Melting Pot — Restaurant in San Antonio

1st time here on a Friday night with my 15 year old niece, sister & mother...waitress was ambivalent, rushy & rolled her eyes several times...we did have a coupon yet still spent well over 200 bucks & high tip yet she didn't seem to want to answer our questions nor f/thru with at minimum, sub-par fine dining customer service.

And I don't say that with contempt nor bias, rather watching the table across from us get amazing service from their server as evident by very meticulous & thorough descriptions of the menu options, showing off with minor yet fun fondue flare & most importantly, a cordial & respectful persona, left me feeling a bit slighted....and that's the dumbed down version of how I truly feel...

The icing on the cake though, were 2 very common, traditional service industry expectations NOT MET.

Our server seemed very annoyed at me asking to see the wine bottle since I wanted to determine if I was going to buy a bottle or just a glass?!

Not only rushing thru & obviously missing a few steps in her attempt at explaining the process of how to cook our own meat whilst rolling her eyes the entire time, grimacing constantly at us and could barely make it thru the intro without clearly exhibiting a "I don't have time for this nor y'all" demeanor.

Side note* My father, who currently owns his own bar, restaurant & beverage catering company as well as have taught his 2 daughters EVERYTHING abt proper service industry best practice & precious owner & instructor at The Bartending School of SA(now closed), which we his daughters, were exposed to all of our lives & being in the business for over 40 years, has taught us to always respect servers yet also expect what you pay for & that's usually the food AND the service.

That being said, I know I will NEVER go back to this place again. I'd much rather just go camping, cook my own food using screwers over a fire & melt stuff in a pot to dip my food in. It would have been a much better experience than this place gave me.

At the end of the day, I guess if you desire to go out to a supposed "fine dining, reservation only, hyped-up joint for dinner, just to be squished into a small booth with only 1 stove top, cook your own dinner, be rushed thru each phase of the DIY fondue experience (praying you don't end up with food poisoning or a raw meat disease), don't mind double dipping/food contamination from your other guests & pay the equivalent of a month's worth of groceries (for 1-2 adults) to eat, then this is most def the place for you.

Just know, it'll be a 50/50 toss on whether you get a happy go lucky fun server/cooking instuctor or an ansty, no patience wanna be server who seemingly would rather watch dry paint dry than answer a question or empathetically respond to a request like extra napkins or...oh, maybe having ANY ALTERNATIVE RESPONSE to our inquiry for a band-aid or burn cream when the super hot grease that poped into my niece's eye and burned her cheek (from the skillet) just to make her "feel" better...sigh.

I guess it was amazingly helpful that I had my own mini first aid kit in my purse cuz' otherwise, our server's exceptionally disregarding response, "Yeah, it is really hot so you gotta be careful," & then just walk away as if we hadn't even made a request was utterly preposterous.

This place was dangerous, annoying & I'd recommend anyone go anywhere else than here based on my experience. Lile maybe a camping trip or a backyard grillathon with your own friends &/or family, pre-purchase your own appropriately portined cheese, meat & other food, have access to larger plates, more space & afterwards, make smores over a fire pit &/or make homemade fudge in your own kitchen and dip fresh, store bought fruit or whatever you'd prefer into the leftover melted chocolate pot. It'll cost less & be much more realistically pleasing for all attending. Otherwise, you could leave this place wondering 2-3 weeks later...."wth & why did I go there? And why would anyone...

I had a hard time deciding between a 4 or 5 rating, but overall I think the quality and experience was great so it deserves a 5. I’ll start with the all the good, and then point out why I almost gave it 4 stars.

The entire experience is worth doing once if you never been to a fondue restaurant. I love this style of cooking but was afraid they did not have vegan options for my partner, mainly the cheese fondue. But they actually do, and it’s phenomenal! Vegan cheeses can often be hard to melt, or don’t have a great consistency, but this was amazing. We only had the veggies and bread with it, but I thought that’s was just right because we could really appreciate the cheese fondue flavor. We had the option to ask for more veggies or bread until the cheese ran out.

We then moved on to the saladas, which although simple, were fantastic and a great palette cleanse. It also served as an intermission between the cheese fondue and the main course. I had the beacon and blue and was amazing.

The main course was, again, spectacular. We had the mojo pot cooking style which is a Caribbean inspired broth with fresh squeezed lime and orange. We had two plates, one vegan and one non vegan, along with a lot of veggies and potatoes. Since we only had one pot, we enjoyed the vegan options first, and then threw in the non vegan options for myself after. The vegan plate was actually amazing. The had vegan sausage and impossible meatball, along with artichoke, asparagus and a few other veggies. The veggies plate came with mushroom heads and season potatoes which was all amazing. They also had a spread of 7 (I believe) sauces, 2 of which were vegan, that complimented the flavors well. Kept switching back and forth and it felt like a different item every time.

We finished off with the dark chocolate fondue with a vegan and non vegan plate. Once again, we were pleasantly surprised how good this was. They had a good spread of vegan options, like fruits and vegan power balls. As per the non vegan option, they had brownies, rice crispy treats, waffles, marshmallows and fruits.

The drinks were also great, especially the melting pot mule. It was definitely a highlight of the night.

Now per the bad, I was really disappointed of our reservation. I called a week ahead to make the reservation for Thursday date night special, and to please make it vegan. I specially said this was for a special occasion and even made a special request. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were just seated on a regular table. No rose pedals, no candles and no special menu. I had to go up to the server, and they said they had nothing noted in the reservation besides one person was vegan. They did bring out rose pedals and candles while we were seated but it took away from the experience. There was also no mention of the special occasion, which I thought something was going to be done for the last plate. Overall this didn’t ruin the experience, we still very much enjoyed it, but it was a surprise that could have been much better if the person that did the reservation would have written everything down. Can’t really blame the restaurant, we all make mistakes, but it was disappointing...

This was a REALLY fun experience. There were 12 of us there for a birthday party and we were seated at two separate tables “kind of” connected but they were about two feet apart. Each table had the same waiter (Eric) and he couldn’t have been more patient with us.

I was really confused with all of the instructions at first, but here’s how it works for groups:

It starts off with everyone choosing their own salads.

Each table of six has two stove top burners.

Each table of six chooses two different types of cheese to dip various types of bread, fruits, and veggies in.

Next up: Each table chooses two different broths to cook your entrees in, but each person can choose their own entree (this is the part I was confused about before I went - I thought each table had to share the same entree, but you don’t). Entrees vary from steak, to chicken, seafood, or just veggies.

Final course: Dessert! You get to choose a different chocolate (or even bananas foster) for each burner at your table. Then they bring out rice crispy treats, banana slices, waffle pieces and other delectable desserts for your dipping desires.

So that’s how the process goes, now here are additional details about the experience:

Even though each table had two different broths, cheeses, and chocolates, it was kind of difficult to maneuver back and forth to share. The pots are hot, so you can't pass them back and forth. You have to stand up and lean over everyone to dunk your food in the different pots.

Go with the prebuilt four course meal, as it is the least confusing. I went with the veggie - kinda sucked because most of the veggies fall off of the skewers while they are in the broth, but oh well.

Each person gets 3 skewers - dunk three things at a time, after they’re cooked, empty them onto your plate and dunk 3 more while you eat the cooked ones with your fork and knife - it saves some time.

In addition to the courses ordered, they also brought a couple of baskets of broccoli, new/red potatoes, and mushrooms to the table - those ‘shrooms were THE BOMB after cooking them in the broth!

They have 6 or 7 bottled beers and some on tap, but a couple of the kegs were empty or being changed out the night I was there, so the waiter kept coming back to tell me “we don’t have that any more, etc.”

Expect to spend a LOT of time there if you are with a group. We were there for about 5 hours. Not because the service was slow (after all, you’re cooking your own food). Although it was 5 hours, the time sped by because it was such a fun experience. Just don’t make plans for after dinner if you go in the evening.

I hear it’s a great place for date night, but I think you only get one burner so you have to agree on the cheese, broth, and chocolate flavor.

P.S. They let us bring our own cake in and even brought out a knife so we could cut it up!

I was REALLY confused before I went, so I hope this review clears things up for other first time visitors.

Four course meals range...