Simply Fondue Dallas — Restaurant in Dallas

Have dined here twice. Had one outstanding experience and one that was less than ideal. The outstanding experience was made so by 1) a personable, efficient, well-heeled server who went above & beyond, 2) the server's willingness to tweak the standard menu slightly to accommodate the diners' tastes, and 3) impeccable food quality & exquisite flavor. Couldn't wait to return - even though we have to travel almost 2 hours each way. My family & I recommended the server & establishment to all who would listen. Many even reported back with equally glowing experiences!

The 2nd experience left my family and me gobsmacked by the glaring disparity between the 2 meals & servers. We happily drove to our favorite restaurant to celebrate a particularly happy event. This day, our server was brusk & a bit dismissive. But even that can be overlooked for exceptional food.

Unfortunately, the food was not altogether up to snuff either. The fruit, brownies, and bread were impeccable. The veg were without blemish but became unusually oil-logged and salty, even when cooked al dente. (Won't be using oil to cook the main again...) But the meat was, frankly, unsuitable even for a bargain bin canned stew. Almost every bite was fatty, inedibly tough, or riddled with sinew. And exceptionally salty!

Fearing other diners would be equally displeased at our beloved Simply Fondue, we brought this to the attention of the manager (Jessica, I think). She apologized sincerely, offered to replace our meat immediately, reported that the (brand new) chef had been admonished, and followed up later re: our satisfaction with the meal quality. She even discounted the bill heavily - even though we were using a Groupon - and offered a coupon for the New Year's Eve dining event. But even uncharacteristically sub-par food can be forgiven with gracious management response such as this; no restaurant or chef is wholly perfect.

The evening's coup de gras occurred when our server remarked loudly that I looked perfectly healthy and inquired as to "what [was] so wrong with [me] that I had to have a dog". (Due to the aftermath of an acute neural injury, I am accompanied everywhere by my service dog. That I am compromised only becomes obvious when I walk, and she had not seen me arrive or be seated.) I stared at her blankly, paused, and attempted to change the topic. But this fearless soul dared to pose the question again. After a silent 10-count and a deep breath, I gave her a vague answer, and that seemed to assuage her curiosity. The exchange was so awkward and inappropriate that the server's trainee (Christine, I think. She seemed professional, attentive, and personable. I wouldn't hesitate to request her section.) felt compelled to return to our table alone later and apologize for her mentor's behavior.

Being reasonably accustomed to insensitive ones who tread out of bounds like our server, I sighed and returned to my meal. My family, however, was incensed and wanted her job. They settled for me taking the server aside after the meal and explaining gently why her query was inappropriate and pleading with her not to repeat this behavior with others. Ordinarily, I would have addressed the matter politely with management, but after the fiasco with the meal itself, I was reticent to make another negative report.

As far as I am concerned, the matter is closed and well behind me. But, that said, it is unlikely that I recommend this location to family/friends again until I have another outstanding meal here. And honestly, that may be quite a while. Two hours each way is a dreadfully long way to drive for a pricey evening that has equal odds of being absolutely phenomenal or, literally, painfully disappointing...

To those with service animals or disabilities: you would do well to steel yourselves before dining at the Lower Greenville location in case this particular server still haunts the...

Negative stars if I could. This was the worst service received in a long time. My friend made a reservation hours before for seven people and was clear that there were seven people. The restaurant confirmed for a table of six. We show up and told that they cannot seat us, despite the fact that we had a reservation and we were clear about more people than the six. So there was a miscommunication right off the bat, which was on both ends. HOWEVER, it's their restaurant and they should know how everything works, so they need to rectify the issue.

Instead, they keep us seated at the bar for an hour. We see tons of people being seated, served, and given checks while we wait. We finally got a booth where we are squeezed in, which is fine, but they are NOT attentive nor do they check in or ask us what we want to drink or check the heater.

The waiter tells us that we should get the all inclusive (complete rounds) of fondue, which is $50 and that a la carte is basically the same price. IT IS NOT. The a la carte starts at $27, so he was trying to pressure us. People at our table, we do not mind the price, but we don't want to be pressured that way. You can upsell, but don't straight up say $50 is like $27. That's stupid.

We had to ask a busser to clear the table a few times, because (DUH) we were crowded. AGAIN, they don't check in to service us, unless we are asking.

One of us calls for the GM to address the service. The GM comes over and replies by blaming us for this and that (replacing the heating/pots) and that is why the service is so long. I completely disagree. The butter was already burning in them, cause WHAT? - no one checked in. Also, the first one was deep fry, however, we didn't request that, because our server didn't specify. We didn't bring those issues up, what we brought up was the fact no one is attending to us properly.

A good GM would tell the servers in the back, "This table has already waited for an hour to eat. Make sure to be extra prompt and check in." If the GM is called, he or she would say, "Hey let us make things right. We'll be checking in more regularly." Instead, the entire dinner takes four hours, two people from our table has to dip, because two of them are mothers and had to get back to their kids.

I'm surprised all of us didn't just walk out, because the GM was extremely rude with us and only looked to blame and not to problem solve. We're patrons... we can't tell servers what to do, but we can complain about the service and let them know (and we did so directly with the GM). The GM can and should solve the problem, however, she doesn't do anything, except act jumpy.

Don't come here if you have a big group. The seating is mostly little booths for couples. This place is rude and has no...

My husband selected the day before Valentine’s Day and an early meal time to avoid crowds. We arrived at 5:30pm for our meal; I think there was only one table ahead of us. The decor is lovely and the high-backed booths give a feeling of intimacy and privacy.

For Valentine’s Week, there is a single special menu. The first course is a cheese fondue with bread and veggies. We chose the Wagyu Cheddar and it was absolutely wonderful. For the salad course, my husband had The Chef and I had the Strawberry Champagne, both were wonderful. Then we waited. And we waited. Around 7:00 the hostess refilled our water glasses and my husband mentioned we had been there an hour and a half and still didn’t have our main course; she spoke to our waiter who showed up a few minutes later. (note: we were never asked if we wanted anything besides water to drink. We didn’t so this wasn’t a terrible thing, but it would have been nice to have been asked.)

The main course was a choice of meats and veggies that you could either cook in oil or on a Scandinavian Skillet. We had never used the skillet method so that is what we chose. I really liked the shrimp and scallops, but the beef and chicken were thick cuts that took a food amount of time to cook. My husband noted that some of the beef and chicken had some gristly parts, which for the money we paid, I would not have expected. Unfortunately, the chicken took so long that the spices on the outside burned. There was also a lot of the clarified butter that the meat was fried in popping. I did not like this experience at all. (See the photo of my husbands shirt sleeve.) Both my husband and I had pops that hit our faces and necks. Next time we’ll use a different cooking method. One other thing, the veggies were good, but unseasoned and there was no salt or pepper on our table.

Then we waited. Not as long as before, but a while, before we were asked for our dessert course selection. We chose the Irish Cream Chocolate which was served flambé to allow for roasting marshmallows. It was delicious.

We finally received our check two and a half hours after we arrived. While I expected the meal to last a while, especially with it being Valentine’s Week, I felt our stay was a bit too long. We do plan to return in the future to see if our experience tonight is the norm or just one of those things...