Melting Pot — Restaurant in Virginia

Good experience overall. Food was good and instructions were easy to follow. We also went to a hot pot restaurant recently and the cook-time instructions were much better at The Melting Pot. Having the printed table of cook times was critical.

It'd be cool if they had the sauces and items labeled, but I guess that feedback is more directed to the corporation. Hard to know how long to cook an item for if you don't know what the item is. Also the web-based timer was a nice idea, but needs reset buttons (reloading the entire page is slow) and they should color-code the different minutes so it's clear how long to let it run without having to check the printed sheet of times. It was also a bit buggy; it disappeared occasionally but you could pan to bring it back.

My wife and I were in a tiny half-booth, which was pretty tight, especially with the support pole underneath. And the burner was further away from us than it was for people at regular booths. It was pretty hard to reach. Although again, this is pretty much all feedback for corporate rather than the individual location.

Our server was friendly and knowledgeable and helped answer our questions and provided good recommendations.

Plan on spending at least two hours there if you do a four-course meal. Service is kindof "slow" in that regard, but really I'd argue that it's more about giving people time and not trying to rush them out of the restaurant to free up a table. Think of it as getting your money's worth by prolonging the experience.

If you do the four courses, your first course is dipping bread, etc., into hot cheese. Next is salad in a bowl. Then is the main course. That's similar to hot pot where you cook raw ingredients (e.g. meats, vegetables, seafood, etc.) in your choice of broth (or similar). They provide a table of cook times so that you don't undercook anything. You also want to be mindful of which prongs you use for raw ingredients and not reuse them for touching the cooked ingredients. In other words, don't let the raw food [directly or indirectly] touch anything going in your mouth. I noticed another review below complaining about food poisoning and they blamed it "bad cheese" or something like that. But obviously they just weren't careful enough with handling the raw meat. The last course is dipping fruits (etc.) in heated chocolate. And they also have macarons, mini-cheesecake bites, etc. for like $3 extra each.

Overall I'd say it's definitely good for special occasions, but maybe a bit much for a regular dinner. Roughly $50/person and it's a lot of food. The food is good but probably the experience is...

First time at the Melting Pot. Thought the experience was going to be better for the price I paid. Upgraded to Ultimate Romance Package ($175) for 2. Table was nicely decorated with rose petals and candles. Our package included roses in a “decorative vase” there was nothing decorative about a plain clear plastic vase. Someone was supposed to take our picture to put in a keepsake frame. No one did that so money wasted. And also a bottle of bubbly to go with our desert. I requested non alcoholic (pregnant). We got a $3 bottle of sparkling cider. Very disappointed with this-seemed childish to me considering price I paid. I know that there are brands of non alcoholic champagne out there. At least deduct the price if you are going to provide cheap option. It took our waitress about 5 minutes to figure out how to open the bottle. So my boyfriend and I just sat there awkwardly. It was the waitresses first time serving with the package so she was unaware of what was/wasn’t included. From the very beginning of the service every time she approached the table she was apologizing profusely for the wait which got to be very annoying by the end. Also she was making inappropriate comments (how her table before gave a bad tip) I wonder why? Took about 45 minutes to get our starter, waitress forget to turn on our pot when she first arrived at table. Starter was good, my boyfriends favorite part. Next we got salad, mine was nice and round. My boyfriends just about covered the bottom and looked like someone flattened it with their hand. It was very sad looking, he was not too pleased. For our entree, I thought our cooking style (broth/sauce to cook the food) we chose was absolutely horrible. And the 6 sauces provided did not pair well with the food at all. Everything was leaving a very bad taste in our mouths. I think the pot should come with a divider. I ordered the vegetable entree and my boyfriend the land and sea. Since I have a bad allergic reaction to seafood he had to wait until I finished eating to cook his food since everything is cooked in the same pot. My favorite part was the desert. The chocolate was rich and creamery. The dipping choices were very good. Overall the bill was $245 with tip. Even with the upgrades I do not think this price is worth it for 2 people and no alcohol beverages. I would maybe consider returning just for desert. I was browsing the whole menu in general and everything is very expensive. I hope this review helps for anyone considering going to The...

I used to love going to the Melting Pot to celebrate special occasions and have been going for the past 20 years. However, I will no longer be coming back :(

TLDR: Charging $5 for extra dippers, not providing enough dippers for the amount of cheese ordered, watery fondue with no taste, and no celebration of a special occasion means I will not be coming back.

DIPPERS. The Melting Pot used to offer unlimited dippers (e.g., bread, vegetables, fruit, etc.). They now charge $5 every time you need extra dippers. Given food costs are rising, I can understand this new policy. However, they are not transparent about the change because they do not indicate the cost of extra dippers on the menu. They also used to pile the dipper plate high with bread, vegetables, and fruit. This time, the dipper plate was sparse and empty, and it looked like someone moved the dippers around to make the plate appear fully covered. They also did not even give us enough dippers for the amount of cheese we ordered, so we ended up having to ask for more and paid the extra $5. The extra dipper plate only had two pieces of broccoli on it, a sparse amount of vegetables, and a handful of bread. I noticed there were not any grapes or cauliflower on the dipper plate, and it turns out they no longer provide them because they're too expensive. I don't really understand how they are too expensive given dippers are no longer unlimited and folks have to pay $5 for extra dippers.

CHEESE. We ordered the Classic Alpine, and it did not taste good. It was very watery, and I could not taste the white wine at all. In fact, I would have had a more delicious meal at home with grapes, cauliflower, and Emmi Cheese Fondue from the grocery store than what I had at the Melting Pot and for a fraction of the cost.

SPECIAL OCCASION. During the dessert course of the meal, we used to get a plate with chocolate writing stating the occasion (e.g., "Happy Birthday") along with a small treat. This time around, we did not receive anything even though we told the server when he asked if we were celebrating anything.

SERVICE: The server was nice and respectful. I do not have any complaints from the level of service...