Worst restaurant meals in Seattle

[kiliki]

I have a sister who has an inexplicable love for chain restaurants, and every year she has a birthday party at a restaurant of her choice. Her choices are usually bad, though it is her birthday and I of course do not complain (to her). Last weekend we hit a new low:

The Melting Pot

I spent almost $60 (with a little wine) for sad precut veggies and bread, bland cheese fondue, little chunks of farmed salmon and chicken, and hideous dipping sauces. I am very bitter. And the place was PACKED. I know it was in Bellevue but c'mon, eastsiders, there is better. I mean, they don't even need chefs!! Why does it cost so much?!?

Does anyone else have people in their lives that drag them to places like this?

Edited March 2, 2004 by kiliki (log)

[clifford]

The Melting Pot was my worst "dining" experience, ever.

Party of four, industrial surroundings, idiotic server, cooked our own shitty food, $230, including tip.

Didn't get drunk. Didn't order the whole menu.

I saw the bill and half wanted to singe my face on the burner just so I would never forget the pain of the experience. Four years later, and I am still angry.

I have always wondered how they get a food service license, considering their biggest sellers are chicken and shrimp, both of which can be very hazardous if not handled properly.

DEATH TO THE MELTING POT!!!

[kieran]

amen.

one of our friends insists every year for her birthday that we go to the melting pot. there's nothing to be done about it: she likes the place. so every year we go and spend too much on totally craptacular food.

fondue is one of those things that can be okay if you make it at home. it makes absolutely no sense to me to go to a restaurant and pay $50 or $60 or $80/person for it, particularly a restaurant like the melting pot where the ingredients aren't even good. for my $50 i'd rather go get a better meal somewhere else.

[tighe]

I'm so glad to hear that there are other Melting Pot haters out there!....

The true travesty of it, to me, is that its so easy to make excellent fondue at home for a mere fraction of the price. I know a few people that consider it one of their favorite 'special occaision' places, it boggles my mind.

[kiliki]

Oh, no, I was hoping the bitterness would wear off but it doesn't look like it will.

[malarkey]

totally craptacular food.

LOL kieran!! I might have to use that...

[winesonoma]

Sounds like someone could make a real killing opening a real food place in that town. Unless it's like Spring Hill Florida, the home of fast food. One good restaurant in 50 miles.

[StInGeR]

Geez I saw the topic title and immediatly thought Olive Garden

[wesza]

Geez I saw the topic title and immediatly thought Olive Garden

I've been stuck going to both places several times as a guest.

Next to the "Melting Pot" I'll take "Olive Garden" every time.

One of my grand daughters commented that she wished the Melted Cheese Sauce served at the Melting Pot tasted as good as her Alfredo Sauce at Olive Gardens. She's only 10 years old but I agreed with her.

I'm bewildered that they continue to do so well, apparently opened a second place in Tacoma.

I'm often perplexed at Seattle area Restaurants that somehow capture the customers attention while there are quite a few places that actually are pretty good but not as popular as they deserve to be. It's a fickle market.

Even stranger the most mediocre Seattle Burger Place is constantly raved about even though it serves Frozen French Fries, uses a Low Priced Commercial Pre-Formed Beef Patty and Gross Greasy Onion Rings.

Irwin

[MsRamsey]

Even stranger the most mediocre Seattle Burger Place is constantly raved about even though it serves Frozen French Fries, uses a Low Priced Commercial Pre-Formed Beef Patty and Gross Greasy Onion Rings.

Kidd Valley?

[clifford]

winesonoma Posted on Mar 1 2004, 09:48 PM

  Sounds like someone could make a real killing opening a real food place in that town. Unless it's like Spring Hill Florida, the home of fast food. One good restaurant in 50 miles. 

The one I ate at is in Washington DC, with multiple locations in the greater DC area.

Not only is this disease insideous, but it is widespread.

[Fay Jai]

Mae's Phinney Ridge --- I remember back in the day, (maybe still) the place was packed on weekends with lines out the door. Had the misfortune of going...One of the WORST Chicken Fried Steaks in my life (SOB!) AND crappy, condescending service to boot. I grew up around restaurants, and I know how to politely complain...this is the one time that I wish I had not been polite. When they served me a severely (sp?) undercooked Chicken Fried Steak last year, they at least had the grace to a: bring me a new one and b: give me a gift certificate. (My wife loved her waffle, at least)

The only crappier meal I have had since that was the Mexican Club in Hong Kong....(Insert shudder here)

[Fay Jai]

The Rain Room??? Egads...

[girl chow]

I'm so glad to hear that there are other Melting Pot haters out there!....

The true travesty of it, to me, is that its so easy to make excellent fondue at home for a mere fraction of the price. I know a few people that consider it one of their favorite 'special occaision' places, it boggles my mind.

My dinner at the Seattle Melting Pot with my mom and two sisters was a horrifying ordeal. The food was just terrible and it was almost hysterical how bad the service was.

Jeff B. was our server's name, that bastard.

If it wasn't one thing it was another with Jeff B. He took forever to get our drinks, then he wouldn't let us move to a table with two burners (offering no explanation), so we had to limit our selections as we only had one burner -- and that burner didn't even work very well (we had to get a manager to come fix it). The pauses between courses were painfully long -- and the place was dead and they DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO ACTUALLY COOK OUR FOOD FOR US.

I was the designated 'complainer' of the table and when dessert rolled around and we had yet ANOTHER complaint, Jeff B., the bastard, actually *rolled his eyes* at me when I told him that the brownies and poundcake were frozen solid and were inedible. He didn't bother bringing us any that were defrosted, so we didn't bother leaving a tip.

Needless to say, we left pissed, with $150 less in our pockets and nauseated from all the grease. We all vowed never to return and we still haven't. I bet Jeff B. is still working there.

[tsquare]

Sounds like someone could make a real killing opening a real food place in that town. Unless it's like Spring Hill Florida, the home of fast food. One good restaurant in 50 miles.

The sad thing is that there are so many good restaurants in the area and still people select these as special occassion places.

[kiliki]

That Olive Garden post made me laugh. My previous worst restaurant, also courtesy of my sister, was Olive Garden.

[tighe]

I was the designated 'complainer' of the table and when dessert rolled around and we had yet ANOTHER complaint, Jeff B., the bastard, actually *rolled his eyes* at me when I told him that the brownies and poundcake were frozen solid and were inedible. He didn't bother bringing us any that were defrosted, so we didn't bother leaving a tip.

The most astonishing part of this story for me, gc, is that it didn't end with you busting out a can of whup-ass on Jeff....

[girl chow]

I so wanted to bust out the whup-ass on Jeff B.

[Schielke]

I dont want to infuriate myself again, but I will mention that the only time I questioned my love of food was when I ate at Todai Seafood Buffet in Redmond. I become enraged at the thought of that place.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

[marylyram]

My one experience with the Melting Pot involved meeting the son's girlfriend--all alone, just the 2 of us when she was in Seattle for a meeting-- for the first time ever. The M.P. had been open for only a short time, her conference was somewhere on the Center grounds, and I thought dunking stuff in cheese would give us a distracting activity. And how hard is it to make edible fondue????

I don't remember the name of the server, but I think it was probably Jeff B, but back before he became jaded. Back then, he was a total eager beaver, coming by every 2 minutes to (a) give us instruction in the use of the burner, (b) explain about how one dips one ingredients into the fondue pot © explain the cunning fondue forks (d) talk about putting various combos of things on the fork for a more advanced dipping experience (e) explain why he still hadn't brought the wine that the son's girlfriend and I desperately needed to break the ice with each other, (f) let us know that our dinner would be out very very shortly (g) etc ad nauseum...

Needless to say, the son's girlfriend and I bonded (sort of, kind of like any two survivors of a common disaster experience) and she's still in the son's big picture. If they ever decide to get married, I'm definitely going to take them somewhere else to celebrate!

[girl chow]

Hahaha, great post Marylyram! And welcome!

Ahhh, if only I had encountered Jeff B. before he became the totally jaded ubercrappy waiterboy he has become. So sad!

[LEdlund]

My horrible dinner at The Melting Pot was a year or so ago. Some friends were given a gift certificate and decided to take us. What are you going to do.....

Needless to say it was the same awful experience posted above. We couldn't believe it was so expensive for how horrible it was. And it got worse after a couple of bottles of wine and we started gabbing more than we were paying attention to the forks we had in the oil. Talk about overcooked shrimp!

The one upside: I serve fondue a lot at home but I had never used a batter for anything before, as they did at M. P. I made one for our Christmas Eve dinner and everyone loved it!

[SeaGal]

Thank you all! I've always been meaning to try out the Melting Pot and you've all prevented me from the ordeal. I'll just have to dust off my fondue pot and make my own.

My worst dining experience was at the Rimrock Steakhouse on Lake City Way. My husband and I decided to go in since it looked like a classic dive/hole-in-the-wall steakhouse and sometimes these can be good. Egad! It was, bar none, the worst steak dinner I've ever had.

First of all, the place was truly a dive in terms of decor and (lack of) atmosphere. We were the only ones there as well. The salad was wilted, brown iceberg with lackluster dressing. The steak was gristly and flavorless, the vegetable was extremely watery cauliflower in a bland cheese paste and I don't remember much about the potato. It was so bad that we were almost in hysterics by the time the meal was over

Since then, whenever we have a less than stellar meal, we always invoke the Rimrock and it reminds us that things aren't really so bad after all!

Jan

[wesza]

Even stranger the most mediocre Seattle Burger Place is constantly raved about even though it serves Frozen French Fries, uses a Low Priced Commercial Pre-Formed Beef Patty and Gross Greasy Onion Rings.

Kidd Valley?

Nope, it's "Red Mill Burgers" i've tried it many times and even had someone bring me one as a "treat"? I'm completely confused why this place is on so many peoples lists of favorite places, especially since at least fries at Dicks are better the Burger costs less and shakes are pretty good.

Yesterday I was surprised at the improvement in food at the "Lockspot Cafe".

Had lunch with Cauliflower Cream Soup and Clam Chower

Special Of "Fresh Cod Creole

Fried Fish Sandwich with Chips

Both Soups were pretty good

Cod Creole was large fresh Filet with a tasty mild Creole Sauce made from scratch.

Fish Sandwich was same fresh cod, correctly fried with nice batter and fresh cut fries. Definately a improvement.

Total amount of tab was $18.00 with excellent service.

Irwin n

[Gorgik]

The real crime about "The Melting Pot" in Bellevue is not that the food is bad, or that it's a chain. The real crime (and I'd prosecute if I could) is that it replaced Ackka Bell, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants.

Worst meal in recent memory was Thanksgiving at Six-Seven (and I've eaten at Applebee's since then).