The Melting Pot

I felt discriminated at this place we went maybe about a year ago for a celebration with my friend in the army for her to get relocated Back home after 10 years… So she wanted to try this place out. It was 4 girls and we are all Hispanic. We were told there was A 25 – 30 min wait which we agreed to so we sat at the bar. No one acknowledged us after that. They sat the three other sets of families sitting around us which were all white, served them water and appetizer. we never got anything not even water. After about 50 min we walked out of that place super hungry.

I’ve always wanted to try the melting pot because I would hear good things about this place. However I wasn’t all that impressed with this place, my waitress was excellent and provides great customer service but I had an issue with the portions of the food. I had steak, chicken, shrimp and ravioli and although that may sound like a lot it’s NOT. The food comes in bite size pieces and it is very pricey for the portion given. Don’t get me wrong the food is tasty, especially the spinach artichoke fondue. Also the mojo broth for the cooking style is very yummy but like I said I wasn’t ok with the portions and the prices. I was in a group of 4 and the bill was $ 150+ this would’ve been fine if the guys walked away with a full belly but they complained about still being hungry… all in all I wouldn’t come back unless it was happy hour or something

The experience is so unique here that I feel everyone should try this place out at least once. I did use the Groupon deal however which is a great way to save serious cash.
The atmosphere is very intimate and romantic. Dim lighting sets the mood which is not ideal for small children. This is definitely a place for couples and small parties although they do have a big bar area.
Our waiter prepared our cheese fondue right in front of us and explained how to cook our entrees properly. The presentation is clean and organized.
They have a great selection of protein and my party tried the Memphis Pork, Teriyaki Tenderloin, Orange Duck, and Ahi Tuna. All these options looked so good raw that I was tempted to eat them right then and there. But seriously, the «meats» are so tender after they come out of the pot that you will think you died and went to heaven. Like biting into marshmallows. The complimentary dipping sauces are just as delicious. Try the curry sauce as well as the Gorgonzola dip. Make sure to leave room for the sweet stuff because those are develish as well. Great service too. Try it as soon as you can, I can’t wait to go back.

The food here is 3 stars but the service deserves ZERO stars. Service is crap which stems from the terrible management.
First, reservations were for 7:30 and I arrived 10 minutes prior. The restaurant was only half full but they didn’t seat me until 7:40.
Second, the Groupon I purchased clearly said stated each person can choose an individual entrée or fondue by your combination entrée but our server, Kelly, said we can only choose the individual entrée.
Third, our server was not attentive at all. No refills of water and it took over 25 minutes from the time our table was cleared for dinner to getting our dessert.
Fourth, we were seated at a table with only one burner. For a group of 4, they should seat us with 2 burners because of dessert. The Groupon stated each pair shares their choice of fondue so we should have 2 choices for dessert. Instead, four of us shared one pot of dessert fondue.
Fifth, when I walked to the restroom, I saw 3 of the servers in the kitchen area all chatting and on their phones. There were no servers on the floor of the restaurant checking up on customers.
The restaurant was at most half full, not too busy to explain the terrible service and management. I’m not sure if this is how they treat Groupon customers. But Groupon or not, that is not the way to treat customers.

The service is the worst I have seen in a long time, especially for what you pay. Celebrated a child’s birthday here, so we had a private room. The place was not crowded. Got settled and ordered our drinks. This took nearly 15 minutes. Brought me the wrong drink, and failed to bring my friend’s drink at all. As a matter of fact, the waitress failed to even take everyone’s drink order. My friend had to wait an additional 10 minutes for his first drink. Once he received the Manhattan he ordered, he ended up sending it back twice because it tasted like ice water. He ended up getting a pint of Guiness instead.
The food was absolutely nothing special, and we had to wait 20 or more minutes between courses. Keep in my mind the restaurant was empty.
We had our minds made up on what we wanted, but the waitress talked us into ordering more food. And guess what? It was way too much. We had leftovers that we didn’t want.
To finish the night (3 hrs later), we got the bill. $ 508 for 6 adults and 7 children 6 and under. The tip was not included, yet they charged us $ 10 for the 4 baloons they gave the little girl for her birthday. We would have been out of there in just over 2 hours if it weren’t for the slow service.
I would not recommend this place to anyone.

The service was really bad and the restaurant wasn’t even full!
The fondue was good, but the portions are very small and expensive.

First time I was here, I struggled looking for their parking lot especially during the night. It’s basically near the bank, and it’s a parking structure for every entity. With that, it’ll lead you to the restaurant. I was only here for the happy hour for chocolate fondue with friends. It’s a great place to hang out and get chocolate wasted with good company. There were tons of choices for chocolate fondue; since we couldn’t decide, we chose the yin yang fondue.
The customer service was great. The server we had was witty and very patient with us. He was also helpful with all the drinks and fondue questions. Overall, it was a great night. Dimmed lights and just conversing with friends. Happy hour for fondue depends on time and the price is about $ 6 so it was not bad at all. And as for a group, they will give you many variety of foods and sweets to dipped in that is perfectly enough for everyone (unless you have that friend that eats everything)

We came here with a friend for a nice leisurely dinner and had a good time. I thoroughly enjoyed the food and the fondue experience.
There were several courses, the first of which was the cheese fondue. After looking over the options we agreed on the Alpine cheese fondue (a gruyère & fontina mix). Bread, apples and vegetables were brought to the table to dip into the melted cheese. Next we each ordered our own salad; I chose the caprese which was good but nothing out of the ordinary.
We then decided on a broth flavor (one called «mojo» which had some Carribbean flavors) to cook the «protein» we each chose for the entrée course. I picked the steak lovers plate. More broccoli, potatoes, and mushrooms were also included to cook in the fondue pot. My beef slices & chunks were tender and delicious — very good quality. Several dipping sauces (i.e. — teriyaki, curry, blue cheese) were brought to the table to give our meats and veggies zippier flavors.
Lastly it was time for dessert and we chose a dark chocolate fondue. We dipped rice krispie treats, strawberries, bananas, brownies, marshmallows, blondies and pineapple into the warm chocolate for a wonderful dessert experience… chocolate nirvana.
Although it didn’t seem like a lot of food as we cooked it, I was definitely full when we were done. But I still think the whole thing is on the pricey side for what you get even considering all the prep work that they do.
Service was mediocre. While our waiter was informative and gave good recommendations, he was never around when we needed him. Examples are 1) when we ran out of dipping sauce and tried to flag him down for over 12 minutes (I was using my iPhone stopwatch for counting the minutes of cooking in the fondue pot so I know exactly how long it was) and eventually gave up and caught the eye of a busser who helped us out and 2) when, during dessert, we had empty coffee mugs and eventually had to wave down the manager for refills. You need to be more attentive to customers when they are paying premium prices for the food!
3.5 stars.

Went there with the Groupon deal which was for 2 entrees — I did notice the Groupon deal contained less than before as previously it also came with a complimentary drink and was for more than 2 entrees. I think if you check in via Unilocal,you get a complimentary house wine. Regardless, I am still a fan.
We got there early so ended up at the bar — they actually have Happy Hour from opening until 7 pm for Sat. We ordered our drinks and since we were hungry ended up ordering the fiesta cheese fondue appetizer. Our bartender Daniel was the bomb — we requested extra garlic and jalapenos and he delivered. Because the fondue was not thick enough, he brought extra cheese to throw into it. That is what I call service! Thanks Daniel for taking care of us and for the conversation!
Dinner was great — ordered shrimp, teriyaki sirloin, salmon, pork. Finished it up with the Turtle fondue dessert and a café mocha. Thanks Ava for taking care of us.
Between the appetizer and the entrees, we did not leave hungry but we also did not leave with a bad food coma.
We had nice evening and would definitely return.

I didn’t know what to expect coming here, but overall, I’m glad I got to try «fondue» but I wouldn’t come again. Items are pretty pricey, and I didn’t feel like anything was that fancy.
The menu was kind of hard to understand, but we powered through it. The Fiesta cheese was good. Spicy. But nothing super impressive.
I enjoyed the «Make your own» course, which was filet mignon, sausage, and shrimp. The filet was good, but the sausage and shrimp seemed like it was straight out of like Ralphs or Costco. Mainly also, the sauces were not that impressive to us, so we ate everything cooked in the natural broth.
We enjoyed the strawberry shortcake dessert as it came with his 4 course entrée. It was tasty, but too sweet for me.
Again, the experience was good, but not something I would particularly come back for again.

Where do I begin? What an awesome experience the Melting Pot was. Our waiter was Bryson and he was so helpful, patient, and made great recommendations for my son and I since it was our first time here. Everyone we came in contact with was friendly and efficient.
We had the combo which came with 3 entrees, potato, broccoli, and mushrooms and a great selection of tasty sauces.
The dessert with the chocolate, Carmel, and pecan sauce with fruit was decadent!

I hadn’t had fondue in AGES and I remembered the Melting pot had a ladies night deal so my friends and I decided to take advantage of it and have a girls night out. The last tuesday of every month they offer the special ladies night menu which includes cheese fondue, a salad, fondue main course and chocolate fondue for $ 32 per person! Great deal!
The parking for this location was a little tricky to find, all 4 of us had trouble locating it. You cannot access it from Hawthorne, the entrance is on hawthorne.
Our waitress was very nice but didn’t seem to know that much about ladies night or the melting pot in general. Maybe she was new because every question we had she had to check on, several times she forgot to get answers to our questions and we had to remind her. 2 of the ladies I went with are vegetarian and when they inquired about substituting the waitress told them they couldn’t substitute the main course for a vegetarian. One of the girls had called ahead and been told that the substitution could be made, once she told our waitress she relented but there was a moment of panic since obviously the 2 vegetarians didn’t want the entrée with shrimp, chicken and beef.
Be prepared if you do 3 courses of fondue that your meal is going to take awhile. We arrived at 6pm and it was 9pm when we finished so make sure you allow plenty of time! Here I was thinking 6pm was too early for dinner!
We very much enjoyed our dinner, it was a LOT of food for the price. I’m not sure I’d go and pay full price but I would definitely do the ladies night deal again.

I have been wanting to try the Melting Pot for the past few years. I finally got around to being able to try it!
I bought a Groupon that was a dinner for 2 and included an entrée and and chocolate fondue (shared between 2).
My boyfriend and I wanted to come in around 6:15 and so we made reservations. The host told me that the only available times were 6 PM and 7:30PM. So we opted for 6PM. We got there a little before 6 and the entire place was empty. Btw, parking is super hard to find! Really confusing place… Also, I didn’t really see why we couldn’t have made an reservation for 6:15 because by the time it was actually 6:15, the entire place was still empty… it wasn’t until around 7 or 8 that people started to come in.
Anyways, even though the Groupon only included an entrée for each of us and the chocolate fondue, we still wanted to try the cheese fondue. So we decided to order that on top of the Groupon deal. With only an extra $ 20, we could order cheese fondue along with a salad.
For the cheese fondue, our server recommended the Quattro Formaggio. This was just okay. It was a little too cheesy for me. I regret not ordering the Spinach Artichoke because that was my first choice. The cheese fondue comes with veggies and bread for you to dip in the cheese.
The salad that we got was just whatever. It was something you could definitely make at home.
For my entrée, I chose salmon, shrimp and tuna. It comes with 6 different kinds of dipping sauces. Only one of the «cooking style» (the broth in which you cook your entrée in) is complimentary. All the other ones are additional charges. We chose the complimentary Seasoned Court Bouillon.
For our chocolate fondue, we decided to go with the Original which is milk chocolate with crunchy peanut butter. It comes with different sweet treats such as rice krispies, pound cake, strawberries, etc. for you to dip in the chocolate.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed with my visit here. The food was just okay. It was way too expensive for what you get… even with the Groupon. Service wasn’t too good either. It was hard to get our server’s attention and I had to get up even a few times to go hunt her down. If I was to come back, it’d probably be only for the chocolate fondue. Nothing else is really worth come back for, especially for the price.

We both agreed that the food was okay. Nice ambiance was dimly lit and good for a date but not for a family. The parking is in the back. If I have to cook my own food why do I need to go out to eat? It is a little pricey, $ 144.00 for two people. We got the fiesta cheese, Caesar salad, 2 glasses of wine, french quarter and the turtle for dessert.
I think u really pay for the space, customer service which was awesome and the experience of something different. I would recommend for everyone to try it at least one time. You cook all your food in a pot on your table. They bring very good small portioned sizes and the dessert was pretty good. The could have had a little more flavor and to cook my own food should’ve been an option.

I’ve received excellent service at the Melting Pot in Torrance. I’m not a huge fan of the Fondue experience, but it’s worth trying once. The price can be exorbitant.
I recommend waiting until DineLA (Restaurant Week). For roughly $ 35 per person, you will get the whole experience including all of the courses. The normal price is easily twice that per person.
Make sure to check-​in on Unilocal.They’ll give you a free glass of wine!

came here to use my groupon. groupon deal itself was whatevers. it consisted of a cheese fondue and a bottle of wine. wine wasn’t anything spectacular and cheese fondue wasn’t what i expected at all. it wasn’t even that great… obviously the deal was to lure people in and have them spend money on something else. thank god i wasn’t that hungry.
the only reason why i give them a 3 star is that after i was seated, no waiter came to up for like 20 minutes. there was some kind of mix up with the servers (breaks etc) so i got complementary dessert fondue! definitely saved the night. i would give them 5 stars just on their dessert haha. it was so yummy!

I had purchased a LivingSocial deal for The Melting Pot, because I’ve ALWAYS wanted to give it a try. I’d heard how expensive it could get with just a dinner for two, so I figured this deal was a steal!
The parking is kind of funky — you have to wrap around the corner that’s at the far end of the restaurant, and pull into the business plaza parking structure. We went to dinner around 6pm, so there was plenty of parking available. Just follow the signs to The Melting Pot, because you may get a bit lost.
When you come here, you definitely pay for the experience. Not necessarily the food. yikes :(
Our server was great! He spoke really quickly and disappeared and reappeared often, but I think it’s because of the high maintenance that each table requires with switching out this pot to that, and that pot to this.
We started off with a cheese fondue appetizer, which was REALLY yummy. but I think you can simply make it at home for cheaper (beer, garlic, cheese, spices)! The whole dipping experience was really fun though. For the entrée, our deal came with a combination platter that included some veggies, chicken, beef, shrimp, and spinach pasta that you cooked yourself in the pot of broth (kind of like shabu-​shabu). Although we had some pretty bomb dipping sauces, the food wasn’t very tasty. I honestly could have eaten the appetizer, ordered some dessert, and left satisfied. Really could’ve done without the entrée.
Good to know! Next time I’m back, I’ll skip the fondue entrée. But meh, it was worth a shot.

Thanks Lauren for the great time tonight!
Came here with a friend on a living social deal. Food was good. BlackBerry sage lemonade was awesome. Sign up for their free VIP program and get 20 bucks off your next meal!

We came to celebrate two anniversaries and took advantage of the special dineLA pricing. I had been here before, but all the others in our party had never been to the Melting Pot or a fondue restaurant before so they especially had a memorable time.
For $ 35 a person, we could choose two cheese fondues (spinach artichoke and Wisconsin Trio), individual salads (house, California, or bacon mushroom), and two chocolate fondues (flaming turtle and yin and yang). For the entrée, we got an array of mahi mahi, shrimp, angus sirloin, herb-​crusted chicken breast, and teriyaki-​marinated sirloin.
There was plenty of food and everyone enjoyed the meal and experience of dipping, dunking, and cooking. The spinach artichoke cheese fondue, the house salad with house dressing, and the flaming chocolate fondue were especially noteworthy. The meats and seafood came with special sauces and vegetables including mushrooms, broccoli, and potatoes. Unfortunately, the potatoes stayed hard and weren’t able to be thoroughly cooked despite how long we left them in the boiling mojo and coq au vin broths.
Our server Andrew was so fabulous. He couldn’t have been any nicer, patient, accommodating, friendly, and helpful. I would say the main drawback of the meal is that it does take a long time for the four courses so plan your reservation and evening accordingly.

Okay, it seems like this location is very inconsistent. I have been here four times in a year and think only one time was a good experience. We weren’t sat right away even though I had reservations. And we were there about two hours. Service was slow and our waiter apologized saying two servers called out. Having worked in restaurants, you think you would’ve seen the manager walking around to help out. I never saw one on my side.
We came for DineLA and weren’t told what was available to choose from and what was an up-​charge. It was only explained to me after we received our bill and were told that the broth we picked was not part of the DineLA. Would’ve been nice to know prior. When we were sat we were only given the DineLA menu that didn’t show the options. We were also not offered a kid’s menu even though we had 2 kids at the table. I only saw this option was available after our meal when I noticed it on the menu. And as my daughter mentioned, «in very small writing». I wound up ordering an adult meal for my 7-​year-​old daughter who didn’t eat all of her food.
I like the food here even though it’s overpriced for what it is. And I’m still not a big fan of it being so dimly lit. I like to see what I’m eating.