What Makes Restaurant Grilled Cheeses So Irresistible?
There's nothing as comforting as grilled cheese. Melty and sublimely delicious, sometimes only grilled cheese will do when you want to eat something cozy and indulgent. It's easy to make your own grilled cheese at home. With a bit of creativity, you can make an even more luxurious grilled cheese at home, such as a croque monsieur.
No matter how good your grilled cheese game is, there's something undeniably great about enjoying grilled cheese at a restaurant. Have you noticed that, no matter how simple the sandwich, grilled cheese almost always tastes even better at a restaurant?
If you're wondering why that is, we've got a few reasons right here. From using the very best bread to mixing it up by using a variety of ingredients, let's dive into exactly what makes restaurant grilled cheeses so irresistible. Hopefully, you can apply some of these secrets the next time you make grilled cheese at home.
They use the best bread
The thin, floppy sliced white bread you use for regular toast won't yield the best grilled cheese. Using too thin bread can result in a greasy sandwich that allows the filling to ooze out too much, causing the sandwich to fall apart. A great restaurant grilled cheese usually involves huge, thick slices of the very best bread. This often means using slices of sourdough, brioche, or ciabatta bread.
Restaurants across the United States understand the importance of using the best bread; it provides a sturdy foundation for grilled cheese. Take Ms. Cheezious, once a Miami-based food truck company that today also has a brick-and-mortar restaurant. The brand prides itself on serving the best grilled cheeses, often using thick slices of sourdough bread, which contrast beautifully with the melted cheese.
This is a tip you can use at home if you're making your own grilled cheese. You likely have a good bakery or a large grocery store near you that sells delicious artisan bread, so you can pick some up the next time a grilled cheese craving strikes.
They use a variety of cheeses
Cheddar is a great starting point for making your own grilled cheese made at home, but to elevate your grilled cheese, make as the restaurants do and use a variety of cheeses. Restaurants often use multiple cheeses in the same sandwich. They often choose types of cheese that melt well, such as gouda, fontina, gruyere, Swiss cheese, provolone, mozzarella, and more.
If you've ever had a really salty, pungent, flavor-packed grilled cheese at a restaurant, that's probably because the best grilled cheese chefs aren't afraid to add stronger-tasting cheeses. These help to add some oomph to the classic comfort food dish. Aged cheeses like Taleggio, as well as blue cheeses like gorgonzola, help to add character to the classic grilled cheese. Take Portland's Stacked Sandwich Shop, for example. The restaurant's Truffle Grilled Cheese uses a combination of provolone, cheddar, and truffle pecorino cheeses to amp up the flavor.
They go heavy on the cheese
A grilled cheese is a moment of oozy, melty indulgence, rather than a time to show restraint. That means you need to go all in on the cheese. Forget just a few slices of limp cheese or a sad sprinkle of grated cheese. Restaurants know that grilled cheese is a treat that's designed to be comfort food, and loved by the masses as such — whether it's a classic grilled cheese or something a bit fancier.
That means restaurants go hard on the cheese and use a whole lot of the good stuff to ensure your grilled cheese is as tasty as possible. As we already mentioned, this usually means using more than one type of cheese, but even if they're sticking to classic cheddar cheese, expect a ton of it. When it melts down, it'll take a lot of cheese to ensure a perfectly oozy sandwich!
They put mayonnaise on the outside of the bread
When you're making grilled cheese at home, you likely just use butter on the outside of the bread — and either butter or cooking oil in your pan. Restaurants do it differently, with butter in the pan and mayo on the outside of the bread. This adds tons of flavor to your grilled cheese.
Adding mayo is a nifty trick to ensure that your sandwich ends up perfectly browned on both sides. That's because mayo has a higher smoke point and is oil-based, so it won't burn off as fast as butter. Some chefs elevate things even more by using flavored mayo such as sriracha or garlic mayo.
According to Forbes, Chris Arellanes, corporate executive chef at KYU in New York City, uses mayo to add fat, seasoning, and protein to his grilled cheese. Using mayo also helps him achieve ultimate caramelization and a crispy exterior finish.
They mix up the ingredients
Most restaurants aren't afraid to play with flavor combos. As well as using various cheeses, some offer seasonal grilled cheeses, such as a festive grilled cheese made with cranberry and turkey. These flavor combos can be as simple as some tomatoes, mushrooms, or bacon — three ingredients that go perfectly in a grilled cheese — or the combination can be more complex.
Restaurants like Nashville's The Grilled Cheeserie often add things you didn't even know you wanted in a grilled cheese, like mac and cheese. While it may seem like a lot, this "don't knock it 'till you've tried it" flavor combo pairs well, thanks to the similar ingredients in grilled cheese and mac and cheese, creating the ultimate comfort food.
Then, there are chefs using high-end ingredients in their grilled cheeses, like Nick Dixon, chef of the Broadway Restaurant Group in Boston. Dixon swears by lobster grilled cheese, mixing lobster meat with Camembert or brie on brioche, and adding muenster cheese. Yum!
They toast the bread on both sides
When you make your grilled cheese at home, chances are you only toast the bread on one side. It's quicker and easier to do it that way, and there's nothing wrong with that! But the reason your restaurant grilled cheese has the perfect contrast between crispy bread and melty cheese is because most restaurants toast or grill their bread on both sides.
Bread is often fried in butter, for extra flavor and crunch. Because the bread is already hot, when the cheese is added, it will melt faster. That's why restaurant grilled cheese is usually perfectly brown and crispy — and why it's so good.
Again, this is something you can easily recreate at home if you want that restaurant grilled cheese experience. Just fry your bread in salted or unsalted butter on both sides before adding your fillings of choice to the grilled cheese.
Cheese goes on the outside, too!
You love cheese. We love cheese. So why limit cheese to the inside of your sandwich? The French clearly understand this, because, when they make Croque Monsieur, they include cheese on the inside and outside of the sandwich. On top of that, it's usually made with a rich, gooey bechamel sauce. A fully loaded grilled cheese doesn't need a bechamel sauce, but adding grated cheese to the outside of the sandwich elevates restaurant grilled cheese and adds an extra layer of indulgence.
But what type of cheese should you add to the outside? Sliced cheese can take a while to melt. This is the last thing you want, as your browned, crispy bread might start to burn in your pan. Grated cheese melts faster than sliced cheese. Restaurant grilled cheese isn't usually made with pre-grated cheese, either. Purchasing your cheese pre-grated means it likely contains preservatives, which can slow down melting times and even affect the finished flavor. Instead, grate your own cheese and add it to the outside.
They use pickled and spicy ingredients to add contrasting flavors
Grilled cheese is rich, creamy, and indulgent. Adding ingredients that cut through that richness and contrast beautifully with it is a great idea. You can add almost anything pickled or spicy, like sliced dill pickles, sliced pickled red onions, sauerkraut, jalapenos, and spicy spreads like harissa, which is a paste made from chiles and roasted red peppers.
According to Business Insider, chef Alissa Fitzgerald likes adding Moroccan harissa and pickled shallots to her grilled cheese, as the flavors perfectly complement the sourdough and Comté cheese. Other chefs will have their own take like Derek Brooks, executive chef of Peacock Alley at Waldorf Astoria Washington D.C., who adds bread and butter pickles for a sweet, salty contrast with the melted cheese. Christopher Walker, executive chef of PKL in Boston, swears by cornichon pickles for added crunch and acidity to balance the gruyere and cheddar in his grilled cheese.
You don't have to clean up
Ok, so this next reason why restaurant grilled cheese is so irresistible could apply to any restaurant food. However, it applies even more to grilled cheese. Because this dish is a comfort food, we crave it when we don't have the energy to make anything else. This includes times when we don't have the energy to do the dishes.
Thankfully, when someone else makes a grilled cheese for you — like when you order one at a restaurant — you don't have to clean up afterward. That means there isn't a grilled cheese pan, a sheet pan covered in melted cheese (if you've broiled your grilled cheese in the oven), utensils for spreading mayonnaise, or a plate for you to wash up.
Instead, you can sit back and relax in your cheesy happiness. The only thing left to do is pay the bill.