The Melting Pot

One of my favorite places to visit. Good for dates and with friends. Either way the experience is great.

We had 5:45 reservations yesterday for our Mother’s Day celebration. We weren’t seated until after six, and our beverages arrived 45 minutes later. The time between each course was at least one half hour, and I am talking about us sitting with empty plates in front of us, waiting for the next course. The Melting Pot is an atmosphere for leisurely dining, but the cheese, salad, entrée and dessert courses took FOUR HOURS! That was ridiculous. We left at 9:45! The restaurant did not seem organized which is unacceptable since they knew they would be busy on Mother’s Day. We have patronized the Melting Pot many times, but will not go back for a while. Four hours was totally unacceptable for a Sunday evening.

I view this as a very expensive experience that I would likely not repeat. I will admit tho that i did appreciate the online reservation option. We went with a couple of friends and so we had two different hot plates. one of ours was smoking while the other was normal I assumed. The process wasn’t explained to us even tho we did tell them none of us had been there which made it a tad stressful. I am not sure what the broths were but they didnt smell enticing. I will end by saying if you must go, go for dessert but expect to spend just as much as a nice dinner for a few pieces of fruit and chocolate.

I made reservations at the Melting Pot for my best friend, her fiancé and myself. My best friend had no idea I was in town and I wanted to surprise her; it had been at least a year since I had seen her. I arrived early and the hostess, Jenny arranged to send me a text message after my best friend was seated. I then made arrangements with our awesome server, Jesse, to let me bring their drinks over to the table after they ordered. My best friend was super surprised and it was a great evening.
The only complaint I have is that they weren’t seated until 9pm for an 830 reservation. However, I know these things cannot be helped at times.
Thanks for an awesome experience!

This was my first fondue experience, Let me cut right to the chase:
Service: Maybe it was just an ‘off’ day for them, but all of the servers near our table were 30-​something men who appeared a bit … un-​showered. I want the people preparing my food table-​side to wear crisp uniforms and have a professional appearance (especially at this price-​point), but we didn’t get that. He was nice enough, but he disappeared several times. That’s a no-​no.
Food Quality: Very good. At this type of restaurant, you’re essentially boiling your food in a chicken broth type of mixture, which adds flavor and tenderness to the meat.
Price: As others have pointed out, this place is expensive. Prepare to pay $ 65 per person, depending on your selections.
Location: Located next to Castleton Mall, the building is a bit strange. Parking is tight, so you may end up parking in an adjacent business’s parking lot.
Overall, I suppose we’ll probably come back again sometime, but I guess fondue just isn’t my thing. It’s a novelty type of experience, which you’re either «in to» or not.

First off, spinach and artichoke fondue is to die for. The four course experience was highly enjoyable and each dish hit the spot. The flavors in each course were rich. We decided to get the classic fondue which was chocolate and peanut butter. Heavenly.
What made the experience even better, was our server, Mike. He had the best personality and we enjoyed sharing stories with him. He was very thorough in explaining the menu and answering questions. You’ve got a good one on your hands, melting pot!

Went there for our anniversary dinner and really enjoyed it. The setting was quite romantic, lights were dim and ambiance was great. The service was also truly outstanding. Food was a tad pricey but the other qualities made up for it.

First time at this location, and the service could have been much better. I walked in two hours before close and stood at the host counter for a few minutes, peered around and noticed a few people dressed in all black (who I assumed worked there) chatting in the other room of the restaurant.
So I meandered around to look for my table of friends.
We were celebrating two birthdays (ten ladies total) so we all ordered desserts. The menu was confusing to me, and when our waitress approached us to order, she blankly stared at me although I explained that I didn’t understand what I was choosing from. She didn’t take the time or initiative to walk me through it. Perhaps she was tired.
I shared a plate with a friend and ordered the dark chocolate fondue. We both ordered coffees. The dessert was fantastic! It’s quite filling too, although at first it doesn’t look like much. The coffee was very satisfying (friend got regular, I drank decaf… Don’t make fun of me), and our waitress was good about refills… But forgot about one of our girl’s dessert plates (which she quickly retrieved when she mentioned it). She put a candle on two of the plates though, made a festive encouraging atmosphere!
The experience of fondue is fun, which sort of justifies why it costs so much ($ 8/​plate… But really per person? This was so confusing)
We asked a waiter walking past if he’d take our group picture, and he joked how we could party and dance on the table tops, which was interesting.
I would like to try the restaurant again but with less people… I’d give this 3.5 stars. I enjoyed dining here with friends.

Always a good time. This was our 3^rd time coming. This time just the hubby and I for anniversary. They treat you very special with your own private little spot. Next time will bring my 10 year old daughter. She will love it.

I finally decided to try this pricey restaurant. I went to celebrate a good friend’s birthday. I did not realize that the restaurant only takes reservations. My friend showed me around and said it is a good place for a date because they are private, cozy sitting areas and it shows what a man would pay for his lady. Wow!
My three-​course meal, which included a salad, a Steak Lovers (Premium filet mignon, teriyaki-​marinated sirloin, and Certified Angus Beef® sirloin), and special Lava dessert, was over $ 40. I am so glad that I went with friends who showed me how the process works. The waiter prepared the cheese, oils, and dessert in front of us. We did the dipping of the breads, veggies, and desserts and the cooking of the meats. I was not fond of paying for limited services and still having to cook my own food. Overall, the meal was excellent.
We thought the meal would take 2 hours, but the service was slow so it took us 4 hours. Thank goodness that I was with friends who I could social with!
The scroll (birthday gift) was for the wrong date. It was interesting when corrected. The other gift is a candle in your paid dessert and supposedly singing the birthday song.

We have been meaning to try the melting pot for at least a year now. As typical south siders we kept putting it off because of its location. We finally went and are so glad we did.
First off this location is in a strip mall, However it is quite nice inside. The seating is mostly booths. Ours was a half circle and we loved it. The dining room is divided into sections which makes it quieter so that’s nice. Be warned the lighting is definitely romantic in nature, so you may have to squint to see the menu.
Our server Devin was very nice. She asked if we’d dined before and when we said we hadn’t she very nicely explained the menu. We had already looked at it on their website so we had an idea of what we wanted, which I highly recommend.
We had the four course experience. My wife did the classic and I opted for the French quarter. It’s honestly the best and most straight forward meal option.
The first course is cheese fondue. We had the cheddar and loved it. You get bread, veggies, and apples for dipping. There are about eight options of cheese fondue. We’ll probably do alpine next time.
Next comes salad. They are smallish, but very good. And honestly I wouldn’t have eaten a larger salad so I guess they’ve got the size down.
The entrée was amazing. I got sausage, shrimp, chicken, and filet. My wife’s had pork medallions, shrimp, and teriyaki sirloin. It also comes with an assortment of sauces for dipping. I liked them all, particularly the Gorgonzola port.
Lastly and obviously most important was dessert. We opted for the bananas foster and it was great. It comes with an assortment of sweets for dipping and is actually fun to watch them make.
Overall this was a really fun experience for us. I highly recommend this as a date night or special occasion.
I would also like to address some of the things mentioned by other reviews. There were a few people who made mention of the fact that they were turned away despite seeing empty tables. This place operates primarily on reservations. So the table you see empty is probably for someone due to arrive. Be aware this is the only location in the state. Also, if you want a huge steak go to a steak house. The selection they offer is geared towards a multi course experience and not towards large portions.

A fun experience, but be prepared to spend a good amount of time (3 hours!) and money ($ 300) there. There were 5 people in our party, and we had 2 bottles of wine to go with our 4-​course meals. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable, and it was great to sit down to a relaxed, slow-​paced meal. Make sure you save room for the chocolate fondue!

Our waitress changed our minds from confused to excited when we came to the melting pot for not only our first time but our anniversary, a young blonde woman named Tierra helped us. The food was awesome and the service was impeccable! Thank you for a wonderful dinner, it means the world!

Went to try to enjoy an impromptu dessert with my family. Despite being able to count 6 empty tables from walking past the windows upon entry and standing in the lobby, we were denied a table as the hostess said they were full.
We won’t be returning.

My first time to the Melting Pot. I was taken here for my B-​day since we both love Fondue so much. Honestly, I’ve avoided this place for a while because I’ve heard it was really expensive for fondue.
We decided to get a cheese fondue as well as entrée fondue. We started off with the Alpine Classic cheese Fondue for 2 and it was great. Just like a traditional Fondue should taste. They provide you with french bread, honey wheat bread, apples and vegetables. I can firmly say, we loved this portion of our meal.
Next we had our oil fondue for entrees. I had a mixed plate which was Ahi Tuna, Duck Breast and Pork Medallions. She had the «Summer catch» which was scallops, crab claw, shrimp and Ahi Tuna. The entrée comes with mushrooms and broccoli as well as sauces on the side to mix and match different flavors.
Everything here was very good in my opinion, but there were 2 stand-​outs. The Ahi Tuna was phenomenal and the Pork Medallions were also amazing.
The only thing that holds me back from giving this place the full 5 star is the fact that you do not get a large portion of meat in your entrée for the price. This is the reason I think people call this place expensive. An entrée is roughly $ 25 and you get about 6−7oz of meat roughly. That is basically $ 50 – 55 a pound which is brutal for a non-​steakhouse.
We both agreed that we would come back, but just for the cheese fondue next time as it really was our favorite part of the night.

Pros
+Nice for groups who want to hang out for a bit
+main entrées
+dessert
Cons
–the front staff was very awkward, they all seemed to not know what was going on, and they had very poor people skills. Luckily waitress was just fine
–venue isn’t all that, look old and beat up on the inside
–if you don’t reserve they seem to really not care for your service. Walk ins don’t feel as welcomed
–the bread and cheese part was not good at all. Boring all around and really didn’t start the night out well
Overall:
It was nice to try something different. I feel this idea could be better realized. The 4 course meals is 50/​50, with the opening being weak, (the cheese part with bread and vegetables), salad was very plain, then finally entrée, now this was some very nice tasting food! And dessert (stingy on the dippables) but overall it was an «ok» experience.

I went to the Melting Pot for the first time yesterday with my girlfriend to celebrate our anniversary. I went, not really knowing what to expect. I realized shortly after I arrived, that it was going to be an experience!
The friendly staff there really made my first time at this establishment an experience, rather that a traditional sit down and just order something. They made sure to recognize that we were there for an event by giving us a hand written note and even candles on our desert! We will definitely being going back!

My wife and I decided it would be a good idea to take our two preschoolers to fondue. (As I type this, I am calling myself nuts!). We called for a reservation and the only one available was 3:30 — we took it.
First off — a tip for dining here with young children– if you are going to do it, this is a good time. The restaurant is not crowded. It takes a couple hours, so we were leaving at 5:30.
We got cheese, dinner, and Chocolate. They offer kids portions of everything, but for us, there was enough food by only ordering for the two of us and letting them share.
Cheese: we loved it. It was fun. The kids could do the cheese on their own. They mostly just ate the items without dipping in the cheese though.
Main dish: we ordered a trio for each of us. This let each of us order three smaller portions. We ordered: chicken, shrimp, tuna, spinach ravioli, chicken pasta, and something else (I can’t remember because the kids are it all :)). Since we ordered two, we got one with oil and one with broth for cooking. Then we could cook any with either style. We liked the broth better.
The kids liked everything– except the tuna — fine with me!
Chocolate: we got one dark and one milk with peanut butter. Of course we all liked this! It really is better to wait a while for it to melt, but that’s difficult. On this I don’t care for all the sweets that come with it to dip in chocolate. I would prefer to only have fruit. That may be an option– I didn’t think about it until just now… Drat
All in all it was a fun trip. Two hours in a restaurant with preschoolers– it wasn’t all fun. But, the staff helped and was great. The gave them paper and pens to color. The gave us to-​go boxes (my wife asked: good idea sweetie!). The boxes were good so we could pack up extras as we needed it and didn’t have to wait.
The bill — $ 150 with tip. We only had water to drink. Seems a bit steep for a lunch. We knew what we were getting into, but I didn’t think it’d be that much. I think there is probably a way to have made that cheaper and still had enough food. Que’ sera. No regrets, I’d do it over, but probably won’t do it again for a while.

I went to the Melting Pot on a date with my girlfriend for the «North Side Nights» festival that is going on currently (which I highly recommend checking out). First off, I have to give kudos to their reservations; I originally had reservations for 5:45 but I ended up getting called into work and they were able to bump them back to 7:45 and totally saving our date night.
We showed up and were curious about the dress code (we were dressed business) and we saw people dressed in gym shorts and sweatshirts to suits and dresses, so I am not sure what the actual dress code is here. We were seated quickly and the initial staff members were very nice. We were seated in the back corner, quite romantically (that was pretty cool). Our server Nicki was phenomenal throughout the entire meal.
We started off with a bottle of wine and the Cheddar Cheese fondue with bread, apples, and veggies. Nicki said there was garlic mixed in with the fresh cheddar and it was absolutely delicious. We then ordered the Land and Sea (chicken, shrimp, steak) and the French Quarter (same except with Andouille Sausage and spicier) with a type of wine based broth (sorry, I cannot remember what it was exactly). It came out and had mixed veggies in it and was very good. This is the first time I had been at a restaurant like this and I really enjoyed cooking my own meal. Nicki was very informative in how to cook and spice and sauce everything correctly, along with giving her own personal descriptions of what she likes to mix and match, which is always appreciated.
For desert we had the original chocolate and peanut butter melt with Rice Krispies (I was sold right there), cake, cookie, and brownies. It was seriously delicious and so sweet that Wilford Brimley could make a commercial just off of this meal
The manager, Keith came out checked on us and asked how our visit was. He was very polite and genuinely courteous.
I would definitely recommend checking out the Melting Pot for a date night. It also seemed that they handled large groups as well! I will definitely be back!
Overall, on the price it was around $ 90, which I thought was maybe a little high, but not enough to deter me from going back.

Historically I have only come to the melting pot for a date night, romantic experience. My wife loves it, so I planned a surprise birthday dinner for her with family on Easter. I made a reservation for a party of 11, including 3 children.
To my surprise, they had a children’s menu. It is only a scaled down version of normal, but it is lower cost. They also allowed the parents to just share their food with the children.
We were seated in the large party room which was nice. We didn’t need to be quiet or worry about disturbing other guests that were there for the intimate setting.
The manager even made my wife a surprise plate with happy birthday written in chocolate and a candle in one of the deserts.
My only issue with the place is that they don’t have any beer on draft. Not local, not domestic. Nothing. I did enjoy a fountain square preachers daughter, but I would have preferred a local beer on tap.
Overall, the melting pot is a great location for any special occasion. Just make sure you have a reservation.