Melting Pot — Restaurant in Indianapolis

Our reservations were for 6:30 and we weren’t seated until almost 7pm. There were two of us, and they sat us at a table for 6. It felt odd and lacked that intimate experience you’re looking for when dining here. We waited 10 minutes after being seated before we saw our waiter. He took our drink order and was another 10 mins getting the drinks to us. We were ready to order but hadn’t seen our waiter in about 15 minutes. Finally, the manger came over and took our cheese fondue order. A few minutes later, our waiter comes back and asks if his manager came over. We confirmed and placed the order for the main course. A few minutes later, his manager returned to take our order. We let her know the waiter already came back for that. Her response: “Oh, he asked me to come over here so I was like, what’s going on?” They appeared to be extremely disorganized. The cheese fondue was ok. They give the cheapest options for dipping and some that don’t make sense with cheese….like carrots and celery. The off brand tortilla chips made it feel extra cheap. When he brought the food, he positioned tray and tray stand to where he had to reach right in front of my face to put the dishes on the table. During the course of the evening, three different people filled our drinks or brought stuff to us, not our waiter. Once we got dessert and finished, it was another 20 mins before the waiter came back to bring us our check. Upon leaving, I visited the women’s restroom where I almost hit the floor upon entering. There was some horrible, oily substance on the floor that made it nearly impossible to walk on. When I notified the front of house staff, the older woman at the stand mentioned “yeah that’s why we have the wet floor sign up and are waiting for maintenance.” I’m sorry, but the whole evening lacked the 4-5 star experience you’d expect when spending that much on dinner. Maybe the waiter and manager are new..? Either way, they lacked the professionalism expected for that setting. As far as the restroom goes, there’s really no excuse for someone not taking care of the floor. A manager, someone, should’ve taken initiative to ensure it was cleaned properly and safe for us to walk on. It was so bad that whatever it was stayed on my shoes and made other floors I walked on that evening slick as well. As far as the food goes, it used to be better. The pairings for cheese were cheap and tasteless. The California salad was good! The main course was ok, but skimpy for what you pay. Dessert was ok but the fruit was sour and hard. Safe to say I’m gonna give this a few years, if ever, before returning. If I’m going to spend that much on dinner, I don’t want to regret...

I honestly gave it a few days before sitting down to write this review. We had not been here for a while because the last experience was not good. We were on time and had a reservation yet the kitchen was so slow that our meal took almost 3 hours. They then closed the kitchen before our meal was completed and we weren't able to get all of the main course options that we ordered, the dessert course was very rushed and we were unable to get refills on tea and coffee because they were "out" (aka they already dumped them). Last Friday was our 10 year anniversary. My husband decided to give The Melting Pot another try because he wanted to surprise me with their special anniversary dinner package. This experience was worse than the previous one and was definitely our last attempt. I am so disappointed because this used to be one of my favorite restaurants and it is sad that it just isn't the same anymore. They literally ruined our anniversary dinner. My husband booked the special anniversary package when he booked the reservation. Aside from puttingflowerson the table, they did not do any part of the anniversary package. What we got instead was an overworked waiter and the worst service I have ever had. When your meal comes to over $200, you shouldn't go thirsty or have to beg for refills. I ordered coffee and the first cup I got was cold. It took a very long time to get a second cup that was actually fresh. We were eating our cheese fondue when the hot cup of coffee finally came out. Our table's drinks were not refilled again until just before our dessert came out. We were eating cheese and bread and our drinks were empty. Needless to say, we were very thirsty and in spite of politely asking for refills more than once we waited forever with empty cups before finally getting refills. The waiter had a table of about 20 people in the next room that was clearly a priority. When he brought the accoutrements for the cheese fondue, he barely put anything on the trays (there were 3 of us and we got 4 small pieces of an apple to share for example). I wanted more apples and it took so long for him to return to our table that the cheese fondue was basically burnt up in the bottom of the pot before the apples were brought to the table. The entire experience was terrible and the furthest thing from special. You would think with a 3 seat check costing over $200 that we could have at least gotten refills. Thanks for ruining my tenth anniversary.... I will definitely remember this but never in a positive way. This place tastes like overpriced...

$220 for 2 adults and I feel ripped off…

My wife and I went to the melting pot for Christmas Eve. When we first arrived we were greeted by the front desk lady wearing a graphic t-shirt, looked like she rolled out of bed, sneezed in her hands, wiped her hands on her shirt, and proceeded to hand us our menu’s.

We sat down in our personal lounge area which was actually nice and romantic.

We were greeted by our waiter which he seemed annoyed and bothered by our visit.

We got our drinks and my wife ordered a mocktail and I ordered a beer. My beer was $8 and it came in a 12 oz can…. And my wife’s mocktail came out in a little 10-12 oz plastic kiddie cup with a lid and a straw….

We ordered our food which on the menu sounded amazing and first he brought out the cheese fondue with “artisan breads”. He rushed melting the cheese with made it curdled and the “artisan breads” was little pieces of normal white store bought baguette and that was it, we thought we were getting multiple breads like the menu said but the other items on the platter was literally round tortilla chips that were clearly bought from Kroger and some super dry pieces of tiny little broccoli.

At this point the bar was on the ground and the waiter brought the shovel.

Next plate that came was the salad and it was good but you could tell it how cheap they went on the ingredients.

The third plate that came out was the meats which was easily the best part. The pork was not good though. The chicken needed sauce to be good and steak was great! The waiter kept coming back to us asking us “are you done yet” legitimately 3 times and ended up turning off our pot even though we weren’t done cooking our food was very annoying. And we had to keep reminding him to bring us water because he would forget. It took about 40-50 minutes to get a glass of water

The fourth platter came out which was desert and it was a caramel bourbon chocolate dip in the pot and treats to dip in the pot. We saw a video on TikTok of the exact desert that we got and we realized he completely forgot the bourbon Carmel drizzle and pecans that were supposed to be in the melting pot. The food to dip in the pot was very mid-tier.

We got the bill which was a total of $220 and I felt stupid handing him my card and he also insinuated for an additional tip.

My wife and I have a tradition of going somewhere very expensive for Christmas Eve dinner and this was absolutely appalling for the price. I’ll never be returning unless they pay me...