Simply Fondue — Restaurant in Livermore

If I could give this restaurant 0 stars I would! This 3.5 hour dinner was terrible from start to finish so bare with me as the list of complains is long. Last night we ate here with a group of friends to celebrate a birthday. (They really should not take reservations for large groups, as they can not properly accommodate them.) Our group of 9 were seated at 3 tables that had been joined together end to end. We were assigned 1 waitress. My husband, another couple and I asked if we could be on a separate check (the four of us were at one table sharing a burner). No problem there. The four of us decided to order the Fondue Feast and decided on a cheese and cooking style we could share.

My friend and I had the California Caprese Salad. It is served "drizzled with italian dressing" which is strange, but whats worse is they were DROWNED in a terrible italian dressing! I wanted to send it back (which I very rarely do, but this was gross!), but the waitress did not come back to check on us through the entire salad course. I ended up scooping some of the dressing off and suffered through a little since I was starving.

We were told we could order a second cheese if we wanted (It's included since we ordered 2 Fondue Feasts, but this was not clearly explained to us at the time). So we picked a second cheese. One of the cheeses arrives, and its a little while before we realize we only have one cheese. Our server shows us our second cheese, two tables down being eaten by the people sitting down there. So the four of us shared a appetizer meant for two and we unintentionally fed our friends seated at the other end of the table our other selection. I should mention that the rest of our group of friends ordered alla cart and we were not keeping track of what they were ordering so thought nothing of the cheese at the other end.

Meanwhile, our dirty dishes are piling up and none of us have water. Our waitress appeared to have several other tables besides ours and we rarely saw her. Eventually I cleared some of our dirty dishes myself.

Time for the main course. Our food arrived without any dipping sauces. We had to wait for our waitress to reappear to ask for some (there was lots of waiting for service). When she did appear, our friends 2 tables down asked for sauce. She came back with only enough for them, and left before our side of the table had the chancre to ask her to bring some for us too. The burner at our table was not heating the food properly. I wanted to ask someone to turn the grill up, but again, no one showed up. Once our friends finished cooking their food they had to cook ours for us too! I finally got up to complain to the manager and ask for a second waitress. The manager said she would see what she could do and another 10 mins go by before they reappear with a second waitress.

The waitress says we can order 2 chocolates with our Fondue Feast. When the chocolate arrives one is placed on our burner and one on the burner at the next table. A plate of desert dippers were set next to each. I notice that there are only 2 of each desert dippers, so I ask our server if we can have a second plate of dippers. She informs us that we already have another plate of dippers, it is on the other table (half eaten by the people sitting in front of it). She asked if I would like her to get it and bring it over. I told her that it was already half eaten and how awkward it would be to take it away from our friends at this point. I asked if she could please just bring one more plate since THEY messed up by putting it in front of our friends. She said no that we already got two. I explained again that we did NOT get two because they were not both placed on our table. It was like talking to a brick wall. I finally dropped it.

At the end the manager announced that she removed the gratuity from our tab since we weren't happy. No apology. In the end, after reiterating all the problems she ended up giving us a discount off both checks but still no apology! I have never experienced such poor service from...

Over the years, we have dined here mostly on "special occasions" because the prices here are expensive!

You should make reservations far enough in advance & plan to be here between 1-2 hours for supper! We stayed for 3!

The majority of seating in this place is made up of booths with a large tables off to the side for parties & other special events.

For starters, we ordered:

Gorgonzola Salads, which consists of mixed field greens, grape tomato, diced cucumber, walnuts & herbal croutons tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette dressing & topped with crumpled gorgonzola cheese.

Spinach & Strawberry Salads, which consists of baby spinach, strawberry slices, & almonds tossed in a sweet cider dressing.

The salads were crispy & the toppings fresh.  The dressings added to the flavor and highlighted the meal.

We then tried the following Fondues ("we always try the same damn thing!" )

The Traditional Swiss Chalet, which is Gruyere & Emmenthaler cheeses, Chablis, Kirshwasser, garlic & spices.

Spicy Pepper Jack, which is a creamy Monterey Jack cheese, fresh peppers, beer, garlic, & spices.

Italian Fontina , which is grated Romano cheeses, blended base, garlic, basil pesto, & marinara.

All of the orders also came with an assortment of fresh breads, crisp vegetables, and fruits.

I have tried everything on numerous other occasions, in sandwiches, burgers, or plain, and to me, cheese is cheese, but I guess if you are a cheese expert, it is another story.

For our main course, we ordered Lemon Pepper Chicken Breast, six pepper beef, maple beef tenderloin, Scallops, Prawns, & their Spring Vegetable, which consisted of an assortment of fresh seasonal vegetables including tofu, yellow squash, zucchini, broccoli florets, cauliflower, red potatoes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, red & green bell peppers, eggplant, onions, & jalapenos.

Between poking, grabbing, & dipping in the various meats, vegetables, poultry and the what nots, it was very delicious.

Of course we had the occasional floater where "your meat fell off" ("aaah, get your head out of the gutter!") in the pot of oil and you had to fish for it.

By the end of this meal, we also had grease all over the stone table but everyone was waiting for dessert and "dad was adding up the damages!"

For dessert, we ordered their Banana Fondue, which consisted of white chocolate with banana liqueur, Meyer's dark rum, brown sugar, & a touch of cinnamon.

Campfire Chocolate, which consisted of rich milk chocolate, melted jumbo marshmallows, & crumbled graham crackers.

Fudge Brownie Mix, which consisted of rich chocolate with chocolate cookie crumbs.

We ordered so many dishes that I don't recall them all, but this was also the case when I received the final "bill!"

Overall, my family had a great meal and I left with a lighter wallet$$$$:-/.  "Wow, it was an expensive outing!"

I guess I should've bought stock...

First time at Simply Fondue. We did the endless Fondue Feast for our group of 6.

Cheese Fondues: We loved the Smoked Gouda and the Mediterranean (a former menu item that the kitchen can still make; recommended by our server). We thought the Italian Fontina was fine. The Traditional Swiss was the least favorite for our group.

Entrees: Favorites were the salmon, tuna, mahi mahi, roasted chicken, lemon chicken, BBQ chicken, Korean beef, and bacon wrapped beef. Mushroom fans enjoyed the stuffed mushrooms. We were advised to get oil and/or the grill, both to have a neutral cooking base and to crisp up things with batter or bacon. We chose the oil, and then the roasted garlic broth as the second cooking method. We probably cooked in the oil a little more than the broth. (Other tables had the grill, and it put off a lot of smoke.) All the sauces were delicious; we experimented to see what blended well with a protein.

Desserts: Campfire Chocolate was flambeed at the table, and we roasted marshmallows while it burned. Everyone liked this one a lot. The Raspberry Dark Chocolate came out room temp-to-cool, which surprised us. It was good, but we would have liked it to be warm. We were stuffed at this point, so didn't ask if it was correct, or request an additional dish.

Salads: All the salads we tried were enjoyed: Caesar, caprese, field greens, and wedge.

Service: Our party of 6 arrived at 5:30 and left at 9:30. While it takes a while to dip and eat, there were several long breaks between the four courses. If you just go for one or two courses, you will be much quicker. The tables hold two burners for 4-6 guests (1 burner for 2 guests).

Would we go again? Yes. It was a fun and...