For my birthday dinner Mr. Picky decided to take me to the Melting Pot, and what a great choice it was! It wasn’t just dinner it was a whole experiece! This is a chain restaurant all over the US, they even have locations in Mexico and Canada so if you have one nearby I definitely recommend! Here’s why:

Birthday dinner

Let’s start with the decor!

It’s a pretty romantic atmosphere, very dark with lights on each table so it’s a great place for a date! The booths are quite comfortable, but the tables were what really impressed me! It’s a granite table top with a build in burner in the middle that only gets hot in the middle so there’s no risk in burning yourself. So now you are probably wondering why you need a burner at your table? Well because in this restaurant, you are the chef!  4 stars

The food: This is a fondue restaurant! So the menu is pretty straight forward. You have your choice of different cheese fondue, normal salads, entrees for one, desserts and they also have The Big Night Out Menu which is a 4 course meal for two! So since we wanted to sample everything they’ve got we got that!    

The first course was their Boston Lager Cheddar Cheese Fondue. Oh my gosh! It was magnificent! So the server comes to your table and first sets up the pot so it gets nice and hot and then he starts to build your fondue and the cool thing is that you see everything that goes into it. So first thing, he pours the beer. Samuel Adams. Then into the pool goes a ton of delicious cheddar cheese, then some Applewood-Smoked bacon - yum, some onions, Dijon, tabasco for heat and scallions to make everything pretty. Doesn’t that just sound fabulous? Then you need something to dip in that absolutely ahhmazing cheesy fondue so they bring out some bread, green apples and vegetables. My favorite was actually the simplest - bread that way the cheese is the star, but the green apples were also quite interesting. So first course was definitely a winner!                  5    stars          

Second course was salad. I was actually excited for a lighter course since the first was pretty rich and heavy, so something light was definitely appreciated. So we ordered the Wisconsin Wedge Salad. So basically iceberg lettuce, some tomatoes, Applewood-Smoked bacon, gorgonzola and peppercorn ranch dressing. I have to admit it was one of the best salads I’ve had in a long time. The dressing was wonderful with a nice tang and they definitely didn’t skimp on the bacon                                                                                                 5 stars  

Third course: Now this is where you really get to cooking! First you choose your entree from 3 different options. We stuck with the base option which included shrimp, sirloin, wild mushroom sacchetti (it’s kind of like ravioli), buffalo chicken and bbq pork tenderloin. The other two options were pretty much the same thing they just included lobster tail which I’m not a fan of at all, so this was the best choice for us. Then you choose the style of cooking which basically means you get to choose in what kind of broth you will be cooking the meats, whether you want to go with a classic bourgonion or coq au vin or something more exotic like mojo (Caribbean spiced) it’s up to you! Since I love coq au vin, we chose that! The broth is burgundy wine, infused with fresh herbs and mushrooms, just delicious. So the server assembles the broth in your pot and brings a plate with vegetables and all the meat which is by the way completely raw and quickly gives you a run down. So first step, you need to wait for the broth to comes to boil, simple enough. Then you start preparing your food. The vegetables (potatoes, mushrooms and broccoli) take about 10mins to prepare, the shrimp about 1 min, the steak anywhere from 1 – 2 mins (well done), the pork and chicken about 2 mins as well and the pasta 1 min. So little by little you start preparing your food and sampling it. The server also brings out 6 different sauces to try out of which I liked the best their most popular one (don’t remember the name) which almost reminded me of tzaziki, I also enjoyed their blue cheese one and their bbq. Least favorite has to be their cocktail sauce and sweet and sour.I definitely enjoyed mixing and matching the sauces and trying them out with different meats. The steak was great, the mushroom sacchettes - phenomenal and the pork and chicken had great flavors. Least favorite has to be the shrimp, it lacked seasonings for me, but overall everything was really good.                              4.5 stars

Our plate of raw meats just waiting to be cooked!

Pot of yummy coq au vin broth!

Cooking some shrimp

Fourth course: Dessert! My favorite part, by far! So we ordered the Flaming Turtle Fondue which was a combination of milk chocolate, gooye caramel, candied pecans served flambee style at your table! Blue flame and all! That is served with a plate of brownies, red velvet cake bites, cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, rice krispie treats and marshmallows. Can I just say this was beyond ahhmazing! I felt like I was in chocolate heaven! I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly content! Just outstanding!    5 stars

Flaming Turtle Fondue!

All the goodies

Drinks: I ordered their Smores martini, which was pretty good, but to be honest not the best Smores martini I’ve ever had. So at $10 it was alright, but I probably wouldn’t order it again.                                                3 stars

Smores Martini. The cookie crumb marshmallows on top were the best part! Soo good!

Noise: The noise level was very low and it’s a great restaurant for conversation                                  5 stars

Service: Our server was great when he was around he was attentive and funny but he wasn’t around as much as I would have liked. He seemed like he was covering a pretty large area, but like I said when he was around he was great!                                                                                                                                          4 stars

Price: For the amount of food we good, I thought the price was very reasonable. Our 4 meal course for two was $82 + $6 for cooking style and then of course we have drinks and tip so our bill ended up being including all $130 for two. But our dinner did last almost 2 and half hours! So I think with it being a whole experience and a special occasion it was worth the money                                                                      Overall: 4.5 stars