brittany Rothenburg

Review of Melting Pot

My boyfriend and I came here for date night/to cel...

My boyfriend and I came here for date night/to celebrate our anniversary last night. Heard great things about The Melting Pot so we decided to give it a try.

When we walked in for our 9:30 reservation, there were several employees standing at the front door chatting, and the host greeted us, "two?". We told her we had a reservation, and then stood there awkwardly for what seemed like forever while she tried to figure out which of the roomful of empty booths she'd seat us at.

Our server was very nice and polite, didn't catch his name but he had dark hair and a long beard. He asked if we had been before, and I told him I had not. He explained how we choose a cheese fondue to share, choose an entree each and cooking style, etc. He also asked if we were celebrating anything special, and I said yes, our 2 year anniversary. He congratulated us and offered us more time with the menu.

I was still a little confused about the menu, but ordered something I figured I'd like: the steak lovers combo. My boyfriend ordered the steak/chicken/shrimp dinner. We had the loaded potato cheese fondue to start, which was good. Not overly exciting, but good. Next, the salads. I had the house with peppercorn ranch, his was the caesar. The peppercorn ranch was delicious! The server suggested adding the garlic seasoning blend, which was awesome as well. Then, dinner came. When my steak plate came out, I was pretty unimpressed with the tiny slices of steak, paying upwards of $40 for the plate I guess I expected a better portion. But to be honest, it didn't matter because I ate 4 pieces and was over it. I guess people come here for "the experience", but cooking tiny slivers of steak in a pot of oil and broth just isn't my thing apparently (especially if I'm paying $40 for it!). My boyfriend's plate came with 3 pieces of shrimp, a small portion of chicken/steak; again, left a lot to be desired. Out of the 6 dipping sauces, one was desirable. I guess I just felt like it was overpriced for what it was.

After dinner, our server had us order our chocolate fondue. We opted for the classic, milk chocolate with crunchy peanut butter. Tasted amazing. I guess I assumed our server would have acknowledged our special occasion in some way; I've seen friends of mine post pictures of the nice messages they write in chocolate, "happy birthday", etc. Also noticed the couple next to us even had rose petals scattered around their table (maybe they brought their own? That's not weird or anything). Anyways, I was a little disappointed about the fact that nothing was acknowledged, almost like what's the point of asking in the beginning if we're celebrating anything special?

Our check plus 30% tip was $160 (we work in service industry). I left feeling hungry and with a box of raw steak bits to cook in my cast iron skillet at home. Guess it just wasn't worth the hype and/or money.