Melting Pot — Restaurant in Town and Country

Update: After management reached out in response to my review with a VERY warm apology and an invitation to return, we did. This time, on a weeknight for my daughter’s birthday. The staff was certainly more friendly, relaxed, and attentive. Atmosphere was MUCH better and everything was fine except two things: we were served fruit that was *obviously not fit for serving, and we paid $16 for a balloon bouquet that we didn’t ask for, only to have it brought to the table with a foil balloon that was nowhere near fully inflated. The entire balloon bouquet was on the floor by the time we went to bed.

In summary: our little girl had a great time, so we can’t complain much. However, I can’t see us returning, sadly. The food and the balloon situation made it feel like we were given scraps, if you will, because we were invited back for dinner on the house, as if we didn’t deserve the same quality as we had always received before, or as if someone assumed we weren’t going to tip (we did - we ALWAYS do - based on what our meal would have cost). Or, perhaps everyone was served visibly bad fruit because the kitchen and wait staff didn’t care what the food looked like for anyone. Maybe there were no more balloons left for bouquets or they ran out of helium and just thought we wouldn’t notice. I hate that this happened when we were actually so excited to return based on the absolutely WONDERFUL customer service we received from the manager and public relations.

I was a regular guest of The Melting Pot for over 10 years before I had my daughter 6 years ago. Last weekend, my husband and I returned with our daughter for my birthday. I made a 4 o’clock reservation so we could be seated wherever the wait staff thought was best for a couple bringing a little one, and I made sure they knew we were bringing her in advance. We dressed in nice, business casual outfits and arrived on time so we’d be gone before it became crowded with couples. Boy, was I confused when we showed up to hoodies, t-shirts, and ponytails lol. I love hoodies, t-shirts, and ponytails…I’m a professional wearer of these things! I just had never seen that attire at The Melting Pot before and wasn’t expecting it, especially with the reminder of the dress code while making a reservation. Soon after our arrival, the volume became noticeably higher in the restaurant due to very loud children. To our shock, we were surrounded by tables full of very noisy families. We love kids, but at The Melting Pot? We brought our little one for my birthday dinner, but she is extremely well behaved, and if she had been even the slightest bit disruptive, one of us would have walked her to the car while the other paid the bill. The service was painfully slow, the waitstaff did not seem happy like they always had before, and the very loud children seated at every table around us really just took away the magic we once experienced while dining there. There were two children seated behind me who spent their entire meal practically yelling at each other and doing “impressions” of how people of different ethnicities speak (yes, it was horribly offensive, so much so that I cannot put examples here). It was horrendous and the adults at the table didn’t tell them to stop or remove them from the restaurant at any time. We were there for over 3 hours due to the overwhelmed staff, and when we were leaving, there were kids at every single table. I’m only leaving this review in case someone is thinking of dining here with the wrong expectations. The prices have not been adjusted to reflect the atmosphere, so that will likely be what keeps us from going back. That and the fact that your waiter will now suddenly interrupt your meal to ask you for a credit card without showing you any bill or allowing you to finish eating before digging for your wallet. I’ll spend $100-$300 for a quiet dinner with attentive, pleasant staff, a good atmosphere, good food, and proper handling of the bill, but I won’t do that at The Melting Pot again when I can have a better experience at a restaurant that...

UPDATE 4/16/24 : Still no response. Update: 4/10/24. Since The Melting Pot left a comment on here asking me to get in touch with them and since they left no direction on how to reach them, I filled out a contact form on their website. I still have not gotten a response. See why I am upset with them?

My family and I along with a friend and her daughter went to your restaurant in Easter. We did have reservations, at 5:30pm.

It was such a disappointment. We have always loved your restaurant. We normally go to Easter brunch, but since we have always loved the melting pot, we decided to actually have Easter dinner.

Big mistake.

There were 6 of us. 5 adults and a 17 year old.

We all got the Easter special dinner. 5 of us upgraded to the meat lover one.

My daughter ordered a drink. Some sort of specialty one. Pineapple something. It was so sweet she couldn’t drink it. She loves sweet! This was so sweet it was not drinkable. We did not complain because we did not want to be a pest on Easter.

We got 2 different cheeses. Considering there were 6 of us, our fondue pots were not very full. We could see the table close to us with 2 people. They had more. We did not say anything. Again, trying to remain in the holiday spirit. They brought us our dippers. Our waitress told us they were out of pretzel bread so they gave us tortilla chips. That was unfortunate. We love the pretzel bread. But, ok. But! The chips were so stale they were not edible. And the rest of the bread was very stale. We ate it anyway. The vegetables were not nice dipping pieces. They were small little remnants that had probably fallen off larger pieces and that was all they had left.

Our entrees though. That is what did us in. Again, 5 of us got the meat lover. Or what ever it’s called…. Big Night Out? The one we paid the extra money for. They brought it out on 2 long plates and one short one. So 2 of us had to share the one long plate. When I am paying for a meal, I don’t want to share my meat. Nor do I want to awkwardly count out the pieces that are mine! I want my own main course right in front of me. I don’t want to say, “Is that my salmon or yours?”

And the pates were uneven in the amount of food that was on them. The person with her own plate got 3 pieces of steak. My meal partner and I also got 3 pieces. And no, it was not because they were giant pieces. They weren’t. Although the person that got the single serving did not get any mushroom ravioli. The portions were all wildly different. We asked our server about it. She was so put out. She could not even offer a solution. Or an apology. And we were nice about it! She finally brought țhd missing ravioli and 2 pieces of the teriyaki steak. Oh! I forgot to mention they were out 2 different kinds of meats… and they only told us this when they were bringing out the entree with the wrong meat. One of our party waited 10 minutes longer for her dish to even be brought out.

Our server was not bad. But she was not great. She did nothing to smooth over our many disappointments. And a great server would have. We felt very rushed because they kept trying to clean the table. And we still had food to cook on them. While we were all glad to be together, the meal put a damper on it and we spent a lot of time complaining to each other about it.

It was a holiday. I get it. Things get busy. But, you know what? That’s not on me. I had reservations. To be out of bread and meat is not good. You knew we were coming. The person in the kitchen should have taken greater care in sending out our meat. The server should have been better at accommodating us after we brought up our issue. We gave her an awfully big tip for her to not been a whole lot nicer. Like I said, we were not rude at all. We apologized for even complaining!

We spent almost $450.00 in your restaurant. That is huge amount of money. I’m not rich. I work two jobs and saved to do this. And now I don’t love The Melting Pot anymore. It was our go to restaurant for special occasions and now none of us...

This is the second time, in three months, I have been to the melting pot and had similar experiences. I asked the waiter- where the children’s meals went on the menu? he said that they still have them but he recommends just ordering my two kids a 30 dollar meal to share and then they can try the adults chocolate and cheese.

Obviously our children are there for the chocolate and want their own chocolate. I went to the website menu and saw that they still had children’s options with cheese and chocolate. I asked him and he annoyedly said “yes they still have it” clearly he did not want to make an extra pot of cheese/chocolate but that is what we are there for and paying for? anyways the website said for a full kids meal plus cheese/chocolate is 14 each.

My sister and I paid separately and she went first, he would not show her the bill and just stated the amount.

When it was my turn to pay- he again just stated the amount, I asked to see the bill, he seemed extremely annoyed and he flashed the computer screen at me. As I looked- all it said was the total, it did not show anything I was being charged for. so I then asked “I am only being charged $14 for each kid menu item?” he said “nope they are 25 each” I told him, online it states the meals are $14 and he said nope because you ordered choc/cheese. I I then full on pull out the menu online and showed him it is $14 and he said “I don’t know what to tell you”.

Basically I had to ask a bunch of questions to even know I am being charged more and then he offers no resolution. My sister also has to ask questions about her bill- because they don’t let you see it.

Finally, I asked for a manager (I have never asked for a manager before)- the waiter went and talked to the manager. The manager never came to the table after the incident but did privately take off the items.

The waiter came back and said okay she took off items, but again would not show me my bill. I paid and left. (they did not offer my sister to change her children’s meals to the correct price) with the required 20 percent tip this is almost 35 extra dollars paid.

I would not have posted this, but, when I went with a larger party, three months ago- I also thought my bill was a lot higher than normal. I had to again, push to see my bill and found I was charged an extra 20 bucks just randomly tacked on. It makes me believe that when the automatic 20% tip is added that the staff is in the habit of just adding charges. It was a completely different waitress last time. Obviously do not know for certain- but why do they not let us see the bill? it is so weird! I would never think they were adding charges, if I was just freely given a bill.

I have never been to a restaurant, store, hospital, etc where they refuse to show you YOUR FULL BILL. I asked multiple times to the point it was awkward.

It is very hard to believe that I was accidentally charged the last two different times on my bills that are required 20 percent tip and I was refused an itemized bill.

I have never wrote a review before and I completely understand how hard waitstaff has to work. Our waiter brought out the wrong cheese, forgot drinks, etc but I would never write a review about that, nor do I mind when that happens unless it is insanely bad service. I have never complained about any of that at any restaurant.

But I do not like that it seems to be the restaurants motto to scam/overcharge customers what it says on the menu, especially since I have now seen multiple reviews stating...