Melting Pot — Restaurant in Jacksonville

Dining at high-end restaurants like The Melting Pot comes with certain expectations: personalized service, attention to detail, and a seamless experience that justifies the premium price. Unfortunately, our recent visit fell far short of these standards.

Our waiter seemed more intent on dictating our choices than accommodating our preferences. Instead of allowing us to select our dining experience freely, he essentially decided for us, which felt dismissive and unprofessional. To make matters worse, we were seated at a table with only one burner despite paying for two separate experiences. Sharing a single cooking style between four people was inconvenient and diminished the enjoyment of what should have been a personalized meal.

The cheese course appetizer was particularly disappointing. The spinach artichoke cheese fondue lacked flavor and was bland—likely because the waiter didn’t even use all the listed ingredients. When we indicated we were done with the cheese course, he removed it abruptly without checking if everything was satisfactory. This lack of attention to detail made the experience feel rushed and impersonal.

Throughout the meal, the waiter failed to provide adequate service. My elderly mother was ignored when trying to get his attention as he walked right past us multiple times. Refills on drinks took an excessive amount of time, and we had to remind him about items we had ordered, including a to-go salad and an after-dinner drink for my mother. When we requested oil for the cast iron skillet, he applied only a minimal amount and left with the rest, leaving behind seasoning that they sell in-house—an odd gesture that felt more like upselling than actual service.

After expressing my disappointment to the manager over the phone, her response was dismissive and tone-deaf. She justified the waiter’s behavior by claiming he was trying to provide “the full experience” but failed to acknowledge that we received anything but that. Her refusal to address our concerns or even offer an apology reinforced the feeling that this restaurant prioritizes its high prices over customer satisfaction.

For a restaurant that markets itself as a high-end establishment, The Melting Pot did not deliver on its promises of quality service or memorable dining experiences. From inattentive service to poorly executed dishes and an unresponsive management team, this visit left us feeling undervalued as customers. At these price points, diners deserve far better than what we experienced. I cannot recommend this location to anyone seeking a refined or...

The Melting Pot is expensive, so we only go and used to love it for special occasions. My husband, daughter and I went there for New Year's Eve a couple of days ago. The menu was prix fixe with court bouillon as the only cooking method. It was our first disappointment. The starter was bruschetta (Italian). Odd to me not only for a fondue restaurant (Swiss), but bruschetta is typically a summer starter. It's also supposed to be on toasted bread. It wasn't. Then the salads came out. What happened to the Melting Pot restaurant? Seriously. Their salad used to be good with dressing prepared in-house. All that was available was caesar and a salad with bacon dressing. The salad with the bacon dressing looked like they opened a bag of salad greens, a box of croutons and poured grocery store dressing on top. Next, we chose the champagne Swiss fondue. It was okay. Then it was time for the main which included chicken, steak, teriyaki steak, barbequed pork and potstickers? While I like potstickers, it's just a weird addition at a fondue restaurant. Ever had boiled teriyaki steak or boiled barbequed pork at a special occasion? Me neither until now. It's okay, but not worth $87.50 per person. The vegetables included broccoli (one was half green and half white), potatoes and mushroom caps. Yeah, we had boiled mushroom caps stuffed with cold, green goddess dressing at our New Year's Eve dinner. For dessert, we had the chocolate fondue with Heath bar pieces sprinkled on top. It was okay. Our servers, who were friendly and attentive, forgot to give us the sparkling wine to end the meal. It was part of their New Year's Eve meal, so we asked for it. Our bill included a 20% gratuity and a space to add an additional tip. I've seen other reviews from the evening where the folks enjoyed their meal. I can only imagine they started their New Year's Eve before arriving and/or have money to burn. Our total bill for three people, including 20% gratuity and a Modern Old Fashioned alcoholic beverage at $14.95 came to $357.90. Overall our meal was mediocre, the quality was cheap, and it was astronomically overpriced. It was a huge and expensive...

Drove an hour and a half to come here for my birthday just to get turned away at 430pm bc they are not taking walk ins until 845pm.

The website doesn't say that you have to make a reservation; so we had no idea it was reservation only.

The hostess was extremely rude about it as well. I could understand not taking walk ins when it's busy and if it showed somewhere that was the policy.

But we were a party of 2 that had never been before and didn't know the rules and we're definitely not treated with kindness or empathy or even explained the rules. (Until the owner went off on me in a review)

Bad business if you ask me. Treating customers with respect is always supposed to come first in customer service.

(In response to the first reply)

Thank you for the kind and caring response below, it definitely makes me feel welcome back as a customer for not knowing your policy❤️

For anyone looking to dine here, please look at the anger and rage from (the owner) to anyone who doesn't give a good review. It really is a shame. I wonder if these are individually owned. (Called headquarters and they are)

Further your response, it is not about not having the reservation and not being able to get in, it's about how it was handled. Being rude and blaming the customer for not knowing a policy that isn't stated online is not the good likes of an owner. You never see big businesses bashing the customers on these reviews and blaming it on them. They're saying "this is our policy and I'm so sorry we weren't able to accommodate you." I've been in customer service and that's always how I'm instructed to respond. If I spoke to my customers the way you speak to people in these reviews, I wouldn't have a job. All people want us to be treated with kindness. I'm a Very understanding person and just would have like to be told the policy instead of having all caps screamed at me in a review

I hope whatever has made you so angry, you get help with it. Word spreads and getting angry at all your customers...