Melting Pot — Restaurant in Knoxville

Frustrating is the word I will use for our experience last night. My husband is Gluten Free and has Celiacs. We were having dinner with another couple. So I booked the reservation I booked for 4 people. When I went to check in, they asked if we have any allergies and I told them Gluten Free. She proceeds to tell me that we would just have one burner, so everyone would have to eat gluten free to make sure there was no contamination. I asked for two burners so our friends would not have to be restricted to gluten free as well, they said they would not have any two burners available until 9:30 ( it was 6:15). So I asked how I change this in the future when I reserve my spot and she said that I selected 1 burner when I reserved online. I know 100% that is false. So I brought up the website where I booked and asked her to show me how to select it, she couldn’t. So I asked to speak to a manager. Didn’t see the manager at that point. About 20 minutes past our seating time, they sat us. While we were waiting I went to the bathroom and there was no toilet paper in any stall except 1. Anyway, went to the table and when escorted there they said they could bring a warming pad to the table for our cheese and chocolate so we could have a pot for the GF stuff. Great. So then the waitress comes up and we tell her that and she said that for our safety she couldn’t do that. So we asked to speak to a manager again. She left and got our drinks, came back and she pretended like our request didn’t happen and proceeded to tell us what we could all eat that was gluten free. Still haven’t seen a manager. The waitress told us she would give us a discount for the inconvenience. We finally just gave up and all ate gluten free. At one point I have to use one of my husbands skewers because mine were dirty. After the meat portion of the meal, she took everything off of the table except the broth in the pot. That sat there for a long time and started to burn and smell awful. So I just turned it off myself, which the waitress seemed annoyed about. One thing to note, is if you have four people and one table, you only get 1 pot of everything to share with all 4 of you. They give you plenty of food to go with it, but not enough of the thing to dip in them. And you still pay the same price as you would if you were a couple eating by yourselves without sharing a pot. Just a thought. Also, another customer came in saying they needed a reservation because they keep calling and no one ever answers the phone and the hostess said they were too busy to answer the phones. To top it off my friend had pipes above him leaking on him during his meal. And of course, I never spoke to a manager and I did not get the discount that the waitress said we would get. This was by far the worst communication I have ever seen in a restaurant. The food was great, but the customer service was awful. I will probably never be back because I had to originally talk my husband into going because he is hesitant to try new places with his gluten free allergy. So it sucks that it was such a...

I really hate to write a bad review but this was a poor experience. I called several weeks ahead for reservations. It was my husband’s and mine Birthday dinner. We invited another couple to come with us. One person has a gluten allergy. I called prior to going about two separate cook top due to this. They even asked out food allergies prior to taking us to our table. When we were taken to our table it only had one cook top. I explained about the gluten allergy. They then changed us to a table with 2 cook tops. They made a comment about it wasn’t on the reservation. I told them I did call and asked about the cook tops. So it was for Thursdate…our table was to have rose petals and candles on the table. Well the original table did. They did being some petals and the tea light candle to the new table. Well it must have taken a good 30-45 minutes after our order was taken for our first course to arrive. It took so long that the water from one of the pots ran dry prior to the cheeses arrival. My husband had to add water to the pot. We ordered our salads to go and never received them at all. Then the next course was the meat course took probably another 30-45 minutes to arrive. When the food was delivered it had gluten on the other couples plate. So then they had to wait again for the meats without the gluten items. Mind you that when ordering they ordered the gluten free items. The person that has the gluten allergy had to wait every time after food was delivered for her gluten free items. I’m not sure why they couldn’t bring it at the same time. Seems like it’s not fair for that person to have to wait after everyone else has their food. Granted the waitress was new and very nice but it seems to me that someone should have assisted her if she was overwhelmed. Then the dessert came and one chocolate as to be flambéd and the waitress stated that someone took her lighter and we had to wait for her to find a lighter to light it. And again our friend had to wait for the gluten free plate to arrive. Plus we asked 3 times for utensils for the dessert. Finally we got them. We had a coupon for chocolate covered strawberries for our birthday. We wanted them to come out with dessert so we could share them…they arrived with our check after the fact. We asked at least 3 times for the strawberries to come out with the dessert. We had two coupons for our birthdays and the waitress only gave us one at first. We had to ask for the second set. We spent a total for 2 1/2 hours for our meals. They have never been this slow and discombobulated. We really have enjoyed eating here prior to this experience. It really put a damper on our birthdays. We had other plans but had to cancel because it took so long. Thank you, Tammy Elliott Hapner

Update: we recently returned to the Melting Pot and had the best experience. The food and service were outstanding. David was our server as well as the bartender. He was extremely attentive and well as entertaining. The food was great and brought to us in a timely manner. We will definitely be...

The two girls working at the host stand on the evening of February 9th were rude and extremely unprofessional. I made reservations for a party of 7 at 7:30 on February 9th at least two weeks in advance. I then needed to add two more people to the group so I changed it online to a party of 8 (maximum allowed to reserve online) at 8:00 and the website said for parties over 8 I needed to call the restaurant. So I did. I called at 6:21 on January 26th and spoke to a girl who took my name and number down as well as the party information. She said she wrote it down and that it would be ready. Yesterday, on the day of my birthday, February 9th, our entire party of 9 was there present by 8:15 as we were instructed. We checked in and they said they had my name down for 7:30 and since I wasn't there by 7:45, they gave our table away. I was confused because our reservation had been changed to 8 for 9 people. Apparently the girl on the phone never changed it. My friend asked to speak to the manager. We had our entire party there on time and did everything we were supposed to do and these girls just shrugged their shoulders and didn't seem to care at all and just brushed us aside. The blonde girl said the other girl was the manager, which I wasn't sure was true, because the black haired girl looked like she had no idea what was going on and was extremely unprofessional and inconsiderate. The manager is supposed to solve problems and MANAGE the restaurant, not brush people off and ignore them when there is an error on the restaurant's part. We didn't end up getting seated until 9:20 and my friends and I were tired and hungry. I'm glad we got to get in but I felt like we were completely brushed off and ignored and the professional thing for the "manager" to do would be to solve the problem and work with the customers and compromise instead of just shrugging their shoulders and act like its their first day on the job. I want the actual boss or manager to see what two girls were working last night (Feb 9) and who took my phone call on Jan 26 at 6:21 pm so I can have answers. My friends and I were coming to eat at 8 pm and celebrate my birthday party and we ended up waiting for over an hour to even get in. And my suspicion is that one of the girls was the one who took my reservation because they said there was no way to see who was working then, which is complete BS. You have a schedule...