Melting Pot — Restaurant in Addison

This needs your ATTENTION NOW. Before someone is poisoned, injured, angry enough to threaten. The conditions I recently experienced need to be changed and brought to the owners attention. This is NOT how a restaurant works. We made 7:30 reservations, arrived, sat at a poorly lit dingy corner. We had menus and a drink order was taken, half of which arrive within 5 minutes,(no that the good part). The rest of the drinks arrived 30 minutes later. We has to ask two to three times for them. Well that should have been a premonition of the night. We ordered our cheese course. The waitress actually delivered this course within 30 minutes(before the cocktails). That was the most we saw of any wait staff, the five minutes while she prepared the first course. We ordered entrees for 4 people and waited. The cheese fondue was gone but the pots continued to burn the reminents for 20 minutes. Oil was brought to start heating. An hour and a half later, the oil was burnt to a possible fire hazard it was so hot. The other pot was cool to the touch. ONE AND A HALF HOURS, NO WAITRESS, NO REFILLS, NO FOOD, SMOKING OIL AND THE WAITRESS WAS SOMEWHERE ELSE BECAUSE SHE NEVER WALKED BY OUR TABLE. When we tracked her down she finally came by not with our dinner but excuses. Blamed it on the kitchen, large parties, etc. We were able to ask for refills. So at 9:30 another server brought food. And proceeded to pick up the dishes with her long nails stuck in the food then drop my order all over the floor. So everyone else got ready to cook. Skewers of meat were dropped in - the first pot was so cold after an hour of heating, it didn't cook. The second pot was so hot, oil splattered everywhere, my hands, arms, even over the table side. It was at a flash fire point and smelled burnt. We captured another waiter to adjust the pots, not having seen our waitress (she didn't deliver the food or check on us but we had to track her down.) She went to tell the manager so he could check the pot temp. Said it was too hot, don't use it. Then left.

So I still have no food, its been 2 hours, we have no working pots, entrees on the table unable to cook. Finally requested that they take the smoking, burning oil away. Got a grill only to find the restaurant isn't equipped with vents for the excessive smoke from grilling. My eyes are watering but at 10pm I finally have my raw fish and meat to cook. What a cluster of poor, indifferent service, poorly maintained equipment, improperly vented service area, untrained waitstaff. All for a paltry few apples, mushrooms, broccoli, oddly cut meat some thick, some thin. No instruction, no service, lousy barely seasoned "meat".

It was my birthday celebration. My children wanted to provide me with a very nice dining evening. I am not only livid for our treatment but sad for their embarrassment at taking me into such a fiasco. Will not return. I will tell everyone I know to avoid this dive. It is not worthy to survive the pandemic and recession. I hope something better replaces this poor excuse...

My wife, myself and my daughter went to the addison location on Father's day. We arrived about 15 min early and were greeted by the host. The host noted that we only had a reservation for 2, but I explicit made a reservation for 3. She made a comment about "correcting it for me" in what I caught as a bit passive aggressive.

In hindsight, we should have left to go over to eat at BJ's across the street right then, but we persisted hoping the experience would improve and it was just a moment.

We sit at the bar waiting to be seated. There is no real designated waiting area and so we wandered to the bar and just toyed with the idea of getting a drink. Which we didn't as we were seated about 5 min after the time we were schedule for our reservation.

We are seated back in what felt like a corner. It takes about 10 minutes for anyone to greet us. Finally, our waitress, Annei (I believe), took our order. I was expecting to be sold this "forever fondue" deal that is on their website and supposedly started on father's day, but there was no word about it. Ultimately, we did pay the price of a 4 course meal that was equal to the 'forever fondue" price so I can't really say this is a problem. I just didn't hear anything about it. Not a single phrase of "forever fondue" was uttered to me. I just thought it was odd.

I would say that our waitress, Annei, was good. She was kind and performed her job fine.

The food, on the other hand, was lacking. The cheese fondue at the start was ok, we got the "bacon bacon bacon" fondue. We got through our initial food bites quickly and had to sit there watching the fondue become a solid brick of radiating cheese.

The salad course was absolutely terrible. My salad had old lettuce and my wife's salad was soaked in dressing. At this point, I just wanted to cut our losses and go across the street to BJ's, but we were determined to see this through.

The main course had come and we got veggie broth with "classics" meat and pacific rim. The meat was good with my daughter constantly asking me if her shrimp was cooked through. I thought this course was good. The biggest negative to this course was the mushrooms not being washed and had dirt on them and we were told that they'll wash off in our broth. I might be crazy, but I don't care for top soil in my cooking broth.

The dessert course was the best part and, fortunately, helped bring this experience up a star, but just barely. At this point in the experience, I was fondly looking out the window at BJ's restaurant across the street.

I wanted to like this experience. I picked this place for my father's day dinner with my family only to have an experience that has caused us to set up a "makeup" father's day dinner elsewhere.

One thing I would recommend is to get a live slow jazz band in there to improve the experience. It was dead and felt like we were in pergatory. This place needs an experience overhaul. I do not feel like this experience was worth the $233 price tag...

Disappointing Dining Experience

My recent visit to this restaurant was highly disappointing. Upon arrival, my party was met with an unwelcoming host who did not greet us. While we were seated promptly, our server took several minutes to acknowledge us. When she finally approached, she appeared distracted, focused on her handheld device rather than engaging with us.

After taking our drink order, she disappeared for some time before returning with our beverages. We were dining with two toddlers, yet they were given glass cups, which proved too heavy for them. Unsurprisingly, one of the drinks was accidentally dropped, creating a large spill that spread across the table and underneath it. Despite this, the server did not offer napkins or assistance in cleaning up the mess, leaving a significant puddle near electrical outlets used for warming devices—an obvious safety hazard.

Service continued to be slow. It took an excessive amount of time for our food order to be taken, to the point that the pots were already smoking. When the server finally brought out the cheese course, she had to make multiple trips back to retrieve forgotten ingredients. While this was a minor inconvenience, it contributed to an overall lack of attentiveness.

When the main courses arrived, they were left sitting on a transport table as the server attended to another party. After waiting several minutes, one of my dining companions took it upon themselves to distribute the food. At this point, the dirty dishes from the previous course were still on the table, which remained wet from the earlier spill. We attempted to absorb the liquid with our cloth napkins, but they were ineffective.

To add to our frustration, when we requested additional Green Goddess sauce and a rescue spoon, we were informed that we could not have the amount we asked for because they were running low.

At this point, we were completely over the experience and decided to take our dessert course to go. When the server brought it out, she had given us the wrong dessert items. After we pointed out the mistake, she returned to the kitchen and, rather than properly correcting the order, simply threw some nuts into the box and handed it back to us.

To make matters worse, when we requested the check, it arrived with two additional items we had not ordered. We immediately pointed out the error, but it took the server 15 minutes to correct it. Once she finally returned with the adjusted bill, I placed my card in the checkbook right away. However, she had disappeared once again, leaving us waiting another 15-20 minutes before we could finally pay and leave.

For a restaurant chain I have frequented in multiple states over the past 20 years, this was by far my worst experience. The lack of leadership was evident, as when we inquired about speaking with a manager, we were told they were “hiding out in the office.” Between the poor service, slow response times, and multiple mistakes, this visit was...