Liz P.
Yelp
I feel like I write a yearly Melting Pot review practically, ha, but I have to update it again, from 5 stars to 4 stars. Really the beginning of our meal was 2-3 stars but then it improved ...
Some backstory: I went here with 3 friends yesterday. This was the third time we had tried to go to MP this month. The first time, we had to cancel due to weather. The second time, I had scheduled a reservation for Super Bowl Sunday, on OpenTable, and the restaurant emailed me AT 3AM ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY saying they're not actually open that day, due to the game, and have to cancel my reservation. Super professional. They did later give us a dining credit, but I was still not pleased about that.
Third time's the charm, though, right?
I always expect to wait about 5-10 minutes at MP for a table even if I have a reservation, and that was the case this time. We had a 7pm reservation and were seated around 7:10/7:15. We asked for a table rather than a booth, and were seated in kind of a private room, which was nice ... so I thought. I think because of that, the waiter kept forgetting about us, because we didn't receive glasses of water until like 7:30 or 7:45pm.
After that snafu, the night was better, ish. First off: the food is always 5/5 stars at Melting Pot. We were there for the $25 special, which was only yesterday (though they are doing $26 today, 2/26; $27 tomorrow; and $28 today, same deal). The special included cheese fondue, salad, and entree fondue, and we were able to add chocolate fondue at the regular price ($8.95/person).
We had two burners at our table so our waiter let us do two different types of cheese, entree, and chocolate fondue, which was great. MP no longer upcharges for the entree cooking styles, which I was also pleased with. We had some sort of bacon fondue for the cheese course plus a garlic fondue; I actually liked the bacon one better. I had the California salad, and for entree, we had bourguignon - basically oil - and mojo cooking styles. The mojo was especially good with the veggies. Our waiter showed us how to make fried stuffed mushrooms, too (use the orange sauce for frying and add some Green Goddess sauce in the mushrooms first), which were fantastic. For chocolate, we got the caramel toffee and the s'mores; the caramel toffee took a long time to heat up, for some reason, so I liked the s'mores one better. They also flambé the s'mores fondue which makes for some cool pictures. :)
Our waiter was very personable and if it hadn't been for the loooooong wait at the beginning and really during the middle of the meal, too, if we are being honest, Melting Pot would still be getting 5/5 stars from me, regardless of their overall customer service. I also had the e-club coupon for free birthday chocolate-covered strawberries (don't forget to call ahead to reserve these), so I left with six strawberries, too.
I usually go to the Melting Pot about 1-2 times per year and due to the service, it's now a 4-star restaurant for me. Like I said, though, the food is always delicious, and you will definitely not leave hungry.