TV Recaps Reviews

Adam visits one of his favorite cities, Cleveland, Ohio, to face the Melt Bar & Grilled Melt Challenge: a five pound fourteen pieces of cheese mass of grilled cheese sandwich complete with fries and cole slaw. If Adam can eat the gooey sandwich in its entirety, he wins a t-shirt and accolades from Cleveland fans. Melt encourages regulars to show their sandwich tattoos in order to receive 25% off their meals at Melt for life. Melt Bar & Grilled serves only variations on grilled cheese sandwiches and their patrons love them for it.

First Adam visits Steve’s Gyro Stand at Cleveland’s West Side Market, the market covers 40,000 square feet of food for busy shoppers. Steve’s Gyro Stand is known for their delicious beef jerky and gyro sandwiches. Steve’s is famous for their Jumbo Gyros, and locals just can’t get enough of them. Adam watches as they make Steve’s Jumbo Gyro, made with two pounds of spicy lamb and beef, tomato, onion and lettuce on toasted bread, topped with a sour cream-based Tzatziki sauce. Adam surveys the gyro sandwich and goes in for his first taste, claiming afterwards, “Good God, this is amazing!”

The next stop for Adam is Hot Sauce Williams, known for their Polish Boy kielbasa, the official sandwich of “C” town. The spicy kielbasa is deep fried for a crispy skin texture and layered with french fries, coleslaw, a pile of pulled pork shoulder, and covered with Hot Sauce Williams signature hot sauce. Adam bites into the sandwich with gusto, loving the crunch of the crispy kielbasa skin, then smiles, telling the camera “It’s unbelieveable, one of the best sandwiches in creation!”

It’s time for the Melt Bar & Grilled Melt Challenge, and Adam is pumped up and ready to face the five pound grilled cheese monster sandwich. Adam is told 80% of challengers have failed this cheesy challenge, and only a few have completed it. Adam tells the camera “It’s the cheesiest challenge I’ve ever faced.”

Adam watches as his massive grilled cheese sandwich is made by the restaurant owner. The sandwich uses three thick slices of bread, and fourteen different cheeses on the sandwich, including: cream cheese spread, Gouda, Cheddar, goat cheese, feta, blue cheese, Swiss, pepperjack, American, Havarti, Provalone and Muenster. Once the cheeses are in place the sandwich gets topped with a hefty half pound of fries and homemade coleslaw.

The challenge begins with no time limit to eat the cheesy creation. Adam tells the audience he needs to eat fast because when the sandwich cools, the congealed cheese will make it harder to eat. Adam takes his first bite and tells the camera the sandwich is rich because of all the cheese. After 1/4 of the sandwich is down, Adam adds fries to each bite to speed his eating. Ten minutes into the challenge Adam has made a good sized dent into the meal having eaten half the sandwich already. The crowd chants “Man vs Food” over and over, encouraging Adam as he continues eating. Adam tells the camera his sandwich is rapidly cooling and this is slowing his eating. Adam gets 3/4 of the way through the challenge and makes a strategic move, adding coleslaw to each bite which makes the food easier to go down. Adam struggles through the second half of the sandwich, aided by the coleslaw. At forty-five minutes into the challenge the crowd chants “One more bite!” as Adam holds up the last bite of the Melt Challenge sandwich and downs it in one fell swoop. The crowd roars with approval as Adam receives his t-shirt, proclaiming today in Man vs Food, man won!