leeks and thyme butter – Sounds delicious right? But as much as I love gruyère and mushrooms, I found this satisfactory. The flavors were amazing; it was the texture that was off. Rather than sliced mushrooms, leeks and potatoes, everything was chopped finely. It bugged me so much because I couldn’t tell what kind of mushroom they used. Also, I actually had no idea there were potatoes and leeks in the sandwich until I looked back at my photos.
Don Gondola sandwich with provolone, sopressatta, salami, roasted tomato, pesto and garlic butter – I didn’t get to try this one, but my good friend T loved it. So, I can’t say anything more.
Verdict? I was disappointed with my sandwich at the American Grilled Cheese, but not so much that I won’t come back. I’m eying the Jalapeño Popper next.
