The Melt Fries Review: Will it Melt Our Hearts?

With over 20 stores in California and Arizona, The Melt is a small, premium fast-food chain known for their gourmet food and melty burgers. The brand started in 2011 focusing on groumet grilled cheese and tomato soup but over time has expanded into a burger brand with their flagship "MeltBurger", made with Angus and Wagyu beef. We are huge fans of high quality ingredients and thus were curious how their potato sticks stand out. Let’s see if their fries are as good as how they make the rest of the menu sound like. Here is our review of The Melt's fries.

Retro-style logo proudly hung at the main entrance at Stanford Shopping Center, CA.

The Melt offers 4 types of fries (garlic parmasean, cheddar bacon ranch, sweet potato, and regular) out of the gate, perhaps the most extensive based on all the restaurants we have reviewed. Obviously we had to review the basic variant first. We also ordered the Garlic Parmasean Fries as well.

Texture (5/10)

The fries are not that floppy, but they do not have much crisp despite their rigid golden looks, and have only a little bit of crunch. There is something almost fluffy and airy about the overall biting experience though. And perhaps because the stuffing is slightly below average; there is not much of it in various pockets. Perhaps the potatoes were cut too thin but there were numerous areas where the stick looked shriveled.

Texture seems to be solid with visible crisp.

Flavor (4/10)

The fries had chopped dry parsley dusted on them, but it didn’t add any flavor to the fries. We really tried to close our eyes and taste the seasoning but couldn't. They are definitely more effective as a visual garnish rather than enhancing the flavor. The fries had a decent amount of salt, though it leaned more on the weaker side. We could tell that the potatoes were not the issue as they offered fresh and wholesome potato flavors. These fries just look great, which makes the disappointment bigger, as they barely qualify average in the taste department.

Shape (5/10)

The fries are not uniform in many ways, from length to width, to the degree of floppiness as well as the texture, although this can be expected when you leave the skin on a natural cut fry. Many are short and stubby, and others are longer and floppy. At certain points in some sticks, there is no stuffing causing the flop. The thickness is comparable to your average McDonald’s fries, but the consistency needs more work. Again, we recognize that natural cut fries that use the entire potato may have these variances but it is also easily observed that shape is not a priority at The Melt.

There is lack of consistency in shape, despite the length being on the shorter side.

Presentation (6/10)

The fries are served in their own baking-like tray. This metal tray seems to be standard for everything The Melt serves, whether burgers, milkshakes, or fries. The tray has a flat carton container, lined with parchment paper, and the fries are laid on top. The parsley on the fries adds a visual effect that makes them look fancier, but like we said earlier, that is just a visual effect. We did not see much effort in trying to make the fries look nice, nor oragnized. Rather they were just dumped into the container in a hurry from the fryer. Again, at this premium fast-food restaurant, we were expecting a bit more care and attention to detail.

The fries are presented in a flat boat-like carton with paper lining. The green parsley sprinkles standout on the golden sticks.

Experience (5/10)

The Melt at the Stanford Shopping Center is absolutely in a premier location. Lots of foot traffic and we always see a line out the door. The interior is a bit smaller than the crowd but also, the outdoor seating area definitely is a fabulous way to hang out. Such an upscale fast-food dining experience though is marred by the large crowd, as well as subpar service. You order on a machine, and wait for your number or name to be called. No table service. Just a huge crowd hanging around the pickup area. Now, unlike everything else on the menu which felt overpriced, the fries were just $3~$5, which surprised us a bit. At The Fries Blog, we always appreciate good value.

Now here is the blemish that cannot be overlooked. We ordered both the regular and Garlic Parmasean fries, but they gave us two regular fries by mistake. We only realized this after we got back to the table, and due to the crowd, we lost the will to go ask for a replacement. Not only that, they entirely missed a chicken salad we had also ordered. Clearly, their kitchen is running in a subpar manner. More disappointingly, the entire order was printed on the stickers attached to the tray so whoever is placing the food in it isn't paying attention.

Texture	5
Flavor	4
Shape	5
Presentation	6
Experience	5
Overall	5.0 / 10

Lots of homage to baseball and orange certainly remind you of the SF Giants!

Conclusion

The Melt has some great items on the menu, but their regular fries are not their forte. Perhaps the original receipe was a lot more deliberate to stand out but there is a lot of room for improvement even from the basic sense. The fries could have had actual seasoning, not just visual decorations, and they could be cut longer and thicker with sturdier stuffing. Now considering the price though, these aren’t too bad. And we highly recommend the restaurant tighten up a bit running their kitcken.