Melting Pot — Restaurant in Gatlinburg

Let me preface this by saying that I have been to this location dozens of times since it opened (both as a kid and an adult). For the most part, I have always had incredible service, so I have never had to complain. Except for when I went today. Once my party (i.e., husband and mother-in-law) and I were seated in the bar area at around 1:22 PM, it took fifteen minutes for our server to arrive. Once he did, he was very rude and seemed like he did not want to be there. My mother-in-law had never been there before so she had numerous questions about the menu. Instead of helping her, he walked off, and I explained everything to her. During our order, we ordered three alcoholic drinks (Yin & Yang Martini, Electric Lemonade, and Strawberry Seduction). After sending our order to the kitchen, he went to go fix our drinks. After fixing the martini and lemonade, he completely left the bar for ten minutes without fixing the third drink. This caused the martini to fully melt and the (over proofed) lemonade to separate. After a few more minutes, he brought the two drinks, still hadn't fixed the third, and never offered to get us water. During this time, another waitress came by to help and he became argumentative with her. By the time we were halfway through the cheese course, the Strawberry Seduction finally arrived (aka it was made by another bartender). Then, we had to ask for water, and when we ran out, he never got us more. Before we had finished the cheese, he had brought only TWO of the salads even though we paid for three. We tried getting his attention to no avail so we just brushed it aside. Eventually, he came back to clean up the cheese and acted like he wanted to get away from us the entire time. After the entrées and sauces were dropped off, my husband and I asked for extra ginger plum sauce. He literally rolled his eyes before walking off to grab it. About ten minutes later, he came back with two containers of it and basically forced it into our hands before quickly leaving again. When my party and I were finished with the third course, we had to grab the attention of the bartender to have her go find our waiter so we could get to-go containers. About fifteen minutes after he eventually dropped off the containers, he came back to find out what type of chocolate we wanted with our final course (we ordered the Yin-Yang so you could get milk/white chocolate or dark/white chocolate). My mother-in-law took a few seconds (obviously too long in his opinion) to ask a question about it, and he once again rolled his eyes before rudely answering the question. After we tell him our decision, he rushes off, and twenty minutes later, we get the final course. Soon after we started eating, he came by the table, and we asked for more fruit for the chocolate. Without saying another word, he walks off and brings back a plate of fruit about five minutes later. Trying to be polite, I reach my hand out to take the plate from him so he doesn't have to hold it any longer. He thrusts the plate into my hand before dropping off the bill and leaving. Due to the three of us wanting to get out ASAP, my mother-in-law got her card out, and it took the waiter ten more minutes to come back for it. When my mother-in-law was eventually able to pay, he stood over her and clearly watched her decide on his tip. It made the three of us very uncomfortable. SPOILER ALERT: he got a horrible tip. In total, we were there from around 1:20-4:10 PM. Other people in the same area of the restaurant that got there after us left way before us (aka they had a better server and service). My family and I aren't naturally confrontational people, so we didn't complain while we were at the restaurant. Once we got home about an hour later, my mother-in-law called the restaurant to let the manager know about the situation, and he seemed as non-chalant and dismissive about it as the waiter was. Overall, a horrible experience from a normally...

My fiancé made a reservation at The Melting Pot for our 5-year dating anniversary (he booked the “Big Night Out” and also paid the extra $20 for the Private Dining/Rose Petal table). He must’ve also noted it in a special notes section of the reservation, because when we arrived, we were greeted at the front door with friendly faces and wishes for a Happy Anniversary before being escorted to our (small) private dining booth on the corner overlooking the Gatlinburg strip. Rose petals covered the table, along with a “Happy Anniversary” card that was signed by the staff members. Very soon after, we were greeted by our server - a lovely young man from Romania by the name of Ioan (“John”). He was very attentive and answered all of our questions about the different options for each course, as well as made some great recommendations when the options became almost too much to decide between. We began with the “Classic Apline” cheese fondue (which was fantastic with everything on the charcuterie board - especially the green apples!). We moved on to a salad (Caesar’s), which were crisp, tangy, and refreshing. For our main course, we chose the “Coq Au Vin” cooking style (the broth with Red Wine, Mushrooms, Scallions, Garlic). It was absolutely delicious with all of the proteins and veggies offered on the Big Night Out tray. The mushrooms soaked up the red wine taste beautifully, the red meats were robust and flavorful, the chicken held that lovely moist light-garlic taste, and even the broccoli took to it beautifully. I would be lax to also mention that throughout each course and as soon as we finished, Ioan was right there with a smile to check on our drinks and make sure that we were enjoying our meal, before clearing our dishes and quickly delivering and explaining the next course. Saving the best for last (and Ioan’s personal recommendation), we chose the S’mores dessert style. The chocolate flambé fondue, with a side cup of Graham cracker crumbs to mix-into it to thicken it, was an absolute masterpiece. Our dessert tray included strawberries, bananas (which were our unexpected favorite), Oreo-crusted marshmallows, graham-cracker crusted marshmallows, brownies, bloodies, and pieces of Angel-food cake. Just when we thought we had no more room to stomach another bite — we ordered a second dessert tray. 😅 Ioan was happy to oblige, and even delivered the second tray with a bare plate, decorated with “Happy Anniversary” written in chocolate syrup with a strawberry/grenadine heart. — Nice touch, Ioan!

We left with the biggest smiles and fullest bellies, absolutely raving for the past week at how wonderful it was to celebrate our 5th Anniversary there. While pricey (~$177 for all mentioned above), I would happily recommend to anyone looking to splurge for your own “Big Night” celebration. We will surely be returning for a future...

During our recent visit to Gatlinburg, I wanted to take my wife out for a special dinner to celebrate our vacation. She had never had the Melting Pot experience before, and she was excited to give it a try. So I booked a table for 5:15 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, and decided to go with "The Ultimate Package" to make the event more romantic and memorable. In summary I will say that the staff at this Melting Pot location are wonderful. Presentation was perfect and everything tasted wonderful. Overall there were really only a few things that I was not very happy about. I will start out with price; which I understand I agreed to by booking "The Ultimate Package" and all, but a cost of nearly $250 for two people seems pretty steep. But hey, I can get over that pretty quickly since it was meant to be a unique and romantic experience for my wife. However, the speed at which or food and drinks came out was very excessive. Our server would tell us that our course was just about ready and that he would be right back with our food, and then he would disappear for 20 minutes before coming back. By the time we finished our dessert course and got him to bring us our bill, it was almost 8:45 PM. So we were at The Melting Pot from 5:15 PM until almost 8:45 PM, and not because we were hanging around to have a few extra drinks or anything. It just took that long for us to get all of our courses and our bill at the end. I know the full Melting Pot experience takes time, but I think 3 and 1/2 hours is excessive. My wife and I were getting bored and just wanted to leave. She actually suggested that we skip our dessert course just so we could get out of there. Anyway, the people are friendly, the food is great, and the overall is experience is fun but painfully slow. Oh, and we were given a corner booth way in the back of the restaurant. It was nice and isolated, which my wife and I really liked, but the lighting was so dim that we couldn't read the menu without using the flashlight feature on our phones. I like dim lighting and all, but come on guys, at least give your customers enough light so they can see what they are ordering! So if you have an abundance of time and you are looking for a unique dinning experience, then I do recommend The Melting Pot in Gatlinburg, TN. Just make sure you don't have anywhere else you have to be for more than three hours, and expect that your bill may have the potential to take your...