The Melt Bus SF

Not bad for a grilled cheese sandwich for about $ 5 or with a soup combo for $ 8.
And these guys prefer the credit card over cash so that made me a little more happy.
If you are expecting a cheese burger here… well you’ll soon find out that there is no patty in your grilled cheese… something to think about.

This was the bus we chose to cater our wedding. Not only were they on time (even a touch early) but they were ready to serve our hungry guests in seconds! The food and service were astounding. I’d book them again in a heart beat!

I LOVE Grilled Cheese.
Melt Bus (short bus) was at Taste of World at Pleasant Hill BART today. They had several choices posted on the menu, but they don’t post prices. Since it was my first experience ever with The Melt — Bus, Truck, or restaurant — I decided to go simple.
I ordered the classic, which is described as aged cheddar on artisan bread. There were a few other items that appealed to me, but they were combined with other items that didn’t.
(For example, short rib would appeal to me, but not with pepper jack and jalapenos. If the menu for add-​ons and prices was clearer, I might have added a protein or veggie to my sandwich.)
What I got was about 2ozs of rather bland, tasteless cheese on thin sliced bread. Grammar school grilled cheese sandwiches had more taste. The bread seemed high quality, but the crust was tough/​chewy. It reminded me of the consistency of bread that’s been frozen then thawed.
Served in a container with a pickle slice, and a small handful of potato chip crumbs. I call them crumbs, because not even one of the smaller chips was served whole — all I got was small broken pieces.
I was disappointed. In fact, its my first disappointing food truck experience with ANY truck.
I’d still probably try The Melt restaurant if I was near one — the menu looks good, and is more informative than the sign board on the side of the bus.
Taste of the World is a great location for food trucks — I hope its successful.

Let me start off by saying I’m the biggest cheese fan known to mankind. Cheese can do no wrong in my book.
Now about The Melt. I was very excited to try this truck because of all the delicious options I’d seen on their menu. So when they came to Bishop Ranch for Food Truck Day I canceled all my morning meetings as this was WAY more important and I headed down to the truck. My friend wanted the Mac Daddy (cheddar, bacon, macaroni noodles) and I wanted The Bird (Fontina, grilled chicken, baby spinach, Caesar dressing). The Bishop Ranch food trucks are supposed to open at 11am however when I arrived The Melt was still setting up but no big deal as it was only 11:02am. They opened around 11:17am or so which was still ok as I had time however if I only have 30 minutes for lunch time, I can’t stand and wait 17 minutes for them to open and then wait another 10 minutes for food. The lady that took my order was very nice and my food was ready in about 10 minutes. I got back to the office and opened my box and it was full of deliciousness. The sandwich looked really good, the chips were fresh and the pickle looked fresh as well. I ate half my sandwich but it was just OK. I was expecting to be blown away considering I paid $ 18 for 2 sandwiches (additional $ 2 of that is for extra cheese on both sandwiches) but I wasn’t. The chicken was bland and I thought I would get at least half a chicken breast in my sandwich but it was just a few pieces of chicken (and I do mean few) and the cheese wasn’t as flavorful as I had hoped it’d be. The bread was nice and buttery which I loved, the chips were tasty and so was the pickle. All in all, I was a bit disappointed in the sandwich but as I initially stated, I am a lover of all things cheese so I will be trying The Melt Bus again.

I had their Italian job with tomato and short rib ($ 7). It didn’t win me over. The short rib was OK, but the flavor didn’t work with the cheese. There wasn’t a huge amount of cheese, however. The bread was very greasy.
I think a plain cheese sandwich would be too small for dinner, however. I may still try them again, when I’m not too hungry.

3.5 for the sandwich.
Had the Italian Job w/​onions. One of the requirements for a good cheese sandwich is the gooeyness of the cheese. This passed.
.5 for the juicy pickle!
Perfect for an afternoon snack.

I’ve been to the stationary Melt many times, but this is my first time to their food truck. I’d venture a guess that the mobile version of The Melt is faster and generally just as good. Today they seemed to be ripping through orders outside of the JCC and I thought the quality was as good as the stationary The Melt.
Also, as far as food trucks go lately, this is a better deal than most. $ 5 for a grilled cheese with chips and a pickle while many other food trucks are charging $ 8-​$ 9 for lunch-​worthy options.

I had a sandwich from ‘The Melt Bus’ today and couldn’t help but wonder how they still stay in business?
There’s obvious grilled cheese sandwich fanatic’s out there that may frequent but I really doubt any reasonable person will ever come back here!
Low quality food made with low quality ingredients is all that I can say about this place. Definitely not coming back here again.

This place is terrible and I will never forgive them for their service the Alice event. Poor folk we’re waiting in line for hours and ended up missing most of the concert for a mediocre cheese sandwich. On top if that they completely ran out of food without any warning to the poor folk that waited for hours.

The Melt bus was parked below my window at the office, I saw it and asked a co-​worker if it was any good. He said,“Sure, and if you like you can even order online and it will be ready for you when you go down!”.
This sounded great so I hopped on the website and started my order. First thing I noticed was that my co-​worker was mistaken. While you can setup an order online and pay, the site will then provide a QR Code which you then present to the order taker when you arrive. This does make sense as you want your food made fresh when you get to your destination.
Regarding the QR code, I first sent it to an Outlook mail client, no luck. The QR code wont display, unsure why. I can’t be bothered to figure it out. So then I sent it to my GMail account, that worked just fine. Also, worth noting, you can print out the QR Code and take it with you if you must.
So now I headed downstairs with my GMail client up on my phone and ready to rock. Huge line… not surprising as people love grilled cheese. When I arrived at the truck and handed my phone to the cashier she looked completely confused and needed to ask another person (probably a supervisor) what to do. They fiddle around for a minute with the POS terminal for a minute and then he looks at me and says,” Sorry man, we keep the scanner off as it never works anyway. Can you tell us your order number?” I ask for my phone back and refer back to the email with the order number. He starts tapping away on an awkwardly placed iPad looking for the order. This goes on for over a minute, finally he looks at me and says,“Could you just tell me what it was you ordered so we can get it the food started?” Obviously he can’t find the order. At this point the order process has taken 3x longer than any other order process, people behind me are getting antsy and I’m feeling a bit embarrassed. I let him know I had ordered the Egg in a Hole and an apple juice. He tries to give me the apple juice (canned) at that time, I ask him to wait and provide it with the food since I was in fact standing on the windy cold street, in the rain, and didn’t feel like holding a cold can while I wait. Prissy I know… but I like my hands to stay warm in the cold.
Eventually they call my name, of course forgot the drink when giving me my food and a new guy who was giving me my food asks after I tell him I also needed my apple juice,“Uh, was that the green one?” I let him know I have no idea, but luckily another girl there heard this and handed me a juice as he was just standing there confused.
So! I’m all ready to eat now and wander back down the street to the office and my warm cubicle. The sandwich is very good, the egg was fresh and the cheese nice and melty. Just what I wanted.
Was it worth the hassle? Probably not. This sandwich was good, but not amazing and if you were to compare to somewhere like The American Grilled Kitchen it wouldnt stand up. But, nonetheless it was a great option to what I usually eat here at the office.
The idea of pre-​ordering with a QR code is an interesting idea and it would have been great had it worked. Sadly, another great idea with very poor execution which just leaves the customer frustrated and embarrassed.

Solid option. Like everyone else, I find it is pretty expensive for what it is. BUT (and this is a big but) at least at this food truck I know EXACTLY the quality of food I will be getting, and the food is consistent. Other gourmet food trucks can get pretty sketchy with the quality of their food; not The Melt!
I had the egg-​in-​a-​hole sandwich, which is a bfast sandwich that is served all day. The egg was super fresh, definitely not any powder crap-​ola. And the bread was really good. I was happy with it even though this sandwich doesn’t come with any sides (the other sandwiches come with chips).
Also, you can create your order online and then scan the QR code at the scanner on the bus and skip the whole line — which is really cool especially because line for food trucks can get really long!

The Melt Bus is a nice fallback for eats if one doesn’t get carried with addons.
menu. simple cheese menu, deluxe version, add ons, breakfast options, shakes (3.95) pricier
eats: italian … (4.95)
–provolone and fontina on homemade garlic bread.
tad greasy from the butter?
interesting taste, sammy kind of small
fresh potato chips
–nice snack, tasted fresh, made to order
crumbs:
–guys working here very enthusiastic
either that or they were high on something.
(or happy they have a job)
3ish stars for the food, so so value, 4 for the service.
-$ 2 extra for ham, i don’t think so. provolone great by itself.

Don’t worry, my people told me, there will be food there. Yet this was the only truck to show up at the Speakeasy Brewery on a weekend afternoon. The only one. And I was starving, really starving, but I cannot eat cheese. I can eat bread, egg, ham – no problem. I can even eat butter. But not cheese.
They had breakfast sandwiches on offer, with toast and egg and ham – but could I get any of that without cheese? In any combination? I explained the situation. I literally begged. I pleaded.
No.
The asshole refused to make me anything – anything at all – that did not include cheese. Oh, the food will fall apart if it doesn’t have cheese! Like I’d rather be sick than get served a breakfast sandwich that was falling apart? Serve it to me in a cup, I’m starving!
No. No. No.
I was the only one in my crew who was not able to eat anything, and I basically withered from hunger. My day was over.
Fuck you, lactose nazis.

My first experience with the Bus was at Now and Zen in Golden Gate Park last weekend. The Bus was surprisingly popular compared to the 5 – 6 other vendors. It was an abnormally hot day and in an attempt to not lose the little nest we made on the grass, my hubby offered to grab us soft serve from this vendor. Seriously thought he got lost/​left the park/​fell asleep somewhere since over an HOUR had passed and he hadn’t returned yet. I finally go to check on him and he is still about 30 people deep in the line. We finally gave up.
Towards the end of the event we were leaving and saw there were only about 10 people in line so decided to give it a try again. They had ran out of EVERYTHING and felt bad that people had literally waited 2 hours in line only to reach the front and be turned away. They did make up for it by handing out free sandwiches, The Mission, which they had left over. Also I was finally able to get my soft-​serve.
The sandwich was okay, I’m glad I didn’t have to pay (full price) for it, since I don’t think it was worth $ 6 for a grilled cheese with a couple of add-​ins.

I had the egg-​in-​a-​hole breakfast melt with tomato basil soup & it was delicious!
I’m giving this 3 stars because I felt that it was overpriced for what I got. The prices may have been inflated because they were at an all-​day event where all food, beverages & snacks were ridiculously priced.

I tried the MISSION. Loved it. Devoured it. Wanted more. Till we meet again. LOVE.

Today I had a Malt Double Chocolate Shake from the Melt bus at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon.
It was alright, wasn’t bad but also had nothing that screamed MUST HAVE!
I hear the madagascar Vanilla bean is better so next time i’ll try that one instead but overall it was quick, clean & the workers were nice =)

As a person with the type of OCD that loves organization and minimalism, I am completely smitten with the appearance and functionality of this former school bus food truck.
Neat trick: You can preorder online and receive a QR code, which you can then use to skip the line at the truck and go directly to the scanner at the end of the orange arrow. Then you just wait a few minutes for your name to be called and you and your fancy grilled cheese sando are on your merry way.
The truck stopped by our office in Emeryville and I got The Shorty. It is the BIZZZZZNASS! Get it. Get it now. Black bean soup was a good pairing too. I wish the pickles were different though. I usually love pickles, but not crazy about that one. Combo without a drink: slightly less than $ 10

Looks like the Metl Bus slated for San Francisco general this month is out and about in various places for test runs? They showed up in San Carlos for lunch service so we went down to check them out with a few other food trucks. Got a short rib/​pepper jack grilled cheese. Comes with a pickle slice and some sort of seasoning salt on top that makes it even tastier. Super tender short ribs, well seasoned and crisp bread that’s not too oily. I think they have it dialed in for the most part, but I think they could stand to give you a slightly bigger portion. I guess if you’re really hungry you can get two? Otherwise it’s a just right to satisfy a craving