Melting Pot — Restaurant in Madison

I took my fiance here for what was supposed to be a special birthday dinner the other night, it couldn’t have been anything further. When we arrived approximately two minutes after our 7PM reservation, we were asked to wait a few minutes while they got our table ready, which was no big deal. We were then told it would be a bit longer and were asked to sit at the bar while we waited. After approximately 10-15 minutes at the bar (where all the staff were standing around and chatting, though the bartender was nice while we were there) we were finally brought over to our table. Because I had reserved the Thursdate special, there were rose petals and a candle at the table, but we weren’t given the menus that actually explained what was available to us as a part of the special. Our waitress, Anne, came over and gave a basic rundown of the menu, but I had to prompt her that we were doing the special when she came back a second time and ask questions about that, despite the table being obviously set up for it. We were given more time to decide while we waited for our drinks, which took at least 20 minutes to come from the bar (which we previously saw was not busy) when the manager brought them over. After sitting at our table for quite a while (partially because we were trying to decide/decipher the menu as to what was available) we ordered our food when the server finally came back over. Out of the four salad options, the one I wanted was the only one not available with the special, so I had to pivot quickly from that as well. By the time we ordered, the fondue bowl at our table was smoking and all of the water had evaporated out of it. At some point several minutes later, our server came back and said that they had run out of bread in the kitchen and it would be an extra minute to cut up more, which at that point wasn’t an issue. Eventually, she came out with our cheese course, which consisted of shredded cheese that we could’ve gotten at the grocery store, still cold from the freezer chunks of soft pretzel, cut up green apple, and broccoli, carrots, and celery, which looked like a part of a child’s lunch box. Needless to say, it was a far cry from the “artisan bread and seasonal veggies” that the menu promised. The cheese also tasted overwhelmingly garlicky-y, which normally I would like, but it was to an excessive extent. We sat with that course for a long time barely picking at it while waiting for the salads and salt and pepper, which my fiancé asked for when the cheese came out. Her house salad was not appetizing and seemed to have a very odd tasting ranch dressing, my Caesar was fine, but hard to mess up. After the salads came, we saw the waitress maybe one more time in the next 30 minutes or so while we sat not eating the cheese and with our empty salad plates at the end of the table. By the time it was almost 2 hours after our reservation and we hadn’t even received our main course, we went to the bar (where all of the staff were still chatting) to get our check and left. My fiancé didn’t want to spend her entire birthday sitting at a restaurant where we didn’t get any attention and the food was worse than fast food, which we wound up getting after for a fraction of the price and time. I wish I could give a fair review of the main course and dessert (which they still charged me for despite us never seeing), but we didn’t even get a chance to taste any of it. I’ve never had an experience like this that made me doubt my own senses based on the overwhelmingly positive reviews this place has, but needless to say, we will not be back and would never recommend anyone to come here for any occasion, special or otherwise, unless your dream is to sit for four hours for overpriced fondue just to get the experience or a picture for social media, which seems to be what most people are interested in when they come here.

P.S. as I’m adding the pictures, I remember that there were hairs all over our table setting,...

This is my husband and I's favorite place to go on a night out! We've been here several times and always have a great experience. Yesterday we went for date night and enjoyed the Touch of Romance package that adds a private booth, rose petals, and heart shaped candles to create a sweet ambiance. It was nice to not have the distraction of others and be able to focus on each other. We let our server, Hailee, know that we had a more limited amount of time than usual before we had to get back to our kids. She was wonderful in helping us keep a good pace so that we could still enjoy our time and have four courses while not feeling rushed at all. We let her know at the beginning that we would need to be done around 6:30 and she had us out of there by 6:25. 😊

The food of course was delicious. We had our usual Quattro Formaggio cheese (which is our favorite) with gluten free dippers. Side note, they have always a great selection of gluten free dippers for all the courses. It's nice because I can always eat nicely without having to worry about contamination or not getting enough to eat. Anyways, I had a California salad as well which was great. Then we had Big Night Out (salmon, filet mignon, herb chicken, shrimp) for our entree and substituted pepper steak and extra shrimp to be gluten free. Finally we had Original chocolate and gluten free dippers which has bananas, strawberries, brownies (gf), snickerdoodle cookies (gf), and marshmallows. I've also had the macarons on previous visits which are delicious and also gf. I had a sunshine sangria which was really good too! I asked Hailee to surprise me with a cocktail and she made a great choice. Overall such a great night! Thank you to Hailee our awesome server, the manager who checked on us (as they do every visit), and Melting Pot staff for always being wonderful!!

Other tips: this is more an experience, which means it takes more time to enjoy each course. It's good to know that ahead of time as most restaurants chase you out the door. We usually expect to be there 2-3 hours if we are planning to get 4 courses. This visit we did it in just under 2 hours. 🙂

Even though the dippers are bite size, plan to be stuffed after an experience here! I am always so full after a visit. Also, it's okay to ask for more dippers if you run out. I forget if it's an extra charge though.

The experience is more personalized and you get to visit a bit with your server. Personally I love that I get to talk with them a little more and get to know them as they prepare the courses at the table for us. The cheese especially is always prepared at the table. Some people may not like that the server is more present but like I said, I personally love it. They have great staff and every server I've had there...

My boyfriend and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary this year and treated ourselves to The Melting Pot, which this location was highly recommended by friends. The online reservation system was very slick and easy to update. I had to change our reservation and it was very easy and convenient. I wish more restaurants would utilize a tool like this.

We chose the four course meal, which included a cheese fondue, salad, meat with broth and chocolate fondue.

We chose the Spinach artichoke dip which consisted of Butterkäse, Fontina, Parmesan, Spinach, Artichoke Hearts and Garlic. This came with a side of bread, veggies and green apples, which sounds weird but was delicious. If we ever go back, this would be the number one thing we would order, would HIGHLY Recommend!

Our salad course consisted of a Caesar salad (romaine lettuce, parmesan, croutons, Caesar dressing and parmesan pine nuts) as well as a Strawberry Pecan salad (spinach, strawberries, fetta, candied pecans and lemon poppyseed vinaigrette). These salads tasted fine, but for almost $7 a piece, it was not worth the price. They were extremely small, about the size of my hand.

The next course was the meat course. We each got to choose three meats. In total we chose shrimp, teriyaki sirloin, filet mignon and Memphis pork. All the meat options tasted fine. This came with mushrooms, other assorted veggies and 6 different dipping sauces. All of the dipping sauces were quire wonderful. We chose Mojo cooking style for the meat, which was a hot Caribbean inspired garlic and citrus broth. We opted for no cilantro. The shrimp was by far the best tasting meat for that style of cooking.

For dessert course, we decided to play it safe and chose plain milk chocolate. This came with a variety of things to dip, ranging from cakes, marshmallows and berries. I was a little disappointed in this fondue, for the chocolate tasted a little off. It is hard to describe, but was almost muted or watered down. Next time we would try dark chocolate instead. I wish they would have had strawberries an other fruits to dip. We opted for the extra side of their “sweet additions” which came with a sea salt caramel cheesecake, cream puffs, gaufrettes and fresh berries. This was just ok, I wouldn’t order again.

Our total bill including tip was around $110. With this kind of restaurant you pay for the experience more than the food. Overall we had a good time and I think we would return. Next time we would come for the cheese course, meat course and chocolate fondue, skipping the salad. My friend mentioned she always received complementary chocolate strawberries for their anniversary, which we didn’t receive. That was a little...