Say Cheese
Categories: Fast Food, Sandwiches [Edit]
Neighborhoods: Manhattan/Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan/Theater District649 9th Ave Frnt
New York, NY 10036 (212) 265-8840
- Nearest Transit:
8th Ave-42nd St (A, C, E, 1, 2, 3, S, 7, N, Q, R, W)
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: Yes
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Lunch
9 reviews
Neighborhood: Manhattan/Midtown East
"I frequent this place for lunch every chance I get. The nori rolls w/ cooked tuna & avocado & roasted tomato & brown nice is amazing here.…" read more »
32 Reviews for Say Cheese
This restaurant was on my must-see list in NYC on a suggestion of a transplant from Seattle.
We went for lunch on our first full day in the city. It was down the street from where we were staying and was an awesome start to my love affair with New York.
We had a cheesesteak, cups of their amazing tomato soup and a four cheese grill sandwich. The food was wonderful, the shop cozy and warm and the service sweet, willing to make suggestions and true to New York form!
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Although the service is lacking, the food is constantly delicious. They make a killer Tomato soup, its pretty hot though, so blow on it before diving in, and their Grilled Cheese sandwiches are huge. Half a sandwich will fill you up. The Curly Fries are delicious too. It's never really crowded, so you can have a cute date there or take someone there to chat. All in all its pretty amazing.
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YUM - I love a grilled cheese and tomato soup. And I TOTALLY agree with Jessica's review to do:
Tomato Soup
Grilled Cheese
Veuve Clicquot
I always order out and I always do that little menage a trois.
Delicious Sandwiches and Great Host...
stop by and tell 'em that JazzNet sent you!
always welcoming, friendly and affordable...
see you there.
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I know of only one other place in the city where you can have:
Tomato Soup
Grilled Cheese
Veuve Clicquot
That place is Bouchon Bakery.
If you're feeling more casual and in the mood for Veuve in a Styrofoam cup - by all means - come here. You will need to bring your own Veuve. But no corkage!
The soup and grilled cheese rival Tom Keller and you pay half the price. Now, if you read my Bouchon Bakery review, I say that Bouchon is a steal.
That makes this almost free.
One star off for so-so decor and a bathroom that requires walking through the kitchen to get to.
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Despite the fact that all of the sandwiches on the menu contain cheese, I'm not sure what exactly makes this a cheese-themed place. Wouldn't most delis qualify too? Granted, I didn't get the grilled cheese. I would imagine it's their "specialty," so I'll try to be nice until I give that a try.
I went for lunch with coworkers. I order the Tuna Schmuna. Yes, I said the name. It was good. Definitely a generous sandwich. But to be honest, the cheese wasn't the star of the show, which was somewhat surprising. The prices were good though. As were the curly fries. My coworkers didn't seem all that impressed either. Who knows, I may give it another shot. Come on, Say Cheese, earn that third star!
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I just ate lunch there and it was perfect. It is also 40 degrees out and I had to walk 4 blocks to get there so that made it taste all the better. The only thing I have ever gotten here is the Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup combo. Usually I am an american cheese kind of guy when it comes to the grilled variety but they were out on this particular day. The server/manager/owner? recommended the munster in its stead. I agreed and patiently awaited my meal. It was just as good as the american. In fact i couldn't really tell the difference. Maybe if I had one of each and alternated I could tell but on this day it just tasted like cheesy goodness. I am definately a fan of this place.
The tomato and cheddar soup is very good now but the first time I had it I was a little put off. I don't think the soup changed, I think I changed. It just kinda grew on me. If you dont think about the small chunks of something in the soup and you do as you are supposed to and dip you grilled cheese into it then the soup is amazing. It is a little runny, but that just makes it soak into the grilled cheese all the better.
The place is small but it has a nice friendly atmosphere. The guy who runs it does an amazing job of keeping so busy and ignoring you that he almost seems rude, but when he finally gets to you he is so kind that you forget that you were sitting there for 10 min waiting for him to take your order. The speed of service does vary though. Sometimes you can make it back to the office in 45 min, sometimes you can't. Once I even made it back in under 30 min.
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This is a great place for a sandwich. I chose something with tuna, cheese (of course,) and artichokes, which was quite delicious and very big. The curly fries were a little cold, but very good otherwise. The staff was also very nice, and the prices are good, so I'm sure I'll be back.
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I'm a methodical person when it comes to my food. I tend to seperate things on my plate and eat it one at a time. I also believe that if your restaurant name says "cheese" or "bread", you'd better be damn good at either cheese or bread.
Say Cheese delivers (excuse the pun).
I'm some what a traditionalist as well, so the only thing I order is the Mama Special: Grilled cheese (your choice of cheese) with a Tomato Soup. I choose cheddar w/ roasted garlic inside. They use white bread buttered and grilled to a crisp. It comes to you melty and hot and the temptation is so bad that you burn your tounge! But MAAAAANNNN the pay off. As for the soup, I think they put crack in it. I dream about their tomato soup, it's creamy and cheesy and tomato-y. Let's put it this way, a friend of mine visited from SF, and everytime I see her, she reminds me that when she comes back to NYC, we have to go back to "that grilled cheese place"
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Chelsea J and I went here for lunch and I was thoroughly impressed. I didn't get any of the more 'done up' cheese sandwiches. I simply got a half and half lunch deal. Half a plate of salad, the other half was filled with a delicious sourdough and pepper jack cheese sandwich. My two qualms with this place were as follows:
My sandwich did not have enough cheese. Maybe it's just from the experience of making my own cheese sandwiches, but it felt like they had used one or two really thin slices of cheese on my sandwich.
The other problem I had with this place was the waiter was nearly impossible to flag down. Not that he was mean or bad at his job or anything, but he was just so out-of-this-world friendly that when other people came into the restaurant he got easily distracted from one table to the next. But he was nice and reminded me of the restaurant host from The Critic. What was his name? Blata? I can't remember.
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I went here when I visited my sisters.
It is definitely good comfort food. I don't like to mess with genius too much so I ordered the Mama's Special. Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup.
The sandwich was nice and hot and tasted melted cheesy good. The soup tasted good but was broken.
Overall the food was pretty good but it was was too much for me to handle. I barely could eat half!
The service was excellent! It was way more than I would expect walking inside. They also give you pieces of foil to wrap up your left overs.
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Gourmet grilled cheese? Where do I sign up? This place was such a good find when I was grumpy, hot, and starving in Times Square. The $4 (generously sized) Reese's smoothie calmed me down. I really can't recommend this place enough. The only way it could be better is if they expanded it - the space is very cramped and always packed.
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Hello, comfort food. This is a friendly, tiny and exciting place.
Grilled cheese: 5 stars. The cheese is good (nothing to write home about), the bread is fabulous - nice, thick, buttery, golden brown.
Tomato soup: 3 stars. To me it seems like they took regular Campbell's tomato soup, and threw it in the blender for an hour to get it all frothy. Maybe this sounds good to you, but I thought it was kind of a let down.
Conclusion: the Mama's Special is good comfort food during a crappy workday in January. Otherwise, I don't know, I guess I should go back to try the rest of the sandwiches, which, really, sound delicious.
(Trivia gem: according to the NY Times [http://travel.nytimes....] this place used to be a speakeasy back in the good old days)
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Nab the Mama's Special for $4.98!!! It includes their signature grilled cheese sandwich with cheese of your choice & Creamy Tomato Soup. My suggestion? Get it with the Grilled Pepper-Jack Cheese Sandwich and Boylan's Orange Soda. YUM!!!
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I'd been wanting to come to this place since I'd heard of it, and was not disappointed by the sandwich. It's hard to disappoint me with cheese, and their Big Cheese- provolone, munster, and I believe mozzarella? with red peppers and onions on a delicious olive bread- certainly lived up to its name. It was the perfect amount of toasted, and came out very quickly. The only complaint I'd have then is that it did take a looong time for us to get the waiter's attention to get our check and some more water. And it definitely wasn't crowded- three of the I'd say seven or eight tables were filled, we were on the early side. All in all, I will definitely come back, but I wouldn't try it when I have to squeeze in a really quick meal, unless they prove to me otherwise. And if that's the case, then five stars, baby!
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I know that it's supposed to be greasy, but I think it actually took away from the flavor in the Chicken Melt sandwich.
The Roma sandwich was great, though -- see my photos on say cheese -- and quite satisfying and warm.
I enjoyed the efficient service, enthusiastic server, and colorful decor. Felt a little bit like being in grade school.
I didn't enjoy the price of the smoothies ($5), b/c I wasn't willing to pay that much just to try a smoothie...
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If you don't like grilled cheese, you're a communist. And this place has all kinds of fancy-schmancy grilled cheese sandwiches that will make you say "How bourgeois!"
I've been here twice and both times the place was empty when we got there and packed when we left. The guy who runs the place remembered me the second time, and even remembered that I had ordered the soup the my first visit (more on the soup later).
I would recommend anything that comes on the black olive bread -- it's thick, crusty and perfectly crunchy when it comes out of the sandwich press. I was less impressed with their flatbread sandwiches, it seemed wimpy in comparison. The macaroni salad and curly fries are solid, and my friends are bananas about the jalepeno poppers (but don't let them get cold).
So the soup: they have only one kind, tomato cheddar. I had high hopes for the soup, but I was really disappointed. It was quite watery, and I always thought tomato soup should be creamy. The owner says it's his favorite thing on the menu but maybe he and I have different tomato soup standards. He seemed kindof hurt when I said I didn't like his soup. (What can I do? I can't lie!!)
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Thanks to Michelle's recommendation below, I enhanced my traditional 'Say Cheese' experience by adding roasted garlic to my otherwise standard grilled chedder goodness. You think that would be enough, but drench it in the liquid crack they called tomato soup so it goes down easy and you got yourself all the makings you need for a happy tummy. I'm sad to say that Say Cheese will soon no longer be just a delivery away since I'm moving down to the financial district, so if anyone can recommend something remotely similar to this Hell's Kitchen hidden jem, let me know.
Random sidenote: the dude that works there has the nicest penmenship I have ever seen.
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You are no American if you say you would turn down a grilled cheese sandwich.
While planning a weekend in NYC for New Year's, I decided that we had to venture out of our comfort zone for our daily lunches (comfort zone=pizza). After all, we're from NYC...we've had enough pizza to last a lifetime. Let's try something different. I recently saw something on the Food Network about grilled cheese shops popping up around NYC so I did a little research. Say Cheese was the closest one to our hotel, so off we went.
Oh. My. God. Let's just say I'm glad we cancelled the side of fries because there wouldn't have been any room for them after the cheesy deliciousness. I got cheese and tomato and my husband got the cheese, tomato, and ham. The sourdough bread held together well and was buttered and grilled to perfection. The cheese (we both requested a combo of cheddar and muenster) was divine. Oozy, not stringy.
One star short of perfection because even if it is one of the most yummiest sandwiches i've ever had, it was still just grilled cheese and 2 cans of coke...for $20. ouch.
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Yum!! Grilled cheese is yummy! Yes, it's small. But hey...at about 4 in the afternoon on a Saturday, there wasn't really a crowd. We were a little slow getting the check, but other than that, I loved it.
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I like sandwiches. And I really liked the sandwich I had at Say Cheese. It was a turkey sandwich on flatbread, with melted provolone cheese and spinach on it. It had real chunks of turkey, not processed slices.
As I was eating it, a Luther Vandross (may he rest in peace) love song came over the speakers. Maybe it was the song, or maybe it's just where I was emotionally at that time, but that sandwich affected me on more than just a gastric level. This sandwich had me at hello.
I saw a Luther Vandross poster right next to the door on my way out, so I think the owner must be a fan. I know that I am a fan of Say Cheese now, and since it is in my neighborhood, I will go back often. And I know that wherever Luther is now, they probably have great turkey sandwiches, too.
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I have often said that if I had to pick two foods in life to survive on, they would be cheese and peanut butter. Hence my delight in finding an entire restaurant devoted to the former of my two culinary necessities. The sandwiches here are indeed yummy and smothered in, you guessed it, cheese! Lots of interesting ideas on the menu too. Like the tuna melt with artichokes (YUMMM) I ususally get the cubano (sometimes the Miami roots come out) and it is delicious. I have to say, I've never had the straight up grilled chese though, but I'm sure it's wonderful. And yes, it does take some time to get your food, but I think it's worth the wait.
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This place is amazing, usually anyone that doesn't like just thinks it is something it isn't. It is a gourmet grilled cheese place, so its still grilled cheese, but on great bread with great ingredients. The fries are great and the delivery is great....if you are looking for a filling, budget, enjoyable meal then this place is it. The guy that runs the place is awesome too. Never been unhappy with delivery or anything else. Over the course of the year that I lived a block away I must have order 30+ times...so needless to say it was amazing.
My love affair with grilled cheese began young in life so when I found out about a place specializing in them I had to go! It's a small space but there were plenty of tables available when I was there. The person serving us was nice and very honest when I wanted to add something "It's not worth the $2. It's just a strip". I appreciate someone who can be honest about something like that and not just make the quick buck. They have plenty of suggestions for your sandwich and plenty of choices to make your own. The bread and the cheese were of great quality and pressed perfectly. I loved their smoothies too. They forgot to bring me something I ordered but honestly I didn't really need it so that was ok. So if you want a grilled cheese sandwich with something different head to Say Cheese.
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Okay you know that feeling when you realize you've eaten too much greasy food? You can hear that little voice in your head telling you not to eat another curly fry but somehow it finds it's way to your mouth? Well, I kept eating my sandwich because it was good and kept picking away at the curly fries because those were good, but the simple fact is that I didn't feel very good at the end of this meal. I recommend going because they have a really nice selection of grilled cheese sandwiches, but get the half sandwich half soup or salad insead of fries on the side. Your stomach will thank you.
The harried proprieter of this place had a really difficult time keeping up with the 8 tables.
While I was there, I saw one couple wait fifteen minutes for an (empty) table to be cleared. He shoo'd waiting another couple out of the way for blocking the "aisle" (although in this long and thin restaurant, its not clear where the should have stood to wait for their table to be cleared.) Once you're seated however, the sandwich arrives quickly. My tuna on pita was good, but little different that most tuna melts. I guess the tomatoes on it tasted pretty good. They would do better to make an order at the counter place, rather than trying to do table service.
If you're in the neighborhood and want a sandwich, this is a good spot, just try to go when its nearly empty.
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i thought there was going to be a lot of different grilled ch sandwiches... but the owner recommended a cuban sandwich. don't waste your time here!
Ok... so i have to admit that i have "issues" with sandwiches. I find them scary and gross. I never eat them. However, somehow, grilled cheese has broken through the no sandwich barrier. It took alot of begging and persistence to get me to go to this grilled cheese mecca, but boy am i glad i went. It was great and warm and crispy and melty and delicious. And they deliver!!!
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The service here is horrible and slow (it really shouldn't be a service type of place - they should really be fast food in my opinion) - but that aside I still have complaints. Their paper menu was two years old and the waitor didn't even bother to tell us that what we ordered (which said it was on pizza bianca on the menu) didn't exist anymore and would come on flatbread - we felt cheated, especially since the grilled cheese on flatbread was just not that good... and my portobello mushroom grilled cheese turned out to be tiny regular mushrooms. We ended up ditching our orders in favor of the Pesto Pesto on thick crustly grilled sourdough, which was very good - but one great sandwich (especially if it's just grilled cheese) can't carry a whole restaurant. Plus it was all overpriced - who wants to pay $7+ for a grilled cheese sandwich anyway. Was debating giving this place 2 stars, but I guess I'm not that nice.
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Hells Kitchen on Ninth Avenue in Midtown is really a jewel of a neighborhood. While tourists go to The Hard Rock Cafe, Bubba Gumps, and Planet Hollywood, locals know Ninth Avenue is the perfect tucked away spot for delicious dining options. I found Say Cheesewhile reading one of the food blogs and for someone who loves cheese as much as I do I knew I had to try it. And luckily it is near by my office. Say Cheese is a small sandwich shop. It is not crowded but the manager kept trying to hurry people out. That was the only negative I found. It has a nice variety of grilled goodies to choose from. I opted for the The Shroom. It is a grilled portobello mushroom marinated with garlic, olive oil and covered in mozzarella and nicely draped in a pizza Bianca. It was well worth the $6.25. I also tried their soup of the day. A creamy tomato and basil soup. My taste buds were dancing with joy! There is the option of a bowl of soup and half a sanwhich for $4.85. A great bargin. Besides sandwiches and soups Say Cheese also offers smoothies, juices, salads, breakfast bagels, flan and chocolate pudding. While you are waiting there is a whole pile of trashy magazines to keep one busy. I am looking forward to going back and trying many more goodies.
Wow - I was shocked at how great the sandwiches were! They are loaded with food and come to your table when they're still too hot to eat with your hands - talk about FRESH! The ingredients are stellar and the olive bread is a great addition to the traditional sandwich. YUM YUM YUM
a great little place to get various takes on a classic. the food is very good but a little slow in the making. the guy that runs the place has always bent over backwards to make his customers happy. they don't serve alcohol but i do believe if you ask you can BYOB. the place is never very busy, so i hope they survive.
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