The Melting Pot

Great date night experince. Food was great and I loved the chicken. Just be careful about touching the pot. I made that mistake lol

The only restaurant where you pay a fortune to be given raw meat that you have to cook yourself!!! We were expecting a nice romantic dinner until the waitress brought out raw meat, told us not to cross contaminate, and we had to cook it ourselves. YUCK!!! What an expensive disappointment! NEVER AGAIN! I thought they would have at least cooked the meat before they brought it to us. NO, it was raw meat! Disgusting! Ruined my appetite.

What can I say, it was fine. I was disappointed with the dippers. Broccoli, celery, and baby carrots. I was expecting better ingredients or at least a better variety then on your standard veggie tray from Krogers. The meat was good quality. Kind of pricey for my taste. I may go back for the dessert after a movie though.

Went here with my Mom during Restaurant Week and it was kind of weird…
The building felt like a maze-​like bunker. Which, I guess that’s kind of cool if you’re not anxious about that sort of thing. I definitely got the vibe it’s for romance and dates based on how the booths were set up (not sitting across from each other but at an angle so you’re sitting next to each other, good thing I like my Mom) but at the same time, the lighting was super dim. Not romantic dim but creepy movie dim. That being said, maybe I don’t know romance.
The cheese course was pretty cool. I’d never been to a fondue place, so watching the guy mix the cheese in was kind of like a neat hibachi thing. Some flavor combos are going to appeal to some people more than others, I totally get that. I was kind of surprised that tostitos were one of the things to dip, since it’s a fancy restaurant. But at the same time I guess fancy people buy Tostitos, as opposed to the Kroger brand of chip or whatever.
The entrée part of the meal is where things sort of fell off the rails for me. They bring out the oil (?) and it gets all hot and steamy and then you get your plate of meats and then put it in the pot until it’s cooked. Clearly I did no research about this going in because I was surprised but also like, what a novelty! Everything tasted like pepper. It was kind of weirdly nostalgic because my grandfather always told me that salt will kill you but you can have as much pepper as you want! Well Grandpa, this place was listening to you.
The steak and shrimp were okay… the chicken was kind of gross. The vegetables were less likable somehow, which surprised me. The mushrooms were great! But the potatoes never felt cooked enough, even when I threw one in for like five or six minutes– it was just surface of the sun hot and then still impossibly hard. Then I ate the giant broccoli and my face melted off. The waiter asked if I was okay and I was like, I really don’t think so, and he was like, did you just eat the broccoli? Because for some reason it is the spiciest and absorbs all the spice. I was like good to know.
Dessert was cool, I guess. I was still like WTF just happened with that entrée portion. A lot of it was cloyingly sweet. I have a sweet tooth and I was like sweet Mary mother of God this is sugary.
My lasting impression was when I went to the bathroom, which is right across from the kitchen (and I don’t know, shouldn’t they be farther away from each other?) and it was like a bomb had gone off in it. Toilet paper on the floor. Water on the sinks. I don’t know if us restaurant week patrons are like the frat party of restaurant goers or if this place is just underwhelming.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We had a wonderful date night here. Our server was excellent and friendly. They have a favorite wine of mine to start… always important!
The food was fun. My husband had never had fondue and was floored at how fun and light a 4 course dinner could be.
Some folks see the «do it yourself» aspect as a turn off, especially for the price, but not us.
Date spot for sure.

After successfully avoiding this place for years I finally end up here as a part of a group outing yesterday evening. The last time I had witnessed fondu prior to last night was in 1979’s and I remember we were watching the news about three mile island on TV while sharing some fondu. Memories.
The food quality was good and the server was friendly. What I can’t get past is paying over $ 200 for three us to cook bite size pieces of food in a community pot. Lots of work for not much food. At least when suffering through a Japanese steakhouse someone else is cooking up bite size pieces of food you will pay too much for.
For the fondu pot experience I would recommend heading off to tj max and buying one and doing it at home. As for me, my best fondu pot memory is going to still be the one with three mile island.

This was my first experience here, and I was not impressed.
We had reservations for 7PM. We arrived half an hour early and they were able to seat us right away; however, our hostess only gave us 2 sets of silverware for a group of 4. The service was incredibly slow with multiple parties finishing before us, even though they were seated after we had arrived. Our server was very helpful and friendly in the beginning, explaining how everything worked. However, into the night, it was very poor; he did not check on us unless it was to bring out our food or take our order and we had to remind him of multiple things (drinks) that we did not order initially. We also rarely saw him throughout the night, making it very difficult for refills on drinks.
The restaurant itself, was very nice, but very dim, poor lighting, making it difficult to read the menu. As for the food, it was okay. We got the 4 course experience, with the Classic Alpine cheese fondue, salad, various entrees (Pacific White Shrimp, Salmon, Herb Crusted Chicken, Spinach and Artichoke Ravioli, and Memphis Style BBQ Pork Medallions), and the Flaming Chocolate Fondue. The best was the salad (very small portion, five bites to finish) and the chocolate fondue. There was nothing that stood out and unfortunately we found a hair in our food.
Overall, this place is not worth the time (2.5 hours) or price (over $ 200 for 4).

Overpriced! Overhyped! Complicated and the waiter didn’t explain it very well. I will never go again. The service was subpar. The restaurant was clean and nicely decorated, but the food? I could do better at home. Little flavor. Dissapointed.

Horrible you can’t change your order options absolutely horrible slow service beers flat inside is nice though

Don’t my «stars» speak for themselves?
I’ll just suffice to say this–
Although obnoxiously expensive, considering you have to really do all the «work» (not too cool for the customer, but GENUIS of the business concept itself), never once have I been truly disappointed.
Service, quality of offerings, ambiance– 100% PERFECTION!
Keep up the great work!
***I will say, go when you have enough time to thoroughly invest in the experience. And don’t go expecting to get outta there spending less than $ 100.00 for 2. It’s truly perfect though, for your special occasions, like a birthday or anniversary.

I had been wanting to try this spot FOREVER. My husband absolutely refused to take me here, said it’s for girls… I gotta agree, he was kinda right.
So the menu is sort of overwhelming if you’ve never been here before. My daughter and I decided to do the 4 course meal for 2 so we could try a bunch of stuff.
The cheese fondu was just ok. There really wasn’t the much flavor to it. They added this huge pot of cheese and just a little bit of the tomato/​salsa stuff (we got the mexican type one – I have no idea what it was called). We could have added a bunch of jalapenos to make it a little spicy but I dont think my 6 year old would have appreciated that &&&& it should still have some type of flavor without it.
After the cheese fondu came our salads. They were both excellent. I got the spinach/​strawberry salad & my daughter got the house salad with the sweet dressing.
Next came the meats… that you have to cook yourself??? The cooking times were way off. You cannot «boil» a chicken cube for 2 minutes and expect it to be done. I timed it too. After two minutes they were clearly not done. When you would bite into them they were rubbery. So I cooked everything for DOUBLE the amount of time and it was ok. Still think it’s a bunch of crap that you have to cook your own food, but whatever. It did have good flavor to it.
Now my favorite part of the evening. THE DESSERT. It was fabulous. We got the Yin Yang? (half chocolate and half white chocolate). It came with pineapple (2 whole pieces lol), marshmallows covered with oreos & graham crackers, strawberries, brownies & pound cake. It was all fresh and tasted like heaven.
After $ 115 dollars (includes tip) I really dont think we’ll be back… unless we just want dessert.

This restaurant itself is located downstairs, and they keep the lighting fairly dark. However, a lot of the tables are semi-​closed off, so that provides a cozy feeling and it doesn’t seem like you are dining with so many people around.
The service is pretty good here. The menu choices can be confusing at first, but the waiters took time and explained it really well for us. They don’t check back in on you as often as in some other restaurants, but I thought that was really okay because it made the meal seem more homey and personal. The waiters will explain how they are preparing the fondue or the broth, which is nice to watch.
The food itself it decent. I loved our cheese fondue (we got the Alpine which has a heavy white wine taste). The actual appetizers themselves to dip into the cheese were just your normal bread, veggies, apples, etc so nothing too over the top. For the entrée, we had the classic platter and cooked it ourselves — you also get your choice of broth here. The dessert fondue was amazing and I would come here again just for that. Lots of choices for types of chocolate/​toppings, and their basic dessert platter also had lots of delicious treats for you to enjoy with chocolate. Everything tastes better with chocolate :)
Be prepared to spend at least 2 hours here. Also be prepared to spend lots (too much) money. It’s definitely pricey, and I feel like you pay more for the experience and time than the food itself. So in summary, I would recommend coming here for the experience or the dessert fondue.

I love going to the melting pot! It is a great experience every time I go. The food is fresh, easy to mixed and make and the servers are really nice.

I ADORE this location. My boyfriend and I have shared so many dates and memories here. We always do cheese and chocolate, perfect amount of food for us. Apples and cheese might sound intimidating but it’s my weakness. The staff is so polite and the manager even helped my boyfriend ask me to prom with chocolate covered strawberries as a surprise!

Expensive ($ 150 + tip), but positively lovely. Got the ‘Dinner for a cause’ for two. Highly recommend. Delicious. Service was phenomenal. Quite literally, the best service I’ve ever had at a restaurant — EVER. Arrived about and hour and a half before closing — quiet atmosphere — which i like and could easily carry a conversation. Owner visited our table several times — he was very friendly and humorous. Can’t wait to drum up a reason for husband to take me back :)

We booked a table for 8 this last weekend at the Melting Pot and the reviews from all involved were mixed.
First the staff and management were very nice to us, from the moment we walked in at 6:15pm, until we left, at 10:00pm.
After seating us and explaining how the process worked, we all placed orders and sipped our drinks waiting for the first course, (the cheese fondue) to begin. It took a good 20 minutes for them to set up the fondue pots, get them warmed up and to bring out the needed ingredients and supplies. Once they got the mixture in place and melted, they then dished out some veggies, fruit and breads to dip. This was all well and good except for the amount of dipping cheese they gave us, as it was not quite what was needed for the amount of veggies, fruit and breads we had.
Our salads arrived soon after the cheese was gone. They were nice but I heard a couple of people complain about the size (too small) and the dressing (too much).
The salads went quickly and the wait time for our next course was long. After a while they cleared the table of both the cheese fondue and salad dishes and brought out the simmer pots for the main course, the meats and vegetables, which we were going to be cooking for ourselves. My wife and I had ordered the «Pacific Rim» option, which had steak, duck, shrimp and some dumplings. The simmer pot we had in front of us was shared by another couple who ordered the «Cajin» option (not sure of the actual name) but it also had steak & shrimp, but with sausages and some other meat thrown in. As our simmer pot was not large, getting all of those color coordinated forks set up and cooking, all at the same time, soon became a game of who lost what and why is my fork suddenly empty?
We were able to cook and eat nearly all of the meats and veggies provided but most of us agreed that the steak pieces were far too salty.
Right after they cleared away the main course dishes, I checked the time and found it was just before 9:00pm, we were going on 3 hours! WOOF!
The dessert fondue showed up soon after and this time they did provide us with almost enough chocolate dip for the mound of fruit and assorted goodies to our plates. Got to say this was everyone’s favorite part of the whole meal. The only bummer was that after watching our waiter prepare the flaming turtle for one side of our party, he did not even attempt to fully prepare ours, (we ordered the same)…he just stirred it together and started out of the room. We stopped him saying, «aren’t you going to light up this one like the first one?» He reluctantly agreed, mumbled something we couldn’t hear and proceeded to set our chocolate on fire.
Cost for my wife and I was just over $ 100.00, as we did each have one drink with our meal. Total time spent, 3 hours and 45 minutes. As we were leaving, we saw a few other couples we had noticed when checking in, who were also just getting up to leave, so the table turn over ratio for this place must be very low.
I asked everybody in our party how they liked the dinner (and the restaurant) and 4 people gave everything a good review, with a few small reservations. One couple said it was just ok and they probably would not go back. As for my wife and I, we might come back to dinner for just the 2 of us, someday. just not anytime soon.

I am a BIG FAN of the cheese and chocolate at Melting Pot. It is definitely something that everyone who can should experience at least once. Have had these at their Lyndhurst, OH location several times and loved the experience.
This was my first time at this location and I was introducing some friends to the cheese and chocolate fondue concept. Must say I was less than impressed. The ambience was not the best with the temperatures inside the place leaving us all too warm. We ordered our fondues (two cheese and two chocolate between three people) and it wasn’t very filling. Pretty sure that I had more generous portions on my previous experiences. (Could I be mistaken? Perhaps the heat in the room played with my memories? Who knows!) The bread did not taste very fresh. Which was not up to The Melting Pot standards. Sad to say this, but overall it was a sub par experience. Hopefully I’ll be able to get these friends to go to the Lyndhurst location when they come visit!

I think coming to melting pot is a fun overall experience but I can’t say the food is especially memorable though.

This was such a great experience… my husband and I hadn’t been here for a bit, so this was a nice, refreshing evening.
We decided on the four course vegetarian meal which starts with salads, followed by cheese, your meal, followed by chocolate.
If there’s anything in your main meal that you do not like, you can substitute it for something else, for no extra charge!
This can be made casual, but can also be very romantic… but be prepared to take a block of time… due to the nature of the meal, it does take some time.
I have always had excellent service. The servers always informative and interactive.
Defintely worth a try!

Overpriced. Overhyped. The service was good, but the food is sub-​par and for the price is definently not worth it.