The grilled cheese sandwich, traditional and classic, is one of the most delicious and perfect foods on earth. But some restaurants and food trucks are proving that you can improve on perfection, and making some absolutely wild grilled cheeses.

Where to Find the 15 Best Over-the-Top Grilled Cheese Sandwiches in America (Slideshow)

The grilled cheese, as most of us recall from childhood, is a pretty basic sandwich: Two slices of buttered bread with a couple slices of American cheese or Velveeta between them, cooked in a pan until the bread is toasty and the cheese is melted. Served with some tomato soup and a glass of milk, it's the perfect lunch. It's also something that you really have no reason to order in a restaurant. As the late great food writer Josh Ozersky noted, "The problem with a restaurant serving grilled cheese is that the sandwich is too simple."

If a restaurant is going to serve a grilled cheese, it needs to add a little something extra to it, something that takes it beyond the realm of mom's kitchen and into a realm that can't be replicated at home. When we order a grilled cheese at a restaurant, we want something extra special, and these restaurants are definitely delivering the goods.

There's a fine line between a grilled cheese and "a hot sandwich with cheese and other stuff on it," and these restaurants are toeing that line perfectly. Buttery, gooey, outrageous, and oftentimes ingenious, these restaurants are turning out everything from elevated versions of the bread-butter-cheese classic to sandwiches loaded with things like braised meats, goat cheese and prosciutto, fried chicken, and even mac and cheese.