The Melting Pot

[aliwaks]

HATED IT!!!

Here are all the ways I figured one could be injured and possibly die at The Melting Pot.

1. Touching to pot to see how hot it really is (or am I the only one who did that?)

2. Poked in the face with wayward fondue fork

3. Salmonella poisoning from having to wrench bits of raw chicken apart and cram them on above fondue fork (shouldn't we get antibacterial wet naps with the raw chicken?)

4.Brain may explode due to irritating narrative from wait staff ("who here likes GARRRRLIC?)

5. Inside mouth burn from too hot cheese

6. Choke on very stale dry bread that has not sufficently sopped up the melt-y cheese from a bag mix

Food Comments:

Went with a large group, which was awkward because it was really hard to eat anything that was not directlyt in front of you unless you were sitting in the center then had some access to all fondue pots. I am not so much a fan of that kind of dining since it turns into a food frenzy.

And I hated this one server who just went on and on and on I felt like I was dining in the Magic Kingdom with his cretaively perky narrative from hell

Ok the mexican one with chips was better than the nachos at the movies

The traditional fondue was at but kirsch-y for my taste well for all of our tastes if was a piping hot cocktail of kirsch and cheese hmmm not so much with that one

The tomato basil was ok

Its just that the bread sucked, it just did, would have liked a mixture of bread tecture options (bread sticks? toasty croutons?)

I can't get over tiny little cut up pieces of peeled baby carrot, I felt like I was 3 years old.

The apples were good

My salad was swimming I mean swimming with dressing disgusting

The meat fiesta or whatever it was that we had, kind of grossed me out with raw chicken on a plate with all the other things

The one that was supposedly fried never got fry-y was just weird

The other ones tasted industrial amounts of dried herb mix

I don't think I really like boiled meat

we did not stay for dessert so I cannot comment on that but I cannot say I get too excited about sprinkling oreo crumbs on my out of season strawberries

[philadining]

4.Brain may explode due to irritating narrative from wait staff ("who here likes GARRRRLIC?)

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That's what the long forks are for! "And this is our house special mix of AAAGGHH!!!"

[spaghetttti]

Oh my word, aliwaks!! Burned, poked & choked (potentially)...

No mention of dessert fondue. Anyone partake in the Franklin Mint as Sandy recommended? Can you go just for some chocolate fondue, and/or would it be worth it?

Edited November 16, 2005 by spaghetttti (log)

[KatieLoeb]

4.Brain may explode due to irritating narrative from wait staff ("who here likes GARRRRLIC?)

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That's what the long forks are for! "And this is our house special mix of AAAGGHH!!!"

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Nice.

Can you go just for some chocolate fondue, and/or would it be worth it?

Defintely. In fact, our waiter (who was verbose but in a helpful and not too annoying way) said he gets folks that just come in for cheese and then chocolate fondues as their meal. Sounds like a great one-two combo to me.

[Homer] Mmmmmmm cheese. Mmmmmm Chocolate. [/Homer]

Ali, I'm sorry you were so tortured by your experience at the Melting Pot. Could it have been the "too large of a group" situation that made it worse? The bread we had with our cheese fondue was fine. Not crumbling fresh, but certainly not stale. It holds it shape better in the cheese if it isn't too crumbly anyway. Our salads weren't overdressed. The sauces (at least the three I liked the best) were very tasty. Going with good company always helps. Philadining and I were laughing so hard we probably didn't let some of the small stuff bother us. Perhaps if we'd been more analytical and not been so silly we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves as much. But that kind of would have defeated the purpose I think.

[serpentine]

aliwaks, at least they had bread when you dined there. They RAN OUT when I was there several years ago. (7ish-8ish pm reservation on a weekend. Not some weird hour.) They brought us past-their-prime storebought tortillia chips to eat with our traditional cheese fondue.

[Shannon_Elise]

Better late than never.

In searching for a review of this place in which to give my own, I came upon this thread. Up front I will say that I am not in Pennsylvania, but in Columbus, Ohio. We went to the Melting Pot at Easton Towne Center. I am going to presume that since it is a chain, my review will still apply in this forum. Or at least I hope!

I resisted this place for a while, mostly because I refuse to spend my own money to cook my own food at a place I just paid about ten bucks in gas to get to. So, new boyfriend's parents come into town and they want to go to "The Melting Pot." Hey, if they want to spend almost $50 bucks a piece (to this poor community newspaper editor, that's a hell of a lot) on dunking food into a pot, then have at it.

We arrive at this place and had to walk down two flights of stairs. This place felt like it was in a cellar. Everyone of us practically needed a flashlight to read the menu it was so dark in there. For the four of us, we were seated at a table with only one burner and were flatly refused a request to move to a table with two burners. So it turned out that not just two people had to agree on a fondue, but four people had to agree on one.

We ended up doing the least expensive version of "The Big Night Out" at $66 per couple, not including drinks.

For the first fondue, we had the Emmenthaler one described above with the kirschwasser - however it bugged the crap out of me the way the waitress butechered the name of the alcohol. You would think that working there for a while as it seemed she had would have taught her how to pronounce it. The apples were crisp, though not particularly flavorful without the cheese, the bread was not bad (but not good either) and the veggies seem to have come out of the salad bar at Meijer's grocery store.

The kicker for me was when the waitress set down the apples and said "A lot of people are really shocked to be served apples with cheese!" We must be so behind the times in Columbus if that comes as a shock. It's quite sad really. After 30 minutes and awkward conversation - we moved on to the protein portion of the meal.

We had the "Coq au Vin" which was an additional $6 per person and was a mix of chicken broth, red wine, garlic, mushrooms, parsley and a shot of pepper from the waitresses pepper holster she whipped from behind her back. The dunkables were "filet mignon" (which is in quotations because if that beef was filet mignon, then I am the queen of England), raw shrimp, "ahi tuna" in quotations for the same reason as the beef, cajun-spiced chicken, pierogies? and more veggies. The waiter then told you how long to cook your food (2 minutes for some, 1.5 minutes for others). Who actually sits there and times how long each thing is in the boiling pot of liquid? Wouldn't that take away from the impossibly stimulating conversation that you are having over a pot of canned stock and boxed wine?

After the meat it was time to move on to the dessert. It tasted like warmed Hershey's syrup.

Overall, discounting the food, the experience was worth a thousand stories. Would I go back and pay out of my own poor pocket? Hell no. If someone else offered to pay and I had three hours to kill? Sure, why not. But then, I would only turn down a free meal if it was at Olive Garden.

Shannon