Melting Pot — Restaurant in Forest Hills

(UPDATE: I bumped the review up to 3 stars because Mike, the General Manager reached out to learn about our experience, offer his apologies, and attempt to make it right. This goes a long way in my book. Thanks Mike. We’ll be visiting again.)

We frequent melting pot because my Wife loves it. Tonight, we had probably the worst service we’ve ever had here. I didn’t get the young ladies name because I was frustrated and just wanted the experience to be over. Very short black hair and dark skin. Anytime she was at our table, she was very short and seemed like in a rush. We would have most definitely ordered more drinks and desserts if she had given us 2 seconds to speak. She would run through her spiels and then gone. I had to call her down as she was leaving just to get a glass of wine. She comes to our table as we’re eating the cheese course and she spills an entire glass of ice water on my wife and the table. She gave what felt like a reluctant “sorry” and then laughed as she was arranging her tray. Brought back a kitchen towel and gave it to my wife for her to dry herself off and dry the table ourselves. Then leaves the soaked napkins, straw, and towel sitting on the table even though she came by twice until one of her coworkers took it away for us. Once we moved to the entree course our drinks ran dry and she never returned or offered to fill them. We finished entrees and sat there for quite some time until she finally came back slinging dessert and refills on the table. I would have liked a water instead of an unsweetened tea for a refill or at least had lemon like I asked for with my first glass. My Wife’s coke was basically water. She brings the chocolate fondue out with the alcohol already poured in the chocolate. I’ve never seen it done this way before. She sat it on fire and also left us unattended while it burned which has never happened before. It burned considerably longer than it normally does. To the point the marshmallow was black and I had no choice but to stir it before the flame went out. May be perfectly fine but the chocolate looked broken and did not taste good. We’ve had it many times before. She also brought the check with the dessert and gave 0 opportunity to order anything additional, request other drinks or anything. We never saw her again after that until we were leaving. She was sitting behind the front desk on her cell phone. She said “you all have a good night”. I was frustrated and didn’t respond as I heard my wife say “you too”. Then I hear the waitress mumble what sounded like “ugh that was rude.” For context, the male waiter that was in the same section as her did a 10 times better job. He was more attentive, personable, accommodating, and kept busy making sure his tables were clean and his customers were taken care of. Meanwhile, she leaves the tray stand half full of dirty dishes sitting next to our table for a long time. He comes by and tries to move it so he can clean his table or something and she snaps at him telling him no she needs it. Long story short, either she was EXTREMELY busy behind the scenes where we could not see, or she is extremely lazy and has terrible customer service skills. Do yourself a favor Melting Pot and either get this young lady some more training/supervision or put her somewhere that isn’t customer facing. Terrible experience. ...

🎂Such a fab dinner last night! 🔥🍸🍱🥗Food was awesome, My Yin & Yang Martini🖤 for dinner had Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur and Svedka Vanilla Vodka blended with ice cream then topped with chocolate shavings Then my after dinner☕️🍫 drink-Billionaire Coffee was Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur, Grand Marnier and Kahlúa blended with coffee and topped with whipped cream. Yum!

My favorite thing about The Melting Pot is that you get to create your own meal from a selection of cheeses, salads, entrées, and chocolates (they even have gluten-free items). You create your entire dining experience.

The Melting Pot was the original fondue restaurant, opening in 1975

There is a Melting Pot location in 35 states plus Canada, Mexico, and Dubai. Every October thru December they host an in-store Saint Jude promotion and online all year by purchasing chocolate fondue wafers to use at home. Fondue for a good cause tastes even better!

If you want the full Melting Pot experience, you can make your meal four full courses and choose a cheese, salad, entrée, and dessert all for about $50+ per person.

The Melting Pot will provide you with some preset four-course menu options, should you be interested in making one less decision. These typically include a combination of pork, chicken, beef, and seafood, but they vary by location. The Melting Pot also has a seasonal menu available with limited time offerings.

Each course comes with complimentary dippers. You can always get more of these items, you just have to ask. Artisan bread, fruit (apples), and vegetables (cauliflower and carrots) are the cheese dippers.

Potatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli come with all entrées. Chocolate dippers include fruit (strawberries, bananas, pineapple), pound cake, marshmallows covered in graham crackers and Oreos, brownies, blondies, and Rice Krispies.

If you order from the specialty menu, your dippers may be different. The chocolate menu includes an option to “enhance your dippers” with seasonal cheesecake, cream puffs, and berries. I LOVVVE the cream puffs!

Complimentary signature sauces come with each entrée course: Teriyaki, Green Goddess (cream cheese and sour cream), Gorgonzola Port, Ginger Plum, Curry, and Horseradish. Again, since each sauce is complimentary, you can ask for more of any of the six. A lot of people make their own combinations by mixing different sauces. I love the Curry but Green Goddess is by far the most popular.

The Melting Pot has a large drink menu full of handcrafted cocktails, wine, and craft beer. All of the cocktails sound wonderful! The drinks that really grab my attention are the Yin and Yang, Love Martini, Deep South Tea, Sunshine Sangria, and Tipsy Turtle.

It seems as if most of the Melting Pot’s customers are regulars. Guests keep coming back because the food is great, the atmosphere is fun, and experience is unique. Although your dinner can take longer than expected(2-3 hours) since you are cooking your food and eating four courses, it is worth it. I hope that this has prepared you for your dining experience. Have...

I went to Melting Pot for the first time tonight with my husband. We didnt really know how everything worked and asked a lot of questions. The process of ordering is a little confusing and I had no idea how the entree portion would work. We got the 4 course because it would be cheaper to order that way as opposed to just ordering what we wanted. The cheese fondue course was pretty good, if not a little messy. We got the fiesta cheese and it was quite nice. The items to dip in the cheese were good, but wish they were more thoughtful about what would go well with spicy, salsa con queso. Apples do not suit that kind of cheese. Bell peppers would be a good replacement. The salad course was alright; not much to say about a salad. We ordered a create your own entree. I did not know that we could each choose our own meats/items, which was a nice, unexpected surprise. The cooking method we chose was basically a method of deep frying in batter and it didnt really work that well. I wouldnt recommend the method we chose. Honestly, it was a little annoying to cook my own food and they didnt provide a timer or anything. I got an herb crusted chicken, the flavor of which was great, but I was consistently worried that I didnt cook it enough. The ravioli I got was actually kind of grossly sweet. The sauces don't pair well with every entree either. The entree portion of the meal was not an enjoyable experience for me and my spouse. The chocolate fondue course was my favorite by far, but was too small. They dont quite give enough chocolate for all of the dipping options. I could have had about twice as much chocolate fondue.

Our waitress was good and fairly friendly. She was attentive enough, but I felt slightly neglected during the entree portion. Especially since when the meat was first delivered, it didnt seem like the oil was hot enough to really cook our meat and I xouldnt find her to ask if it was right. She did eventually come by and fix it to a better temperature.

My husband said the bathroom was nice and clean.

The booth we ate at was cozy and intimate which was nice. I enjoyed how private it seems. The wall across from us was plain black with posters advertising The Melting Pot, which I felt like was tacking and something like you would see at a Cici's pizza.

Overall, I'm glad we went. The fondue courses, which are the restaurant's namesake, were really nice and enjoyable. I would recommend any other "fancy" restaurant over the Melting Pot, though. For the price, it wasnt worth it and it took like 2 and a half hours to complete...