The Melting Pot, operating in over 129 locations, offers diners a gourmet fondue experience to remember.
For a fun and unique dining experience, the fondue restaurant The Melting Pot is the perfect destination. Each meal is treated as a four-course feast, allowing diners to enjoy the restaurant’s delicious food at their own leisurely pace.
The restaurant, according to the company’s Web site, opened in Florida in 1975 by brothers Mike, Mark and Bob Johnston when the fondue craze was at its peak in the United States. The Melting Pot was greeted with great success, and by 1985 the company became franchise-operated.
Today there are over 129 locations in over 35 states. Also, there are currently more than 42 restaurants slated to open soon.
The Melting Pot's Menu
Diners are offered a set menu with many choices on how they wish their food to be cooked. First, drinks are decided upon, with an amazing array of specialty drinks and a four page wine list.
The appetizer is a cheese fondue, and the menu boasts six choices including the decadent Wisconsin Trio Cheese Fondue and the Spinach Artichoke Cheese Fondue. The server mixes the ingredients with pots on broilers stationed at each table. Diners are presented with chips, pieces of bread, vegetables, and green apples to dip into the fondue pots.
The next course features salads including the California Salad with walnuts and gorgonzola cheese and the Spinach Mushroom Salad that offers the perfect blend of Portobello mushrooms and a burgundy shallot vinaigrette.
Cooking styles are chosen for the main entree, such as coq au vin, court bouillon, bourguignonne, or mojo style. The coq au vin perfectly complements the filet mignon medallions and the wild mushroom ravioli, while the mojo style’s Caribbean seasonings bring out the delectable flavors of the balsamic sirloin and the citrus pork tenderloin.
Diners are offered many choices for their main entrée. The most cost effective is the Big Night Out Fondue Feast, which includes filet mignon, sirloin, chicken, tenderloin, shrimp, ravioli, rigatoni, and fresh vegetables for $88 a couple. This price also includes the cheese fondue, a salad and a chocolate dessert fondue.
More expensive entrée selections include everything that comes in the Fondue Feast plus the Fondue Fusion’s lobster tail for $92 a couple. Although the Lobster Indulgence does not have the filet mignon, it presents twin lobster tails for $96 per couple.
The Melting Pot's Best Part: The Desserts
The best part of the meal by far at the Melting Pot is the desserts. Exhibited on a separate menu, each chocolate fondue dessert comes with strawberries, small pieces of brownies, rice crispies (plain and covered in Oreo crumbles), and a slice of cheesecake. Diners are offered many choices for their chocolate mixture. Two standouts are the chocolate with peanut butter and the chocolate with Bailey’s Irish cream. Both are rich in flavor and aroma.
Why Diners Keep Coming Back to the Melting Pot
While the Melting Pot might be expensive for some, there is certainly a lot of food offered at each course. For those who can’t finish, the restaurant allows diners to cook up all of their entrees and boxes them up for later consumption. Additionally, the restaurant experience would be equally served by cutting costs and ordering fewer courses, such as just ordering the cheese fondue as an appetizer and the chocolate fondue for dessert.
Although the Melting Pot’s food is the most impressive aspect of the restaurant, the experience of cooking your meal yourself and not being rushed makes the meal one to savor even after you’ve finished your chocolate creations.
