The Grilled Cheese Experience

I had higher hopes for this. I felt they were super rushed trying to open the truck since all the other trucks were open already. The girl taking orders and money was standing there eating. The grilled cheese wasn’t as good as I hoped, a little burnt. Pricey.

Excellent food — not greasy and quick delivery with crowd visible. Need more Diet Coke cans available — but hey not much of complaint. Incredible bread with Parmesan cheese encrusted on outside of bread. Love it. Bought a groupon for 3 visits and no regret — not at all.

A coworker of mine recommended this place and the food truck was near my building so I decided to give it a shot and ordered the Super Deluxe. I have to say, I’ve never had a grilled cheese sandwich with so many ingredients before. The Super Deluxe had sundried tomatoes, farm greens, and best of all… avocado!!! It sounds pretty weird, but the avocado in the sandwich made it amazing. Something about the creaminess works really well with the Aged Chipotle Cheddar.
The sandwich felt a bit greasy though. I’m glad I grabbed a couple napkins before taking it back to the office, else my hands would’ve been oiling up my keyboard in an unsanitary manner.
The price is actually a bit high in my opinion. $ 10 for a fancy grilled cheese and $ 8 for a regular grilled cheese? You’re kinda crazy to price it that high. I’d recommend they make it $ 4 for a classic grilled cheese, $ 6 for the other types, and $ 8 for the super deluxe. That sounds more reasonable to me.

Some people search out the best steak, best pizza, best burger, etc. Me? I seek out to eat the best grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup (and hot chocolate, but I digress). This was so disappointing. 8 $ for cheese and bread and 3 $ for soup… Go to Nordstrom café and get both for 7 $ and fruit! What the heck, this was not the grilled cheese experience I was looking for, and I can make way better at home! Who am I kidding? I could cook grilled cheese for a family at these prices! If you’re going to be this expensive and not even be that good? Please …

I have seen these guys more than once at beer festivals and various spots around town, but I have never gotten to stop and actually try one of their sandwiches. Very glad I did.
They were at Hellbent Brewing last night, which is a really good pairing – great sessionable solid ales alongside well-​made hot sandwiches. Sports on the gigantic flatscreens in the taproom make for a nice triumvirate.
Bottom line with TGCE, their prices are a tiny bit high, but the quality and convenience couldn’t be any better than they are. They have a nice rotating selection of large-​ish hot sandwiches running from about $ 8-​$ 11, and they’re very gracious about customizing them to order.
They use nice thick bread, typically with grated dry cheese (like parmesan) stuck to the outside. They use fresh ingredients of at least supermarket quality, probably better. I had a turkey and avocado grilled cheese, and they have some options on the menu that are far more ambitious than that. They do offer the basic grilled cheese, which you can doll up with bacon, avocado, and/​or tomato.
They have water and chips available, but when they’re parked next to one of the most solid breweries in town you go get a beer. I am glad to know these guys will be a solid option when I see them around in the future.

I tried this truck at the UDistrict Street Fair. I would not normally go for a grilled cheese since it is so easy to make a great one at home. But it sounded good so I tried the classic with bacon. And it was very good. Nice mixture of cheeses. Excellent bread. I liked that the bacon was chopped up so you got some in every bite. And it was grilled perfectly.

I was eager to try this food truck «experience» when I saw it on Groupon. A friend and I met at the truck’s location of the day: Emerald Con 2016 in downtown Seattle. Apparently, the truck does have a regular parking spot elsewhere though. Today, it just happened to be there. Surprisingly, it wasn’t *that* crazily overrun with Con-​goers!
Understandably, there was a line to order, and a considerable wait for order pick-​ups. Both attendants were very nice and energetic. Likely because of the volume, they had sold out of some of their sandwiches – so I ordered the Veggie grilled cheese. It was cheesy, melty, and OMG that Parmesan crusted bread! I also tried the «Bluesy Chick» that my friend got – it was amazing! I have one more Groupon left, so I will be ordering that one for sure!

In Germany food trucks aren’t very common, so I was eager to try some here in the US.
We walked by «The Grilled Cheese Experience» by chance and so I took the opportunity and ordered the «classic» grilled cheese sandwich.
As first timers we got one add-​on for free and decided to go with the bacon.
What a great food experience!
Although it looks a bit messy (you will get oily fingers) the taste filled me with enthusiasm.
The used cheeses were hearty and full of flavor, together with the bacon and the sourdough bread a solid grilled cheese sandwich I want to taste more often in the future!
You can also add other things like avocado or mushrooms and they offer other ready combinations.
So my conclusion: If you see this food truck — chase it, cheeze it!

I finally got to try this food truck when it was at my favorite local brewery. Wow – our sandwiches were excellent! I had the Bluesy Chick and my boyfriend had a vegetarian one with portabella mushrooms. We tried each others and both of use loved both of them. One of the best parts is that sometimes grilled cheese sandwiches end up being served on greasy bread. The bread on our sandwiches was crusted with cheese and was really crispy and tasty – not greasy at all! I read on review complaining about the wait time, but ours were both done in about 5 mins, and someone had ordered right ahead of us. I can imagine at events like festivals, the line would get backed up, but that is the case with any food truck with a large number of customers.

Great Grilled Cheese — Not so great Tomato Soup
This is a great food truck and one that I’ve frequented in South Lake Union when they were there. From the fast and friendly service, to the deliciously browned bread and melty cheese in the middle of every sandwich you get there, it’s hard to go wrong with anything on their menu.
My only complaint is their tomato soup. It’s like they take tomato juice, add a couple of spices, and call it tomato soup. When you have a grilled cheese truck, you’ve got to have delicious and flavorful tomato soup to go along side.
Whenever you see this truck, JUMP at the opportunity to have any of the delicious sandwiches on their menu… maybe just skip over the tomato soup.

Freaking amazingggggg veggie sandwich. Food was hot and had awesome ingredients, everything from the bacon to the mushrooms were cooked perfectly inside and really complimented the entire sandwich to bring it to another level. Dope! Eat here!

Was at Beerfest this past weekend and took a break from drinking for some lunch. I ordered their standard grilled cheese and added avocado, yum! loved the bread too; I’m a big fan of thick, crusty bread that’s grilled just right! YUM!

HOLY MARY MOTHER OF GOD. this truck is like beyond the master of the grilled cheese. they are made with such technique and love and certainly one of my favorite food trucks that i will squeal in delight when i find them parked downtown.
However i had to take away a couple stars and it KILLED me but to be honest, I have only eaten at your truck twice because you people need to get your crap together when it comes to your social media pages and communicating more regularly about where you are at, as i have gone to your Facebook page AND your website on numerous occasions to see if you would be downtown, so i could grab for me (and other people btw) and there is nothing and i’ll be walking back from the pike place market or where ever with some crap lunch i got, and there you will be on 4^th! it’s FRUSTRATING and you are losing $$ (I would stand in line) and i bet i’m not the only one experiencing it. I have no doubt you have massive fans but you need to be more proactive in telling foodies like me where you’ll be, you’re a food truck for pete’s sake.
Seriously though, AMAZING food, exceptional service. when you can track them down.

Great grilled cheese sandwiches with some interesting combinations. The kind I would chase around the Seattle area. So, why only 2 stars? What good is the best grilled cheese if you can’t frickin find the place. They have to have to worst food truck business model on the planet. Your business comes from people knowing where you are.
Their tweets/​Facebook updates about their location are sporadic at best. That wouldn’t be the end of the world if their locations were consistent, but they’re not. They don’t bother sending out a weekly schedule. Also not a big deal if they update daily. But nope, to much trouble apparently.
On average, there is one location update a week. Sometimes, amazingly, you may get a string of 3 or 4 days of location updates, but that is rare. Sometimes weeks, yes weeks!, go by without a single update. I have pretty much given up. If I wanted a scavenger hunt, I would have signed up for one of those groupon/​living social amazing race type events. When I’m jones’in for a delicious grilled cheese though, I’m not in the mood for hide and seek. Too bad for their customers (no grilled cheese in hand) and them (less revenue).

I wanted to like this place, but there are just some things that need to be fixed. Their sandwiches are really good, but because they only have so much griddle space it’s hard to have the food come out in a reasonable time. I must have waited about 15 minutes or so, and by then there was already a massive line waiting behind me also waiting for their food.
However, after waiting for such a long time in some pretty dreary weather, the grilled mac and cheese that I got was burnt… I understand that they are busy at times but quality control really needs to be looked into. I paid a around 6 dollars for this, and to have it come out completely black on one side is just unacceptable.
I feel like this place should be better than the experience that I had. I’ll definitely try it out again, but with some reservation.

The purple haze sandwich is no joke! So much more than a grilled cheese. These guys are amazing! Very friendly and they produce a solid product. I highly recommend giving them a try on your next lunch break!

I would have loved to have tried GCE’s food– however I was turned away for being vegetarian. I asked the cashier who was taking orders if they would make their «Purple Haze» for me without meat, and was told «my boss doesn’t like that, we can’t mix and match.» I asked if she was serious, and she told me again that they couldn’t make me a sandwich without meat.
Last time I checked, accommodating vegetarians isn’t «mixing and matching,» and might be one of the most basic aspects to running a food service.

I ate at the GCE when it was at Kirkland Uncorked, so this review is based on that experience.
When it comes to grilled cheese I’m a bit of a purist and usually use the standard sandwich with no toppings as my benchmark. The classic with nothing on it is $ 6, which I thought was pretty reasonable for three sandwiches in a serve with a little cup of tomato soup for dipping.
In comparison to other grilled cheese, it was pretty good. The sandwiches had three different cheeses in them (so, one in each), and the cheeses were apparently all locally sourced, which was nice except there wasn’t any explanation of which cheese was which, and some were clearly better than others. I also wish there was more soup to dunk the sandwiches in; I ran out about one sandwich in and had to have the other ones dry.
I REALLY like the fact that the GCE melts cheese on the OUTSIDE of the sandwiches so that it crispifies on the griddle. That is totally delicious.
Service wasn’t bad at all for a food truck. The food came out pretty promptly despite a considerable line, and the people working were pretty friendly. If the truck was in my area again I’d totally eat at it. I might try the mac and cheese grilled cheese – the fact that the M&C had 7 different cheese in it was great advertising – but that one seems to get sold out pretty quickly!

More like really tasty grilled sandwiches than «grilled cheese» especially if you order the Super Deluxe. It was really well thought out and put together, even though it became a bit of a delicious sloppy mess.
The mac and cheese was made into a griddled square and managed to stay pretty gooey.
All in all it was a great experience. And I would love to try their classic grilled cheese and tomato soup!

It’s been over a year since I reviewed The Grilled Cheese Experience and I believe an update is warranted.
Over the last year, I’ve had occasion to sample more of the food offerings. I have increased this review to 4-​stars for a couple of reasons. First, the menu, from my perspective, has gotten more creative over time. My current favorite is the Purple Haze made with Triple Cream Borgonzola, Blackened Hangar Steak, Potato Chips, Parmesan Crusted Sourdough, Blackberry Balsamic Reduction. Yes, it tastes as good as it sounds! Any sandwich with potato chips in it gets bonus points from me. Additionally, the greasy bits of cheese I previously described has changed over time. I find it to be less greasy and a more pleasant experience, which I’m sure was the original intent.
Staff members are still friendly and I feel the amount of staff for the truck is appropriate whether it’s lunch service or a special event.