Melting Pot — Restaurant in Raleigh

Made the reservation 3 weeks before the date, that went great, even calling 24 hrs before to reserve my Birthday strawberries with a free coupon they sent, the gentleman on the phone was delightful and said this is common and they would be waiting for me when we cash out and even wished me a very happy Birthday! So cool!

Before we even chose options I ordered a $12 glass of wine, at 6:55 p.m.

The food was better than okay at the end, will explain.

Our starter course with a fruit and veggies and breads was bare with choices. An abundance of carrots, so many carrots, 1 piece of cauliflower, 2 pieces of celery, green apple chunks, and then pretzel slices with stale white bread chunks. We had 4 people and had 2 cheese choices and even though they were different options we had the same boards. I have never dipped carrots into cheese, it was strange, is that normal? We did not like it and did not eat the most of them, sadly. We would have smashed broccoli, cauliflower, and many other veggies and/or other dark or sourdough bread options too. I expected different types of bread for different cheeses but, we ate most of it so it was fine, just wanted to mention we got way too many carrots.

The salad course was great, 4 options and we were all satisfied there, thank you because they all fit each of our pallets perfectly! I hate parmesan for example and my option was free and clear!

By this time it is past 7:55 and i still have no glass of wine, waitress says someone tried to bring it but I declined, I did not 👎🏻 this was my Birthday celebration, I asked for the wine again.

With our meat/course selection and the broths we chose, a veg, a classic, and 2 steaks and we all went with the vegetable broth. It was delicious, and the sauces were amazing as well! Exceded our expectations and were just great! We even asked for extra sauces which still came before my glass of wine, barely! It arrive shortly after, and before 9:05, after dinner was cleared and before dessert was arrived!

Finally the dessert! Everything was perfect and delicious here which was fabulous! The marshmallows and krispies were soft and sweet, almost as sweet as the wine I finally got to drink! The brownies and chocolate chip cookie pieces were more then tasty!!!

At the end, waiting over 1.5 hrs for a drink seems minuscule which makes me wonder why was I still charged for the drink!? I ordered it to pay for it and enjoy it but should not wait over 2 hours for it and asking about it 3 times. This was the difference between the 18% tip we left and a 30% tip we normally leave. Some things are out of the servers hands but this, was all her! Yes, I still wanted it but, the server should have made an executive decision to comp the drink or told a manager about the issue and ask to have them handle it!

If the server would have realized her mistake she would have knocked it out of the park because most everything else was right on par!

The chocolate covered strawberries we took home were good however, I don't believe they were made fresh for us that day. They lasted just 2 days at home before I had to throw the last 2 out but the 4 we ate were good.

*The management responded and asked me to reach out to them to discuss the drink service, so I did respond, twice! I have yet to hear back from them! This is dissapointing, it has now been 1 month since I posted this review.

*Last update! The owner reached out and offered a very generous solution. He refunded not just my glass of wine but, a portion of the total bill. He also asked me to contact him before my next visit and he would take care of our bill and also sent me a coupon for $100 off a visit. All of this was above and beyond so I will change my 3 stars to 5 because this was way more then I could have asked for totally satisfactory. After our conversation and his apologies for the glass of wine not coming in a timely fashion, I could see that he is a business man very proud of his establishment and was really just trying to please a guest and ensure a return visit, which he...

On May 19th my family of 6 went to enjoy this melting pot experience. We are 2 adults and 4 children. When arriving they got us in early which was great. I was celebrating my birthday and used a coupon for 6 chocolate-covered strawberries 🍓. The issue started as soon as they took us to the tiniest table ever for 6 of us. This was so unexpected and the people next to us had the same sz table but only 4 seated. I asked to be sat at a table with more space. They told me to wait and came back to say they had nothing bigger. OMG what a nightmare, if you have 4 children 😳 you already know. The burners were smack in the middle of the table so you only have a slither of space for your drink and plates. The kids wanted to touch everything. The server had to reach over the entire table and my kids to reach the pot and cook the cheese fondue. Talk about awkward, luckily she smelled nice my son said. This is about a 3-hour meal in portions. So it started getting crowded in the place as staff walked by our server was nowhere to be found at times. We managed to make it to the 3rd course and drinks weren't being refilled, the server was asked to bring out 2 bowls of refilled vegetables but kept only bringing 1. I've gotten a headache by now. The table with a wall partition had a going lady with blonde hair who kept whipping it towards my son's face, Rude much! I just wanted to get dessert over and call it a day. My husband told them it was my birthday, so they brought out a plate with Happy Birthday written in chocolate and 1 penny sz pastry with a candle. Our server was in such a rush she put it on the table not lit. I was like oh wow no fire for a wish. Then she realized she hadn't lit the candle. After dealing with all this I was ready to go home. Mind you we drove from Greensboro to Raleigh for this experience. As I'm leaving I go to use the restroom and I can't believe my eyes. A whole section in this place with roomy tables for 6 or more people. I am really ticked now and I wait by the hosting table to talk to them. The hostess tells me that's a first come first serve table by requesting and has 3 burners wow. She then goes on to say that they can also add a table to any section to make it bigger for us. Smack myself in the face and call me crazy. You mean to tell me I went through all this for 3 hours cramped at a table with 4 of my Lil ones and hubby and they could've made it just a bit more cozy for us. The bill came to be like $250 and my husband gave that server a freaking $40 tip for what I said! Then we got all the way home and I noticed she hadn't even remembered to bring me my 6 birthday chocolate-covered strawberries. What...

I went to the Melting Pot for dinner tonight, and I liked the place in the past, but I won't be returning. This is the second time we've had an awful experience. First, we had a reservation for 5:45 for 4 people and a child. We walked in at 5:40, and the table wasn't ready until almost 6 PM. It was NOT busy. What is the point of a reservation if the table isn't ready at the time of the reservation? Also, "getting the table ready" was only them bringing menus and some silverware. Most restaurants do that in 30 seconds. Then they brought us to a table with only one fondue pot, even though a majority of their menu is "dinners for two", and we had 4 people. We asked to move, and they did move us thankfully. Then, our waitress didn't come for awhile, and then took forever to bring drinks. The ENTIRE night the drink service was abysmal. We waited over 15 minutes for a double shot of Tito's. How hard can that possibly be? Again, it wasn't busy at all, so I don't know why it took SO long. You'd get faster drink service at your town's trashiest bar. Then, the food was just okay. It took forever to come out (up to 20-25 minutes after finishing the previous course) which is weird because it's JUST cut up ingredients, which- even if done right before serving- does not take that long for the portion sizes. Then, it was okay at best. The potatoes we got were literally grey, had a weird liquid substance on them, and actually tasted like dirt. I wanted to spit it out, but I didn't want to be impolite. It was quite literally the WORST potato I've ever had. The entire "experience" took THREE HOURS. No one wants to sit at a restaurant for that long. We had to ask to order the dessert course during one of the few times the waitress came. We also didn't get an "experience" because nothing was explained to us or shown off in an entertaining way. There was just no presentation or care at all, which i assume is something you pay for in their insanely high prices ($240 for two people). Plates were piling up on the table because no one was taking them. My husband had to ask someone to take our plates because we were running out of room. Next time I want fondue, I will do it myself at home, save over $200 in the process, and do it SO much better. You can literally buy a fondue pot for 1/3rd of the price of this dinner and use it as much as you want while not experiencing horrendous service. Again, I will not be...