The Melting Pot

I have always liked Melting Pot and this visit reminded me why that is. It is a different approach compared to most North American restaurants. The food is outstanding and the service is terrific. The ambiance is lovely and the prices, while not cheap, are worth it in my opinion.
On our visit, we decided on three Classic Combos and a Steak Lover’s Combo among the four in our party. The Classic Combos consisted of beef sirloin, BBQ pork medallion, shrimp, herb-​crusted chicken breast, and teriyaki sirloin. The Steak Lover’s version included filet mignon, teriyaki sirloin, and regular sirloin. For dips, we had the classic cheddar and a special blend for the season, Apple Cider Alpine. The latter was a twist on a regular offering and was made from of gruyère, raclette and fontina cheeses blended with cider, garlic and small finish of nutmeg. Included with this was a 4-​course offering. In addition to the entrée fondue course, there was a salad, a starter dipping selection of breads, green apples and vegetables, and finishing course that consisted of an assortment of dessert dippers. The latter included strawberries, blondies, bananas, pineapple, marshmallow treats, pound cake, and brownies with chocolate for dip. All of this was fabulous. We were more than satisfied with our meal as the portions were beyond adequate.
After drink, tips and tax, our bill was just over $ 55 per person. While not cheap, it served our purposes very nicely. Overall, this is a great place for a dinner that is outside of the norm. It offers a great concept and is situated in a very nice location at Providence Place. I would not hesitate to recommend it if you are looking for a special-​occasion meal.

Was able to get a 5:30pm reservation on a Saturday night and it was a busy weekend of CominCon. Staff was friendly and promptly seated us. The meal was good. Always love the house dressing. (Glad they sell it too) the bathrooms were clean as well. Our server and the manager stopped by during the meal to make sure all was well. Will be back next time I am in town.

Arrived on a busy Saturday night (Waterfire, Comicon) and we were still able to snag two seats in the bar, even without a reservation. At first, we had fantastic service from the bartender as we placed our drink and initial order, however, they then got slammed and it was a chore to place any further orders and get the check. But we cut them a little slack, because it really was a crazy night.
As for the food, I thought it was great. Wide variety of options and great drink menu too. And that’s coming from someone who lived in Switzerland and loves fondue! For all the people saying this is nothing special and they could make it at home, you are kind of right — but the question is: how often do you actually make fondue at home? Be honest — you are never going to set up a bunch of dippers and mix the fondue and go to all that trouble. Just like you probably aren’t going to do your own hibachi. These guys are pros and I think this is a great concept and enjoyable experience for a romantic night or group outing.
So I’m taking a star off because of the slow service, but overall an enjoyable experience. Compared to Swiss prices, I think it’s a bargain! Definitely planning on returning in the future.

Absolutely horrible. The waiter did not wear gloves while squeezing lemon or other things in our hot pot. We waited for over 3 hrs to get all our 4 course items. Run away and find a better place to spend your money. Not to mention the waiter forgot our order multiple times. I hope the management takes note of this and tries NOT to get their customers sick by unsanitary serving practices.

My boyfriend and I have come here multiple times. The service is great! They never leave you wanting more. The food is also delicious. We try to eat different things every time we go and it is absolutely amazing in every way. It is a very romantic setting for a date. I would definitely recommend it!

Had an 8pm dinner reservation here last night that I booked through open table. It was for my wife’s bday. Drove almost 90 minutes to get there. Our table was ready almost immediately. At 830, our server finally came over to take our drink order. We ordered our food at the same time. Went with the four course. Between 830 and 9, our server came by a few times saying our drinks and cheese would be right out. We walked out a little after 9 because we still didn’t have anything yet. On our way out, I told the people at the front desk that we had been sitting for more than an hour and still didn’t even have our drinks yet. Shouldn’t take that long to pour a glass of seltzer water and a glass of wine. Also gave them a heads up to cancel our food order. They didn’t really seem to care. Ended up going to another restaurant in the mall. While we were eating, I got a notification from OpenTable that my reservation had been canceled because I was a no-​show. Maybe they did this so I couldn’t leave a review on there? We’ve been to the Philly and Natick locations in the past. Never had any issues and Melting Pot was one of our fave restaurants. Figured we’d try Providence since it was about the same distance as Natick from our house. Never again. Make sure you have a back up plan if you plan to eat here. I would give this less than 1 star if it let me.

This is a restaurant that always sounds like a good idea but then you get there and review the menu and say «Oh, really, just cooking the same stuff I might have at home» except with more (a lot more, a boat load more) sodium. in fact, so much sodium we might as well amend the previous statement and make it a plural: except with more sodiums.
Gack.
I suppose in a childish group, you might have fun dipping with each others fondue sticks* and whatnot in the way (use my stick to dip! … don’t touch my stick… and the like) I mean, there is a lot of fodder for hilarity taking the meal out of context with a variety of quotes for your friends to chuckle about. Before desert even comes!
If you are 21.
If you are, well, older, the double entendre whilst eating probably escapes you and so, dear reader – go armed with your blood pressure meds, a topic worthy of a debate (this is a long meal) and um, enjoy.
*Who calls them fondue forks?

I’ve been to Melting Pot locations many times. This location seems to be quant and relaxing where others I’ve encountered have been more lively and festive. The food is amazing as usual. The waiters/​waitresses are attentive but the hostess so far every encounter has either lacked empathy or emotion.

For my birthday my friend and I went to Providence Place Mall and decided to do something different for dinner. That different was the Melting Pot.
Overall I am kind of torn… It was really expensive (like $ 50 a person) and you can’t help but let that figure float through your brain even as you are enjoying your meal. It looks like not a lot of food you are getting for that price but you are eating it so slowly that you end up pretty full at the end. Still I can see any sort of frugal person complaining even in their own head how they could host their own fondue thing for a quarter of that.
The thing is no one ever thinks to do it or has the equipment and set up seems fiddley and I don’t even know if your guests in this day and age have the patience to wait to cook their own food.
Therefore I say going in the act of fonduing needs to be seen as part entertainment which mitigates the price a bit. A place to go for a special event or new experience. Thinking of it this way made me feel better about it.
The Melting Pot felt really empty even though it wasn’t due to the very dark and intimate nature. It felt really intimate with the large booths and nearly silent with quiet conversation. The host lady was very sweet and nice.
Our waiter did a commendable job of explaining all the different steps from ordering to the actual fondue dipping although not a perfect experience as he disappears for a stretch after main course was delivered and drinks refreshing and dessert was a bit delayed. He also had a verbal tic that I don’t recall now but there was a phrase he used in nearly every sentence and everytime he walked by. It was enough for my friend and eye to make eye contact over it and so I thought it might be worth mentioning. The manager also rolled by twice to make sure everyone was doing fine but his attitude was a little too casual maybe? It felt like he was about to give us his business card and tell us to check out his CD online or something like that. Just some minor nitpicking here, I know.
The food–
It works like this the table shares the cheese, you get your own meats/​veg main course plate, and then you share a chocolate one for dessert.
We went for their Pub Apple Cider cheese (a summer special I think). We both enjoyed it and it was definitely the sort of thing perfect to dip a large soft pretzel into (they should have included that for dipping!). You could really taste that malty beer undertone. Next time I’d want to do the cheddar cheese though because while I liked this choice it didn’t go with all the things to dip in it.
For our main course my friend and I both chose an upgraded choice that had extra types of meat. I think there was pork, chicken, steak, shrimp, and then a few veg like potato and things. We compromised by just using their free flavored broth to dip in… and I guess cook in. I wish they included a little timer at the table since it felt a little lame to pull out our cell phone and coordinating dipping times (since I think shrimp/​veg cooked for one time (40 seconds? And other meats about a minute.)
This was pretty fun! A great date activity as you kind of have to work together for best results and there is residual pride in cooking your own food and enjoying in it’s successful delishishness together. It was simple but it was really good!
For dessert we selected a Chocolate Turtle fondue with an upgraded desert extra of a creampuff, cheesecake, and pirouette cookies extra plate. It was amazing and so so delicious. The fruit plate was missing pineapple though and when I pointed it out they did bring me some but it was a weird consistency and tasteless so I still feel we lost out on that part either way.
Overall like I said I am torn but I did have a great time and had good food. The experience is really expensive to me… but for the right occasion worth it.

Made a reservation for 7:30. We arrived a few minutes early and were promptly seated. As we walked past the entire restaurant we found our «intimate» booth in the back corner. These tiny booths have seating for 2. While the idea is nice, there is no air flow in the back. We were hot and miserable sitting with a hot cooktop for the fondue, combined with the steam from cooking. There isn’t any music either which was strange considering we heard everyone’s private conversations.
We chose the 4-​course meal. Started with the Classic Alpine cheese, Caesar/​California salads, Classic entrees mojo style, and S’mores Chocolate dessert. The cheese and chocolate desserts were our favorite. The salads were ok, nothing to rave about. The entrees were pretty awful. One of the pieces of meat had a «Wednesday» sticker on it which I almost ate. The vegetables had a weird sour flavor. At $ 40 a meal this was grossly overpriced considering we weren’t fans of our food.
Drinks were also slow paced. After asking our waitress several times for drinks her response was «the bartenders have their own service too.» As an excuse for 20+ minute waits. I’ll be back for cheese and chocolate but will not be making a night of it again. I’ll probably sit in the bar area to avoid the sauna of a back room

This was my first time here and I was really looking forward to enjoying it. Unfortunately I can’t say that I have the slightest intentions to return. I’m aware that this is a classy restaurant but the only menu items that appealed to me were the cheese and chocolate. We ordered the drink special which the waitress claimed had mango but it was pretty much a piña colada, which barely had any alcohol in it. We started off with the Top Shelf Fiesta cheese fondue. I absolutely LOVE cheese, with that said, while dipping all I could think was «I could have made this at home with my mini crockpot». The dippers were nothing special but luckily we ordered the premium dippers, which consisted of different Italian meats. The bread was disappointingly stale, it’s even worse considering we came in right at opening so everything should have been fresh. After this bust of a course we decided to give the chocolate fondue a chance. The Yin & Yang fondue looked delightful from its presentation, nevertheless it was as disappointing as the cheese. The dippers came with a variety of goodies that ended up tasting boxed. The only unique dipper were the marshmallows that were coated in graham crackers.
I’d say that the highlight of this visit was the service. The waitress was attentive and prevented any awkwardness at the table by conversing with us. I’m glad I did try this place out, now I won’t have any «what ifs» in my head. Overpriced, bland food that I would not recommend to anyone.

What an enjoyable experience! If you love dipping small bites of food in cheese or chocolate, you should definitely try this restaurant! I have been here twice, and both times indulged in the 4 course experience.
For cheese fondue, I’ve had the cheddar and spinach artichoke; they bring you cubes of white and whole grain bread, chopped apples and some veggies, like celery and carrots. I loveee cheese, and if you do too you might want to only do the cheese fondue! Your waiter mixes up the cheese for you, which is nice.
For the entrée, I have had the French Quarter cooked in Coq au Vin, which goes great together, and the Land and Sea cooked in the complimentary broth. Both were delicious, and since I am not a huge meat lover, I appreciate that these dishes have a variety of different meats so whomever I shared the meal with would eat what I didn’t want :) the chicken and sirloin are cut up into bite size pieces which is perfect. They are very easy to cook and you can really leave everything in as long as you want. The entrees also come with a side of potatoes and mushrooms.
You can’t go wrong with chocolate fondue. My favorite was the Ying and Yang– a mix of white chocolate and dark chocolate. Coming here for just dessert would be a great experience in itself!
Both times, I shared the 4 course experience with one other person and found that it was plenty of food for both of us. Dinner will not be quick, prepare to spend at least 2 hours here. I have not been rushed during my meals, they really let you enjoy it. A fun date idea, it is definitely a romantic, dimly lit setting which is kind of nice! All in all, I highly recommend this, everyone I’ve been here with has loved it!

Melting pot? More like melting wallet or melting internal organs. My girlfriend and I went to this establishment as a change of pace from the normal. The menu was confusing, the food was flavorless at best, and the prices were outrageous. We split a meal, got an extra salad, 2 beers, and 1 glass of wine. It was $ 100! Unreal! Now we are both home and the closest thing to a melting pot we have seen all night is the toilet. We are both sick. Avoid at all costs. Brandon the stoned waiter was nice.

It was definitely an experience one should try at least once. Expensive and time consuming. The meal lasted about 3 hours as you cook (boil) your meats one bite at a time. The service was good, ac broke in our section and it was really hot in there which made the cooking conditions not that enjoyable. Since i cook alot i think i would rather go out to eat and have my food prepared for me.

I had never been here before, but for our 10^th wedding anniversary, we decided to give it a try. As we arrived at the table we were invited by a red rose, some chocolate strawberries, and a frame. This was included when we upgraded our reservation online. Next we tried to tackle the menu. Somewhat confusing for being our first time.
Luckily, Jem (short for Jemima), our amazingly talented and outgoing waitress, helped us decipher it for us. Once we relaxed and made ur choices, our evening was pure sunshine, despite being tucked into the bowels of the mall. The booths were actually very intimate, and although others conversations were too easily heard and music was non existent. We made the best chatting and laughing anyways.
Truly a unique experience, the melting pot is all fondue all the time. Very top notch ingredients and flavors, and prices to boot. But as long as they keep hiring staff such as Jem, they should have no problem satisfying ppl, and keeping the place packed!

It was awesome as always. Staff is super friendly, Ryan is an awesome server. The 4 course option was yummy especially the flaming turtle chocolate desert. Definitely a must

We went to The Melting Pot on a Friday night, had no trouble getting in (I called and they had an opening in 10 minutes), and we had a really nice meal. We had a bottle of wine, a cheese fondue and then entrees. We were full enough that the four course meal would have been far too much. The total with tax & tip was about $ 120 for the two of us.
Everything tasted good, our server Katherine was great, and nothing could have been better. The only criticism I can make is that the menu is sort of complicated for people who have never been to a Melting Pot before, but we had been to the one in Chicago, so we knew how it all worked.
The restaurant seems very clean and the space inside is either maze-​like or intimate, depending on your point of view. I would be happy to go back to The Melting Pot any time, but I think we got lucky and would recommend making reservations ahead of time.

We had made reservations here to meet other 3 couples and, since it was my first time, I came to Unilocal to read some of the reviews… I must confess I was very skeptical and wondered if we made a wise decision choosing this place… nevertheless, me and my date got there a few minutes before 7 and were the first of the group to arrive. The hostess promptly guided us to the bar for drinks and we were very welcomed by a very polite bartender.
Long story short, our group arrived, we were guided to our table and had a marvelous night. Gabriel was wonderful explaining the experience and options to us and all was just a wonderful feast.
The restaurant technically closed at 10 but we were so entangled having fun that didn’t notice the time until 12. We were never rushed to leave and the bar keep on serving us with the same upbeat attitude as they did at 7 pm.
The food was awesome, we had the 4 course meal with the Yng and Yang chocolate desert was fantastic way to end a perfect night. Prices can be a little bit on the high side but it is an experience worth having at least once.
One recommendation would be to first: make your reservation and, second: pay attention to the cooking time of your meats and seafood and just have fun…

Had a groupon, didn’t realize it said reservations required. I came in on a Wednesday and told the manager that was training a hostess that I didn’t have a reservation and that I am sorry. I asked if she could still accept the groupon or can I just make a reservation now for a half hour later. She informed me in a snarky way that the reservation needs to be put in a day before. I asked why because I am sure the restaurant is not full at 5pm on a Wednesday night. She said, «Actually, we are understaffed and full.» I said, «Fine, I’ll go next door to the Cheesecake Factory.» This is when she got super defensive, «I will seat you, I am just letting you know that you have to wait to be seated because we are full.» We waited ONE MINUTE! Was that whole exchange necessary? It totally ruined the total experience there after.
Here is my whole issue, lets say I didn’t have a Groupon but still wanted to sit down. Does that mean she is always under-​staffing and that even when paying full price, I should expect slow service?
Instead of being a brat about the whole experience, I wish the MANAGER of all people could have just said that because we didn’t follow the rules of the groupon, she couldn’t accept it. That would have been fair and a lot less annoying. Or if she was going to accept it, make it less painful by just saying that she shouldn’t be doing this but she will today. No extras! A lot more pleasant.
Now to the food, I have always walked by the Melting Pot in Boston and it looked like so much fun! This space had 4 separate dining rooms and all were not wide and open, but at some point you just feel enclosed and intimate. Which is great for a romantic evening but not a casual night out with friends or family. So this specific Melting Pot has a a very narrow market.
So I didn’t realize we all have to share one pot of broth for our food. So I got filet mignon and was boiling it… OMG my heart sinks everytime I think of such a thing. My sister hated her pot stickers and only ate 2 out of like 8 that they give you. My fiancé got sick from the duck later that evening and only ate 4 pieces of his. No one was happy with what they got.
They have tons of sauces for you to dip your BOILED meat in. I don’t understand, they marinate the meat for you, you boil it and make your food bland, and then you add a sauce to re-​add flavor? Just an awful concept. I came in expected to dip appetizers and dessert, but not my meal. So that was a learning experience.

I’ve been to the Melting Pot before for special events, nice dinners, but by far my best experience there has been sitting at the bar during their «happy hour» schedule. We went this past Monday after Memorial Day plans got rained out and it was the nicest, most affordable meal I’d ever had there (even counting that time we went with a Groupon). The bartender took care of us, we ate at half price, and our drinks were stellar (the bourbon blackberry drink was great). Honestly, I’ve never had a problem with the service at the Melting Pot but the overall pricing and business model of the restaurant is one I can’t get behind.
It’s hard to comment on quality at Melting Pot. The bits of food that you get to dip into their built-​in fondue set ups are prepared in the back so they *are* sorted through for quality. I’ve never had anything there that wasn’t fresh tasting or tasty but for the money, it’s really not worth it. Unless there’s a special going on, you might as well take the same amount of money to a locally owned nearby restaurant and get a five-​course tasting menu prepared by world-​class chefs. At Melting Pot, the same amount of money doesn’t get you great food so much as an «experience» dipping bits of meat, bread, and veg into a cheese pot with your friends (one you could easily create at home with your own fondue pot). I’d recommend going once if you’ve never been to experience The Melting Pot (preferably during happy hour when it’s cheapest because $ 90/​person for a multi-​course meal with the portions they give you is absurd) but after that there’s really no need to go back.