Melt Fondue — Restaurant in Gering

PLEASE READ THIS! I want this to be a constructive criticism, this place has real promise. First, the salad and cheese fondue portions were fine. However the bread came in very large chunks that were clearly already ripped but not small enough to fit in your mouth and the chips that came with were very stale. Not the widest variety of vegetables but it was serviceable. The protein was underwhelming to say the least. Ordering three proteins I did not expect large portions of each, but only two pieces of each did not make for a satisfying meal. The meats themselves were fine, delicious even, but after two and a half hours I left having a small dinner and a very heavy desert. As for the desert, it too was underwhelming. Everything dipped fine in the chocolate, but the options were less than satisfying. I was provided cosmic brownies torn into chunks and halves of oreos. There was very little effort put into this and could easily be fixed. A pound or angel food cake could also be bought from Walmart and, cut into chunks, would quickly increase the appeal and make it look more refined. Apples, strawberries, and other fruits would also be welcome in the chocolate, marshmallow, or caramel dips. (Side note your online menu has it spelled both 'caramel' and 'carmel') As for our service, I'm not wanting to be rude here, it was poor. The (who I presume to be) owners were good at what they did. They were friendly and helpful and check on us just the right amount. Our waitress was out of her league though. She was not very familiar with food service and while offering basic politeness was not very pleasant to interact with. After she offered me my first drink (drinks were great by the way) and I finished it, it wasn't until a good deal later that the male owner offered me and my wife another drink. Again I enjoyed my drink and selected my third from the menu but she never offered me another, not to mention my second drink ran out near the beginning of the main course. Through desert she checked on us sporadically and not only did not offer us any kind of drinks, but took our drink menu and empty glasses. The female owner eventually did offer us another drink, however by then we had already paid our check. Not to fault the owners by any means, their main job isn't table service and they helped when they noticed us. If I didn't care about the service I'd have gone to applebees or somewhere but we came out for a more refined dining experience and the staff was not up to the task. The overall atmosphere was charming. The music was 1920's era style covers of modern songs, whatever that Timber cover was was actually pretty good and made for fun talking points. The wall decor was nice and it felt like a speakeasy. There was no door to the kitchen and towards the beginning of our meal we heard a fight break out back there. As for the seating, while the tables were nice there were so many of them and they were so close together in such a small space that we had to whisper to each other the whole meal and despite no one being excessively loud we could hear every conversation. To fix this I would remove the lounge area. You could easily keep bar seating but I didn't see a single person come or go from there all night. Even if some people do come, bar seating would be enough room. Fill the room with 2-3 tables from the rest of the restaurant and you can keep your current seating while giving everyone some elbow room. I really do want this to help. Like I said the place has promise and it wasn't a bad experience perse, but for the price we paid we would rather drive to Fort Collins for The Melting Pot where they have less cramped yet more intimate dining, a properly trained wait staff, and more fair portions of fresh food.

*For reference we...

Melt is an amazing dining experience. The food quality is excellent and the atmosphere is beautiful! The service is professional and personal. I most recently got to enjoy the four course fondue for dinner, and every part of the meal was incredible. It is such a fun experience to choose your cheese fondue, cook your meat at the table, and top it off with chocolate fondue at the end! I have also eaten lunch here and it was great! For $15 you can get a fresh, homemade salad (or soup) and sandwich. You can’t get fast food for this price anymore! It’s a great place to meet a friend or have a nice lunch on your break. They also offer the prettiest lounge & bar if you just want to grab a drink. And the cocktails are great! I enjoyed reading the menu, as each dish and drink has been carefully named and chosen. If you live anywhere close, you should give it a try- there isn’t another...

Drinks were watered down and not what one would expect from a prohibition era cocktail. Chips, pretzels, and bread to dip in fondue was stale. Service was well below average. The full “experience” was $170 and we were there for four hours. Save yourself the trouble and go to Denver if you want a quality fondue experience.

I will say the Atmosphere is wonderfully done but that is all they have going for them right now.

Responding to owner.

We actually did tell you the drinks were not good. There were 6 of us and we all had different drinks and they were all bad. There was never an offer to redo them, just an excuse that the bartender was new. Glad to see you are still open to feedback though and the fact that it took 4 months to reply speaks to the speed of your service and how much you actually care about...