The Melting Pot

This is a really tricky review to write and you should read until the end. I will start by reviewing my actual meal and experience dinning first. As you read the review you will understand why.
I visited the Melting Pot as my Friday choice for Restaurant Week. I made reservations in advance for 9:00 on a Friday and was excited to be taking a first timer who had no idea what the concept was. She loved the atmosphere and concept of fondue. We were seated in a cozy and very private booth.
The first course was Quattro Formaggio Fondue. The cheese was excellent and they give you plenty of options for dipping from breads — Apples.
The second course was an Apple Bacon Spinach salad. The dressing was a sweet and spicy dressing. It took me by surprise at first but was actually really good.
The third course was a chef choice platter. We choose the mojo fondue for cooking the choice meats. The choices that were offered teriyaki sirloin, jerk filet, Cajun chicken and wild mushroom sachetti. I definitely recommend the mojo.
After that I just had no room left for dessert. This is sad because I know they have an amazing chocolate peanut butter fondue. But since the servings are plentiful I just couldn’t eat anymore.
With this all said they would have gotten a 4 star rating hands down… But here is the deal. We had a 9:00 reservation. We were seated at 10:00. Now I give some consideration for things out of control of an establishment. But they get 2 stars because I sat there and listened to the hostess lie to customer after customer about the wait. We were told a «slight delay» and waited an hour. Others were told 15 – 20 minutes behind when they knew the wait was at least an hour. I even brought it to their attention they know that’s not accurate and they still continued to lie. I don’t mind waiting but when I am lied to about the wait I was mad. I think people would not have been so upset if they were not continuously lied to all night. Also some one that had an 8:30 reservation should up at 9:10 because they were late. The showed up 40 minutes late for a reservation and 10 minutes after me (who was on time) and they were taken 15 minutes before me to a table. If you are 40 minutes late for you reservation I feel you should now wait your turn.

Enjoyed the Melting Pot for a Girl’s Night during Restaurant Week. We got the 25 buck special that included a yummy cheese fondue, salad, and entrée including shrimp, chicken, and two kinds of beef. We were there over 2 hours and enjoyed everything! Our waitress, Melanie, was fabulous. Not sure why our past visits were so expensive. This meal seemed very similar to the others except it didn’t include dessert. Still, fabulous experience!

My sister and I just had a wonderful experience at the Melting Pot! Our server was excellent and the food was top notch! They have a lot of specials if you check their website as well! We loved the 4 cheese fondue and the smores fondue! Even though it is a chain, I was pleasantly surprised with the service and quality! We will return soon!

Over-​priced and under-​flavored. The cheese fondue appetizer was good; but the entrees were tasteless. Who wants to eat boiled filet or duck? The vegetables lacked imagination. This was the most lackluster dining experience that I have had in years. There were four in our party and we were all under impressed. The$ 200+ bill including tip did not add to the experience. However, the service was very good. The chef needs to stop chopping vegetables and begin cooking entrees. Can you spell carmelization?
In conclusion, unless you are a real fondue fan there are better restaurant experiences.

Coming to The Melting Pot was a great and fun experience, but it’s not a place where I would frequent. I came with a friend for dessert, and the thing that confused me the most was the fact that they couldn’t switch us to a table with 2 of the pot burner things. The restaurant was ¾ empty so I don’t see why they had to force us to share just one. This meant that we could only try one type of fondue at a time. Either way, we decided on the Yin and Yang chocolate fondue which was half white chocolate and half milk chocolate. Sadly, the 2-​person portion of fruits and cake that came with it was barely enough for 1 person. It also took them almost 35 minutes to put together that SMALL plate. There was obviously no cooking involved since its just fruits and cake and the restaurant was almost empty so I really don’t know what took them so long.
Sure, the chocolate was good and my Instagram account was happy — everything looked appetizing and tasted good but the whole experience wasn’t worth the time and money.

Perfect date night for us. Slowed down the dinner process with the 4 courses. Enjoyed the food. Waiter was great.

In a nutshell, it’s a pricey, fun fondue experience at this well-​done chain restaurant best saved for a special dress-​up occasion in which you’ve got at least 2.5 hours to spare and you’d really like to use that time to get to know your dinner date better.
They have many options for the number of course you have (one to four) and the components in those options.
We opted for the full four course meal starting with spinach and artichoke cheese fondue, house salads with peppercorn ranch dressing, entrees of Pacific Rim and Surf and Turf with a coq au vin broth for dipping, and finally, the chocolate turtle dessert fondue. The cheese course came with bread, apples, and veggies for dipping; the main entrees we shared included duck, shrimp, filet mignon, mushroom pockets, and lobster with 8 different dipping sauces (4 per course). It also included potatoes and veggies. The chocolate course was a mixture of milk chocolate and caramel and nuts with so many delicious items to dip — bananas, pineapple, rice crispy treats, marshmallows, brownies.
I had thought it would be too much food to consume, but you’d be surprised how you just keep dipping and munching over the 2.5 hours it takes for all four courses. It takes so long because first, you peruse the menu for several moments, order some wine perhaps, then it takes awhile for the pot set between you on your tabletop to heat up. Once it does, the server comes back and prepares the cheese fondue from scratch, adding each ingredient and stirring until smooth and delectable. You spend quite some time with your partner in food crime savoring the tidbits covered in gooey cheese before heading to the next course — your salads. A salad is a salad and may be just a distraction while they’re cutting up and preparing your proteins and dips you chose. Again, they set a pot in front of you of the broth you selected and you wait a bit for it to heat up and you’re off and eating again, this time sharing the delights with your partner after the instructed amount of time for cooking them. When all this is said and done, the chocolate course comes out and, again, it’s a pot of chocolate and other decadent sins which your server prepares. Finally, you and your partner settle in to dip, swirl anything and everything into the mixture while all the while uttering sounds of contentment.
Do you have to dress-​up? No, but when the meal takes 2.5 hours and the bill comes to 130.00 for a four course meal and some alcoholic beverages before tip and it was for a special occasion — my husband’s birthday in our case — then, by all means I think it deserves a bit of gussying up.

We were unfamiliar with this restaurant. When we found out that we had to cook our own food, even the entrée, we were turned-​off. However, Jason G, our server, made our experience very good. He did an excellent job of serving us. I especially appreciated that he was very knowledgeable of the menu items. We asked for recommendations and we were very happy with what he recommended. He was also very patient with us. We ordered The Classic and the French Quarter combo’s. Both my husband and I enjoyed.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad meal here. It’s pricey food, but it is tasty.

Worst. Place. Ever. Appears nice at first, but you do NOT want to see what goes on behind those doors. especially between the manager and his favorites.

My experience at the Pittsburgh Melting Pot was a carnival of horrors. The cheese fondue tasted as if it were melted from Velveeta and tears. The entrée was foul, the raw meat cubes we were served were slimy and grey, and the manager who visited our table was obviously drunk. She had red wine stains on her teeth. Never again.

My husband and I visited for lunch.
Service was super, food was as yummy as other Melting Pot locations I’ve visited. Would definitely return and would recommend to anyone.

The only thing that prevented me from rating this 5 stars was the overall taste of the main course. It very likely could have been the cooking styles that we selected but I felt like there was a bit of an after taste on the steak. Overall, the cheese, salad and desert courses were amazing. Matthew was our server and he could not have done a better job. My parents were new to The Melting Pot so he did a very good job of explaining the overall process. He continually checked on us and made sure the courses were served at an appropriate pace. I can be fairly critical of service and I thought he did an exceptional job.

My boyfriend and I came here for a last minute date night, and we had a blast!
You definitely pay for the experience, but it was worth it. We ordered the «fondue by you» (or something along those lines) where we each picked three entrée options along with the four course meal. We went with the normal cheddar cheese fondue (it was fabulous!). We both got the house salads, very good as well. For our entrees we got the teriyaki steak, filet, buffalo shrimp, and chicken potstickers. The meat takes a LONG time too cook, so just watch for that. We went with the normal vegetable broth cooking option. The sauces were all delicious as well. For dessert, we got the turtle chocolate, and it was fabulous!
Our server was wonderful as well, offering to bring us more veggies or dippers for each course.
It was about $ 100 total, which really wasn’t bad given the experience. I highly recommend for a date night!
UPDATE:
My boyfriend and I went again last week to celebrate the end of my semester. This time we tried the cheese option with pesto, I can’t remember exactly what it was called but this was by far the best. I highly recommend this cheese over the other options! Also we tried the oil and batter option for our entrees and I think we both preferred this to the plain broth. It is a lot and you have to be careful but it really was delicious! (remember you can get extra veggies, I love the fried broccoli!)

My aunt and I decided to have a girls day and finally try the melting pot!!! Basically it was the best idea we have ever had. But it’s more of a planned night and special occasion because it is expensive, but you do get your money’s worth in experience and the taste!!! First you start with cheese fondue and then they bring salad appetizers, followed by the main entrée which you pick meat and seafood. Then last by not least desert!!! Different chocolate fondues and such. Which they give you cookies and fruit to dip in. We chose the peanut butter chocolate and it was A M A Z I N G! I cannot wait to go back and have it again. And our server was awesome! Very personable and explained everything throughly since in fact it was our first!

I think the Melting Pot is great for a date night. Its atmosphere is dark and pretty quiet so that gives it a romantic feel for me. Also, the sharing that is involved with fondue seems romantic to me. My boyfriend and I ordered the Classic Alpine cheese fondue for our first course and it was fantastic! We then ordered the Coq Au Vin fondue for our 2^nd course, which was delicious and went really well with the sirloin and filet in particular. We ended our meal with a chocolate fondue for dessert and we loved everything about it! What makes the Melting Pot only 4 stars for me despite how pleased I was with the food was that the service was a little slow (still very polite and knowledgeable of the menu though) and they gave us a table that was kind of in the way for waiters and waitresses so it felt like people were constantly bustling past us.

That is an amazing place where you can relly relax and enjoy your time! The atmosphere is incredible! Our waitress Erin was so awesome! Thank you, Erin! You made our day :-)

The Melting Pot is great for occasions – birthdays, anniversaries, b’nai mitzvos, graduation, you name it. When it comes to the food and service, this place excels. I can only applaud the high quality raw food combined with a gourmet fondue experience (I had no idea fondue was more than just melted cheese) and a dedicated and attentive staff that made sure we had the night we were paying for.
Why the three stars then? Location.
The building itself is within the inside mall of Station Square, resulting in a severe lack of windows. The intimate structure of the franchise results in nearly every table somehow being in a corner, and combined with the lack of windows and dim lighting, I felt like I was in a fondue dungeon.
Business is always booming and the restaurant highly recommends reservations, as they are generally packed. A place like The Melting Pot doesn’t really need Unilocal reviews, because it is what it is and that’s all it’s going to be. It’s great. I just wish it were in a location that wasn’t so… heavy.

Absolutely brilliant idea! This place is so much fun. We had a great time and our waitress was incredible!!! So friendly and very helpful when it came to understanding the menu and how to cook the food!!!
My girlfriend and I got the cheddar cheese fondue to start and I got the yin & yang martini (which was my favorite drink I’ve ever had… so delicious!!!). We then got the land and sea and the French quarter as the entrees. This included shrimp, chicken, filet mignon, and sausage. We also of course had to add a lobster tail on the side. This was just awesome food. They had six different dipping sauces that were awesome! Everything was flavored very well and so much fun to cook!
For dessert we got the bourbon pecan chocolate fondue with bourbon, dark chocolate, carmel, and candied pecans! Great dipping items too! Strawberries, marshmallows covered in Oreo crumbles and graham cracker crumbles, pineapple, brownie and chocolate chip cookie bites and Rice Krispie treats. I also had the espresso martini which was great with the sweetness of the chocolate.
I would definitely go back but the bill was pretty steep because of all the drinks we ordered. But the service was the best I’ve had in a long time! Very personable. So it was well worth the money.

We had another nice experience here for yet another wedding anniversary, though this time it was just for dessert. Seating was available immediately but we had a good 10 – 15 minute wait for our server to show up. We didn’t receive any of the special treatment this time: no rose for my wife, no card, no slice of cheesecake with our fondue.
The chocolate fondue here is excellent — however the graham crackers mixed into the s’mores tend to suck up all the fondue. I would have like to see it presented with a light graham cracker crumble on top instead of the large cracker chunks.
The Chocolate Fontini was excellent.