Melting Pot — Restaurant in Tacoma

*Update: The owner reached out to me and informed me that they hadn't initially gotten all the information about what actually happened from the server (the manager was told that he had burnt himself throwing food into the pot) and apologized for how the situation was handled. We were refunded our entire bill, including tip and parking. He also sent a gift certificate for redo on them. We are very appreciative that the owner reached out to make this right. *

Went last night for a belated Valentine's day celebration. We have 4 kids, so we don't get out much. We had come here once a couple years ago and really enjoyed it so we decided to return. There was a mix up with our reservation so we sat in the bar until a table opened up. Drinks were $12 a pop. Our waitress was great, friendly, attentive, patient. We ordered the garlic & herb cheese, but when it came it didn't taste anything like garlic, herbs, or even cheese, all you could taste was wine and it was really gross. She swapped it out with the Wisconsin cheddar, much better.

We tried the oil cooking style at her recommendation. Big mistake. It's just canola oil, super bland and no flavor. Cooked the food too much on the outside before the middle got done, which left it super crispy and burnt tasting. Horribly bad. So we asked if we could swap it out with the broth we'd had last time as we knew that was good. She happily obliged.

This is where things took a turn for the worst. We watched nervously as she struggled a great deal trying to get the pot of hot oil back into the carrier to remove it from the table (with a bandaged hand from burning herself on the same stuff 3 weeks prior, so badly she was out of work for 2 weeks time). After several failed attempts, she set it down to adjust the lid and when she picked it back up, the hot oil sloshed and landed on my husband's arm! My husband didn't want to make a big deal about it because he was worried she may get in trouble or worse, lose her job.

Unfortunately, we weren't offered any ice (I had to ask for some for him) or any kind of first aid attention. We were told the manager was coming to talk to us and expected that we would be comped or something. Instead, he handed us his business card (Sam Fleming, lead service captain) and said to call or email "if you have to go to the doctor for it" and walked away. Husband said let's just wait for the bill, maybe they took something off. We opted to forego the dessert for the time as we were just ready to go.

The bill came and we were shocked to see the entire amount, $170, no discount or anything. By the time she came back for our card I could see that my husband was very uncomfortable and in pain from his burn. The redness was spreading and it was weeping fluid from where the skin had come off. He's such a nice guy, he still didn't want to say anything. I was so flabbergasted that they hadn't even offered a discount of ANY kind and upset over seeing him in such pain and still trying to be a nice guy about it, that I got up and flagged down the waitress to let her know how upset I was. She apologized profusely and said that she absolutely agreed and had already asked TWO different managers to comp our meal and been told no. When I expressed that they really should do SOMETHING to rectify the situation, having caused him pain and discomfort, a discount was the least they could do, she said she would go and ask one more time for us.

She returned to tell us that they had removed one entree from the bill (about $60). So after we tipped her (her service, the only redeeming quality of the whole experience) we still paid $130 for an underwhelming meal and physical injury.

The more I think about it the more angry I get. The blatant disregard, lack of compassion, and failure to even attempt to remedy the situation (or even the decency of offering general first aid) from the management has just left me absolutely astonished. Nobody should be paying $130 to walk out with a painful wound and a ruined evening. I just can't...

My husband and I decided to go for a romantic dinner last night (02.12) and chose this restuarant because I'm a massive fan of the location in Nashville and my husband has never been. It was handsdown the worst experience I've ever and I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone.

Initial impression, there was 2 bits of crusted on food in our fondue pot but the hostess was nice and the vibe of the establishment was really romantic.

Our waitress was somewhat sweet, when we did see her, considering she was never around. We did not realise you had to order everything at once, our mistake, as the "few minutes" our waitress offered us so we could look over the menu became 27 minutes but we eventually ordered and enjoyed the atmosphere.

After eating the cheese fondue (not a big fan myself but my husband liked it) and salads (really good dressing) it took 30 minutes to receive our entrees then another 25, after finishing the entree, to receive our dessert fondue.

Even before we received our entrees my husband had enough time to finish his beer and water. We both wanted to order another drink but we had no clue where our waitress was. There were such large gaps between seeing her that we had no clue if she was even still around. The restaurant was fairly empty but we assumed she had tables elsewhere or a large party to attend to.

Randomly we would see her across the room and she even saw my husband pick up his glass and tap it, in hopes of her coming over and asking if we needed anything so we could just get some damn water. No such luck.

Eventually, I caught our waitress walking by close enough for me to ask for my husband to get another water. She agreed. 20 minutes later my husband asked another waitress for a water. She agreed but we did not see her again, similiar to our waitress. Now it has been around 40 minutes and our waitress walks by and tells us she'll bring us *his drink when it's made. We were confused and asked for the water and she shakes her head yes and agrees.

Guess what? A full hour and some change later the bartender comes by with another drink for me that I apparantly ordered a full 60 minutes ealier. I explained to her that there must have been some miscommuniation because I just wanted a water, and another one for me now, considering both our glasses were empty. She apologized and said she can get us waters. We never saw her again either.

We were brought dessert by our waitress and both noticed she had 2 other checks sitting ontop of our fruit and accidentally took a piece or two of banana with her, which was kind of amusing. I asked if we could please just get us some water, before she hurried off elsewhere. While waiting we ate the treats and really enjoyed them. Best part of the meal honestly.

After finishing dessert we were just sitting there talking for about 20 minutes when our aloof waitress makes an appearance with 2 waters and hands us our check before leaving. I see that she charged us for 2 of my drinks, a simple mistake but, man, you thought trying to find our waitress was bad before, just wait lol apparently only your waitress can help you because every other member of waitstaff I talked to only knew how to agree with helping but then never doing anything to actually help. I felt like I was in a Black Mirror episode where everyone looks right through you as you speak and you're desperately just trying to leave, but the same cycle of Hell continues in a dimly lit restaurant.

FINALLY our waitress comes back asking about how we're paying. I tell her I only ordered one drink and she gets confused because I didn't order any drink. I explain again that I did but she charged me for 2. She needs a manager to fix it and is gone for another 20 minutes. Considering they automatically charge gratuity and it was over a $220+ meal you would think it would be at least a bit better right?

We ended up going to Five Guys after and...

My daughter in law and I have birthdays one week apart and we decided to celebrate together this year. Our son suggested The Melting Pot because they had never been and it had been years since we had been there. We had reservations for 6 pm Friday night, 10/18/24. We each got the "Bigger Night Out" 4 course experience and our server was Jordan S.

The salad was fresh and nicely sized for a side salad. The cheese fondue (Alpine and Wisconsin Cheddar) was really good, but there was barely enough; we were scraping the pots at the end and hadn't finished all the bread. Also the sliced bread cubes weren't very fresh and it was mostly bread with just a few tiny veggies that were barely big enough to dip. We chose the land and sea combo which comes with a nice array of seafood, chicken, beef and veggies. The zucchini was missing from ours, but we just didn't worry about it. We had one pot with oil to dip in batter and then fry and one pot of Caribbean broth. I thought all the meat was tender and tasted fresh. I also liked all the sauces they bring to dip it in and they bring a seasoning as well. The service to that point was good, but not exceptional and we felt a bit rushed at one point. I will say that they did a great job of keeping our waters filled which is always appreciated.

Our issue, and the reason for 3 stars is due to what happened between the main course and dessert. After we finished the main course, the employee who filled our waters came to clear the table for dessert. We were sitting at a very large booth and the employee only wiped down the first half of the table, but the back half where my daughter in law and I were sitting was still very dirty. When the server, Jordan S. appeared with our dessert fondue and started to set it down, I put my hand up as if to say "wait" and let him know that the table hadn't been all the way cleaned. He seemed slightly annoyed but grabbed a towel and hastily ran it over the table. It was still dirty so I asked if he could please finish cleaning it and he very grudgingly started to, but then basically slid the towel down to me to clean it myself saying he couldn't reach it. That is absolutely unacceptable. Then I still noticed a bunch of crumbs in front of my husband so I was dusting those off the table and the server started making a big deal about "how he didn't know this was such a problem" etc and made me feel bad for asking to have our table clean before dessert. Even though the dessert fondue was delicious (dark chocolate raspberry and flaming turtle-also not enough and scraping sides of the pot)), I was honestly not able to enjoy it after being scolded and it was my birthday celebration.

My husband and I spent over $400 for the four of us and I would very much appreciate an apology as well as an opportunity to come back for cheese/chocolate fondue at the expense of The Melting Pot. I really don't want my last memory of my experience there to be a bad one.

UPDATE I am so impressed at how well the GM, Darin Wooten received and responded to my review. A response to my review was made very quickly and he listened to my concerns and was empathetic. I was also compensated for an unfavorable experience with two experience coupons-one for cheese fondue and one for chocolate. Thank you for making things right! I think my next memory made there will be...