The Melting Pot

Last night was mine & my fiances first time visiting, and it was awesome! I’ve always heard great things about The Melting Pot. What made our experience even better was our server David. He was fun to joke around with and he was very knowledgeable about the menu. Definitely will be coming back!

I’m not a big fan of commercial restaurants & I have always heard that The Melting Pot was $$$ – so why would I pay a ton of money for franchise food? Because there was an amazing groupon available, that’s why!
The groupon covered a salad, three types of protein (per person) and veggies which you cook yourself in a broth. We ordered drinks and a cheese fondue which cost us extra. My husband got an Asian Pear martini which was delicious. We ordered the French onion cheese fondue which came with green apples, tortilla chips, bread, and raw vegges. It was tasty enough and I was surprised that prepared it right at the table. I had expected that it would have been a prepared product squeezed out of a bag in the kitchen but we watched as she warmed beef broth, added cheese, sauteed onions, and scallions. I have to say it was… okay… but we only ordered enough cheese for one person and it was still plenty for the both of us. After that we were actually pretty full and hadn’t even got out protein. We ordered chicken, orange marinated duck, filet minion, teriyaki steak, barbecue marinated pork, and spinach artichoke ravioli. The server was very friendly but, as others have said, severely rehearsed. She explained everything to us like she had said it a million times but she said it with a genuine smile which was appreciated. We didn’t eat all the meat or vegetables since we were full on cheese fondue but honestly we weren’t missing out on anything spectacular. The food was just okay, which is what I would have expected from any commercial joint.
However, with all of the above being said, we had a really nice date night there. The best part of the whole experience is that they sat us in a little cavern in the wall with a round booth just big enough for two. The booth was completely private from other diners and incredibly intimate with red seats and mood lighting. The entire dinner took about 2 hours. As much as I wasn’t excited about cooking my own food, it was nice to relax and chat while we ate. I really wish we had room for desert because I’m sure that would have been delicious.
Above all, I have to say that the customer service was excellent. In addition to our friendly server the manager was very helpful. We informed our server of my Husband’s nut and shellfish allergies and he came to our table to see what accommodations we needed. Anyone with food allergies know how appreciated that kind of courtesy is. Also, we casually mentioned to our server that our anniversary is next week and since we didn’t order desert she brought out two sparkler-​clad chocolate covered strawberries on a Happy Anniversary plate. That was a nice touch.
I would recommend The Melting Pot for special occasions and maybe getting desert or appetizers with friends. I’m not sure that I would rush right back but I will think back on our experience with a smile.

I’ve been to the melting pot before and headed there last night after buying a groupon.
I started with the wedge salad which was really tasty. The presentation was interesting with the bacon and tomatoes laying on the side. It needed a tad more dressing and the wine seasoning was terrific to add on giving it more flavor.
From there I chose the teriyaki marinated sirloin and shrimp for my meal. Both were really good with the teriyaki sauce. I also loved the vegetables (mushroom, red potatoes, and broccoli) cooked in the mojo broth and with the green goddess sauce. We asked for extra veggies which are complimentary.
I was hoping for dessert but was stuffed.

The main course was mediocre, cheese and dessert great! Place is filthy! Black mildew ring in toilet, dust inch thick, vent above our table was full of giant dust bunnies!

First time visitor (a couple of months ago), but I would be remiss if I didn’t do a review.
First of all, I had a Groupon that I was using. I had a friend with me who has been to the Melting Pot before, so she knew about portion sizes. I thought maybe we would get less food but no, amounts were the same. With the Groupon you just get the salad and entrée. But the entrée includes choosing between various meats, seafood and pasta. They put veggies and potatoes in the pot to cook while you put your food in your fondue fork and place in the pot. You also get to choose the sauces to go with your meal.
This Groupon didn’t include the cheese or chocolate fondues, but I was full nevertheless.
Service was excellent. Our server explained their process thoroughly and was very friendly.
Only cons — the broth was ‘spitting’, so every once in awhile I’d feel a bit of hot liquid on my face. I moved to the right and was fine. And it’s a bit dark. Maybe increase the lighting a tad?
I love fondue (my family does one every year during the holidays) and definitely will go back keeping pricing in mind, since other reviews have mentioned the high prices.

Service — Indescribably EXCELLENT — Karen H is a Pro she contributed to both the enjoyment of the experience and the meal — we were overwhelmed by her Excellent Service and can’t say enough and asked to speak to the Restaurant Management to advise them of their good fortune — to our surprise this young woman was only on the job three days! With her sincere attitude and attention to her customers she will be successful wherever she works. Hope The Melting Pot appreciates its talent you can’t buy that kind of sincerity. It is so refreshing to want to write such a positive review about anything anymore but that only goes to show you what a positive experience provides… Food was good too — much more affordable with a Groupon… Thank you for the setting to voice a Unilocal

I’ve been to the Melting Pot at this location on 3 different occasions and it’s been a near identical experience:
1. Great service (I don’t understand the people who’ve had bad service or long waits)
2. Great food (don’t skip dessert)
3. Dim lighting (you can barely read the menu)
To expand on the service, I have to say that every waiter/​waitress we’ve had is super friendly and very prompt. Waters and food all came out quickly.
The food is always wonderful as well. It is definitely a novelty, as other people have commented, and it’s going to be about a 2 hour dinner if you do salads, entrees and desserts. But you’re cooking your own food, so it’s going to take longer than if you go to a more conventional restaurant.
They give you plenty of food, although when it comes out you’re like, ‘what am I, a bird?!?’ It doesn’t look like much, but you will roll out of that place you’ll be so full. Plus, if you ask, they’ll bring extra veggies if you run out. Same goes for the dipables if you get dessert.
The lighting… this is where I had to ding them. It’s ridiculously dark. I mean, if you are afraid of your date seeing what you look like, just meet them in a booth. Any booth will do. I get the whole ambiance thing, but my mom and I could barely read the menus. It makes you wonder what they’re hiding.
Overall, great experience and some place to go every so often (or just for dessert!).

Horrible service. Took over 15 minutes to get a glass of water. Once we finally got some food, my salad was old brown lettuce. I was over charged but since the waiter only came around every 20 minutes, it was taken out of his tip. Horrible experience and will definitely not be going back.

Melting Pot. It’s not BAD, but (for me) it’s a novelty and not a place to which I need to return. I’ve been to this Melting Pot a few times — most recently I went because someone gave me a gift card.
The service at this location has always been excellent, although it’s somewhat formal and rehearsed sounding as the waitstaff will explain in detail the menu and what they’re doing when they’re making the fondue at the table. But the waitstaff has been quite good, attentive, and friendly.
It’s a big space with lots of tables/​booths. The booths have high backs so the tables are somewhat private. I think it’s mostly 4 tops with one fondue burner, or 6 tops with 2 fondue burners. This Melting Pot is dimly lit, which is fine if you’re hoping for romance, I guess, but if it’s just friends or family or something, it’s weird and unnecessarily dark. The music piped through the restaurant was solely 90’s slow jams and love songs.
Melting Pot is $$$$ if you are getting some booze and the 4 course meal: appetizer, salad, entrée and dessert. For me, the cost is not justified by the quality. It is not fine dining. The cheese fondue is decent, but never something that we’ve been all «Oh my God, this is amazing, I want more» good. For me to be ambivalent about cheese says a lot. They give you broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, bread, and tortilla chips for dipping. The salads were decent. I am not a big fan of the entrees. Whatever you cook in the fondue (fish, chicken, steak, etc.) has little or no flavor so you have to rely on a variety of dipping sauces to flavor your entrée. If you’re there with a group of people, there’s a ton of fondue forks in the pot, and half of the stuff falls off the fondue fork, and then is overcooked by the time you fish it out. The chocolate dessert fondue is also decent. They provide you with a selection of tiny items for dipping — banana slices, brownie bites, rice krispie treats, marshmallows, angel food cake bites, and a few strawberries.
If you’re doing the 4 course thing, it takes up a large amount of time.
This is 2.5 stars for me. It’s not bad, but for the $$, it’s not good enough.

Nice experience. Food is great though potions are small. Service was great. Overpriced but you can get good deals with Groupon

The food is always very good but the service isn’t. Last night, we waited more than 10 minutes in the lobby and never once saw a hostess. Another couple was behind us and we both discussed leaving. Finally I went into the other room and explained to the bartender how long we had been waiting and he found our host — who never once apologized. Same with our waiter — he was so nice but the restaurant wasn’t full and it took forever for him to take our order. Just a long process.

I’ve only been here once and overall it was a pretty good experience. I went in a group of four and we ordered two four course dinners. A four course dinner is a lot of food so it can easily be split between two people if you can agree on the type of fondue and entrée. Our waiter was great and was helpful in explaining the menu because if your new to the melting pot it can be kind of confusing. I had the artichoke spinach fondue or something like that which was really tasty. The entrée was various kinds of meat that you get to cook in a broth of your choice. You could tell the meat was high quality and it tasted good. I ended up with the chocolate peanut butter fondue for dessert with things like fresh fruit and cake to dip into it. Each course was amazing and the service was outstanding. One of my other friends in my group and I just graduated and our waiter gave us two free chocolate covered strawberries that said congratulations. It was an awesome experience so if you have a little extra to spend on a night out I would definitely recommend the Melting Pot.

«Lyndsey was absolutely phenomenal. She was knowledgable, friendly, and helpul. Tods, the manager, even made a special visit to our table at the end of the night to double check on us. We truly appreciate the *b*tchin service we continually receive from the staff at this location. Keep up the great work Lyndsey!!! :)»

Don’t go to this location. I’ve been to several Melting Pots in different states that were awesome. (Maybe not now because of menu change) Last night I had reservations at 545 and we did not get a drink on the table until 630! The meal was served painfully slow, so slow that we were hungry when we left. We didn’t leave the restaurant until after 9pm.
The food… the changes to the menu are negative. They took off the popular Big Night Out and got rid of most of the tasty cheese fondu. They also give you less bread dippers and substituted them for nachos… nachos! The entrees are much smaller than in the past and the chocolate was served cold and the waitress didn’t bother to stir the ingredients. Our bill was 275.00 for 4 people and we were all very irritated. I used to love the Melting Pot but now it’s just a rip off. GO FOR HAPPY HOUR HALF OFF CHOCOLATE AND CHEESE. I wouldn’t bother with anything else.

The food is always great here, fresh and tasty. Because I have had Weight Loss Surgery, I asked Michael to put us on a slow track for the courses. His mother had also had WLS so he understood what I was trying to do and accommodated us with no problems. With WLS, the slower I eat the more I can eat and because Michael understood this, I got to enjoy both my cheese and chocolate course! :-)
Melting Pot is a great place for WLS patients to eat. Lots of flexibility with portions and, yes, you can take home leftover entrée components!

Went there with my girlfriend and her two kids. The atmosphere is very nice and very first class the waiter knew exactly what she was doing.
The food was average and plentiful. The whole experience took over 2 ½ hours
We did the four course meal with salads entrée appetizer and dessert.
Great place to go on a date night. But make sure you bring your wallet or credit card because it is very pricey. Dinner for four people cost $ 178 without tip.
For that price I think I rathet go to a five star steakhouse.

What a disappointment and so very over priced. Appetizer: fine but complete rip off. $ 30 for cheese fondue that was bland. Main course: meats were not of good quality, and the sauces were just awful. Did not do dessert. Atmosphere was dark and dull, table was at some weird right angle. Total was $ 130, and we just had water to drink. I certainly would not return or recommend this for any occasion.

The Melting Pot. Please allow me to summarize the experience for those of you on the fence and in a hurry to get on with your lives:
1. Dim lighting
2. Unnecessary formality
3. Über-​long dining experience
4. Lackluster desserts
5. Large bill
For those of you with the time to kill I shall now provide the detailed run-​down in all its gory pulchritude.
My wife and I have been to The Melting Pot exactly twice in the last 15 years. That’s right, you did read that correctly. Our first experience was so amazing I guess we just had to allow ourselves enough time to come down from the high. So what brought us back after all these years? Groupon.
As soon as you walk in you’re greeted with that «Melting Pot» aroma. It’s sort of a combination of stinky feet from the cheese and meaty wine water from all the cooking pots bubbling away on everyone’s table. The water element behind the hostess station adds just the perfect amount of Dr’s waiting room to the ambiance.
The atmosphere, where to begin. Should I start with the slightly too loud soundtrack of horrid brownchickenbrowncow lovemaking classics playing over the PA? I’m talking Stevie B, Barry White and Michael McDonald. Although I think the latter deserves better company. How about the lighting that’s so dim most strip clubs would consider it unsafe. I’ve seen cave lighting that’s brighter. I suppose they’re going for «romantic» and «intimate». I already have a hard enough time reading most menus, I don’t need the assist.
The service at The Melting Pot is definitely on the formal side. Servers bustling around dressed all in black reciting their carefully rehearsed scripts detailing exactly what they’ll be doing and how they’ll be doing it. I find this a bit pretentious for a chain restaurant like The Melting Pot. It just makes it feel a bit sterile. On the plus side, our server was quite friendly once she had let her guard down a bit around the entrée course.
Another thing you must prepare yourself for is one helluva long dining experience. We ordered all four courses — cheese, salads, entrees and dessert — and it took us a little shy of three hours from butts in booth to bloated exit. The entire experience is v e r y d r a w n o u t. Each course takes about 40 minutes and sometimes it feels like it. Just be sure to clear your schedule and bring your smartphone so you can play Candy Crush while you wait.
The food and the entire food process I guess is, I supposed, the reason you’d come to The Melting Pot. The whole «playing with tiny pieces of meat with mini spears by cooking them in some sort of hot liquid» method is what’s made them a household name, right? Be prepared to sit there and wait through some awkward silences as your server makes everything for you as you watch. We sat there and stared at our server stirring the cheese for what seemed like an eternity.
I’m a sucker for melted cheese. Who isn’t? If you come here you have to get the cheese course. After all, that’s the only true «fondue» on the menu. The Classic Alpine is really the way to go.
The salads, as others have already mentioned, are nothing to write home about. They’re tasty enough and, at just a shade over $ 5 each, not terribly expensive. I just found the dressings (we tried both the House & the California) very sweet. I’d skip these and save yourself the $ 10.
For the entrée course we selected the Coq au Vin (herbed red wine) cooking method and our Groupon allowed us to choose 6 selections from the list. Entrees are normally in the $ 20/​person range. We chose Atlantic salmon, filet mignon, chicken potstickers, spinach and artichoke ravioli, chicken breast, and wild mushroom sacchetti (little pasta pouches with mushroom filling). Everything comes out on a little plate and your server will also dump a bowl of mushrooms, potatoes and veg into your cooking pot.
Overall, the quality of the various proteins and pastas was pretty good. On par with some of those I’ve had in more traditional restaurants. The various sauces they served with the meal were definitely one of the highlights and made things a bit more entertaining as we sampled our way around them. A few suggestions — gorgonzola port + beef & teriyaki glaze + salmon.
The dessert course was a big letdown. We expected a bowl of melted chocolate. We received a room-​temperature bowl of Hershey’s syrup. Sure, the plate of mini desserts was nice — strawberries, pineapple, bananas, marshmallows, brownies, Rice Krispie treats, pound cake — but the chocolate was awful. For the additional $ 9/​person I’d suggest you skip it.
The Melting Pot is one of those places you definitely have to try just once. It’s one of the so-​called «experience» restaurants where the actual event is more important than the dinner. Had we not had our Groupon, our total bill would have been about $ 96 without tip. Ouch. For that price I think I’d rather have my food brought to me already cooked. Maybe we’ll see them again in 2022.

Great place for adults and kids! We love coming here. Good food, great service, attentive staff! Great for birthday dinners too! Also vegetarian friendly.

Melting Pot has quickly over the last year won my heart. My first visit here was last March as a surprise for my fiancée’s birthday, and I have returned here almost every few months since.
I honestly don’t get why so many people think Melting Pot is overpriced. On my most recent visit, the bill came to $ 125 bucks for a 4-​course meal for two and 4 cocktails. The dining experience always takes at least an hour to an hour an a half for us, and that is with a constant fill of food, drinks, and fun. You’re poking things with forks and putting them into a steaming pot… get a few of their strong and delicious cocktails in you, and it becomes pretty darn entertaining.
The food never disappoints. I’m sure the meat isn’t the most high-​end organic grass-​fed fancy stuff some people expect, and the cheese isn’t some kind of organic non-​hormone laced experiment, but the food is tasty. I usually stick to the classics: cheddar fondue, the house salad (which don’t forget to smother that baby with wine&garlic seasoning), and the classic meat entrée. The cookies and cream fondue is by far the best dessert. Besides the food, the cocktails are some of the best I’ve had. The smores martini is the best offering, but the pear cocktail is also to die for. One of the best things about Melting Pot is if you run out of dippers for your cheese or chocolate, they’ll happily bring more until you’re satisfied.
Besides the food and drink being awesome, the service is equally superb. The waiters are always friendly and talkative. They go beyond making small talk as they’re preparing your food. The waiters know how to make jokes and be generally entertaining. This last time I visited, my waiter went out of his way to get the bartender to make me my favorite cocktail (which was not being offered on the menu at the time.) That’s going above and beyond to make sure I was happy. The staff always makes sure to ask what occasion you’re celebrating, and if it’s a birthday or an anniversary, they will make sure the kitchen will write a message in chocolate on your dessert plate.
5 stars all around!