The Melting Pot

The service level is always a five, as is the experience. However, while enjoyable — three hours for dinner is way too long (4 course meal). $ 400 for a party of five — a bit excessive.

Fondue isn’t for everyone, but I enjoy the experience of it. The entire idea of the Melting Pot is for you to actually do the cooking yourself. If you don’t like that idea than you shouldn’t eat here. I however, find it to be an entertaining meal. It’s a great way to be social and take a longer than average amount of time to dine with friends and family. As far as the price I’m not aware of many nice restaurants that offer an appetizer, salad, main course, and dessert for much less than $ 30 – 40 a person. The 4 of us with a bottle of wine cost right at $ 200. It was worth every penny!
We chose to dine here for my mom’s birthday — her choice. It was my Mom and Aunts first time here and also doing fondue. At first when the food came out on the plates it was almost a disappointment. We all thought that their was NO way that this little amount of food would fill us up. Boy were we wrong! We left STUFFED and even had items we couldn’t eat. I pride myself as a foodie but this place wasn’t bad at all!
Some of the items were better than others. The favorites were the teriyaki-​marinated sirloin, filet mignon, honey orange duck breast, and Pacific white shrimp. The least favorites were the herb-​crusted chicken, chicken potstickers, and the angus beef sirloin. MY FAVORITE… believe it or not… was the broccoli. After cooking in the broth with all the flavors it is amazing. It’s by far the BEST way I’ve ever had broccoli prepared! I even asked for more. The cheese fondue and salads were also all very good.
Of course no meal would be complete without the dessert fondue. I would encourage everyone to take part in the 4 course meals. A trip here wouldn’t be complete without experiencing it all.

The Melting Pot first drew me in with its melty allure back during the days of «Girls Next Door» when Holly Madison asked Hugh Hefner to recreate their pots of cheese and pools of dipping chocolate for her birthday at the Playboy Mansion. Yes, Holly Madison is my birthday role model… and anniversary, new job and night-​before-​a-​holiday role model. I write that unabashedly.
For past six years, since Melting Pot opened its chain in upstate New York (Rochester, Buffalo, and Syracuse have locations), it has been my go-​to place to celebrate special occasions. This location is located in Marketplace Mall, on the Old Navy side. Sure, it’s expensive and an extreeeemely leisurely dining experience. But people, come on, there are ways to get around all of this to enjoy melty cheese… and who doesn’t like melty cheese?!
My most important tip is to join the Melting Pot’s Club Fondue. Then you will receive weekly emails for special events that feature three and four courses for a fraction of the usual price. The best part is that during your birthday month, you can come in and receive 6 fresh dipped strawberries in a fancy box.
The traditional four courses feature cheese, salad, entrée and dessert. You order the cheese, salad and entrée (and cooking style) at once. Then later, you will choose your dessert.
My cheese recommendation is to go with the spinach and artichoke… Fontina and Butterkäse cheeses, spinach, artichoke hearts and garlic. The server prepares it right before you in the pot set on the warming plate in the middle of your table. The cheese comes with bowls of «dippers» including green apples, white and pumpernickel rounds of bread, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and tortilla chips. You could stop there if you wanted to.
For the entrée, you can order a petite entrée (three meat choices) or a regular entrée that comes with a variety platter of raw meat. I usually go with the traditional white shrimp, filet mignon, chicken, pork, and strip steak platter. You can choose a cooking style, but the bouillon is free and does a fine job. The server will bring vegetables (potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms) and explain the cooking times. Usually each bite of meat takes approximately 2 – 3 mins. The potatoes take the longest and I recommend dumping the whole bowl of vegetables in right at the start. The meat comes with a variety of sauces, but the green goddess (a sour cream and herb based sauce) is so good on the mushrooms.
After the entrée, they will switch up your fondue forks and ask you which chocolate you decided on. I aways go with the Smores chocolate… it comes with milk chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallow and gets lit on fire right at your table. The show definitely sways me to this choice, but it really is the best option in my opinion for overall chocolate excitment. The chocolate fondue comes with fresh strawberries, blondies, bananas, pineapple, cheesecake, Rice Krispies Treats, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies.
Overall, a four course fondue dining experience can run you up to $ 50 per person, but if you join the Club fondue, you could save up to $ 20 and still enjoy the same experience. Don’t mind if I (fon)do!

Not impressed! third time here and I’m not sure where the value and the quality of the food come into play. I feel like for six people $ 150 could be spent at a better restaurant higher quality of food and better service.

We have been here a few times. We went last night for my birthday. No reservation but we didn’t have a problem. This isn’t a spot you come to for a quick bite, it’s more of an experience.
We did use a groupon but still had a sizeable check at the end of our meal. Unless you are getting one of their 4 course special, I advise skipping the salad. Everything else is priced per person or per portion. This can be confusing. Just because you have 4 people doesn’t mean you need 4 portions of cheese fondue.
They do have a kid’s menu but it isn’t your typical chicken nuggets, etc. Our kids opted for salmon, shrimp and terryaki beef to cook. They also stole some of my ahi tuna!
Really, you could get full on cheese fondue and the chocoate fondue alone!
Our waiter, Kevin, was awesome! He interacted with everyone, including the kids, in a positive and fun way. He was quite knowledgeable about the franchise and answered all of our questions.
The free champagne and sparkling cider was a welcome surprise at the end. The kids also loved the smore’s fondue flambé!
Definitely bring your wallet and look out for specials or deals before you come!

Tried this place for the first time last night and loved it! We were seated in a cozy, secluded booth, making it fell like we were the only ones there! Our server was great, giving us detailed descriptions of menu items and to very good care of us through our experience there. We had the Classic alpine cheese fondue, which was amazing! It was served with veggies, delicious bread and green apples (my personal favorite) We both ordered entrees that had a variety of chicken, steaks and shrimp, which were tasty as well. I didn’t care much for the chicken though. The chocolate fondue was my favorite! We had «the orignal» which was chocolate and peanut butter, served with a tasty assortment of little cookies, cakes, fruits, and even rice Krispy treats! It’s a tad pricey, but totally worth the experience!

Not a fan of being served raw meat (especially chicken) and having to cook it in a nasty broth. Also, who wants a filet cooked with boiling fluid?! Steak is cooked on a grill.
Aside from that, their prices are ridiculous for what you’re getting. Even after a Groupon, it was $ 70 for 2 and we both had water to drink!
Won’t be back and can’t recommend it to anyone else.

I love the Chocolate fondue! It comes with all you can think of that you could immerse in chocolate and the experience is heaven on earth! Just make sure to have enough space in your stomach!

Delicious food and a great, fun loving staff! It can get a bit pricey to eat multiple courses here, but it’s an experience you should do at least once. The best course, for us at least, is always the dessert. The classic chocolate fondue with crunchy peanut butter is incredible. We recently tried the Dark and Dolce fondue… No words for how good it was. Dark chocolate, Dolce de Leche (like a caramel), and sea salt.

Not a fan of being served raw meat that I had to cook myself then pay over $ 100 for dinner! Honestly pick someplace else to eat.

I have come to The Melting Pot quite a few times since being diagnosed with celiac disease and I have always been impressed with their knowledge of the gluten free diet. All of the servers I have had were extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
The food is amazing, what can I say– the cheddar cheese course is so rich and delicious (and they can make it with GF beer if necessary) and the fruit and veggie dippers are fresh and delicious. The salads are fresh and crisp, and the entrée course is a very generous amount of food. The chocolate fondue can’t be matched– SOOOO delicious! The flaming turtle and s’mores fondues make you want to lick the pot when they’re all gone (which doesn’t take long), and even the classic chocolate fondue is yummy. There are plenty of GF dessert dippers too– GF brownies, cupcakes, fresh fruit and marshmallows– YUM!
I definitely recommend fasting before coming to The Melting Pot because if you get the 4 course meal, there is SO MUCH FOOD that you will leave the restaurant feeling like you ate a horse– so full!!!

My girlfriend and I went to the melting pot on Friday evening for our anniversary. We had a great experience, the secluded booths makes the atmosphere great. The food was amazing, we had cheese fondue, chicken beef shrimp and chicken potstickers for dinner. The veggies were fresh, the server Kevin was amazing. The s’mores chocolate dessert at the end was fantastic, Kevin brought extra marshmallows for us to roast over the fire in the pot. Kevin knew it was also just my birthday so he brought over a candle on three extra pound cake pieces. I can’t wait to return back.

First time here. First the set up of the resturant is pretty cool. The booths are personable like a dining room table. The menu was a little confusing to us but the way rises explained the menu. We had gotten the 3 course meal. First the service was exception. The servers are very attentive and making sure you are happy. I couldn’t be any happier with the service. The food was pretty good. We had all got individual meal. I got buffalo chicken and the other two got chicken pot stickers. The food was pretty good. They have a nice drink selection and be the time we fished the main course we had no room for deserts.
I recommend putting your veggies in right away for the main course so they can cook. They take a long time. It is very very pricey here. For 3 people with drinks, cheese sauce starter, salads, and individual main courses it came to $ 179. Next time we talked about a splitting a main meal. Or just going for the cheese dip and dessert. The food was good and the service was perfect. They even called the next day and asked how our food and service was. Overall we had alot of fun.

Last night I was surprised to come here. It was a valentines day I’m going to surprise you type of thing. Our server was so friendly and even mentioned that she was on 4 hours of sleep from the night before. We got the cheese fondue and loved it. We both got the strawberry almond salad. It was a delight to see the strawberries were fresh. Then we got our meals. Both were off the valentines day menus. Together we had sirloin, filet mignon, shrimp, lobster and chicken. The seasonings on it were so good that we didn’t even need the dipping sauces. However we both agreed that they had the best teriyaki sauce that we’ve had. They also took your picture and framed it which was cute. Two glasses of champaign were included too. For dessert we ordered to ying yang fondue. Absolutely amazing and of course we ordered more strawberries.

Just went to this place the other day with my family and I, it was mediocre. We all decided to order the same thing on the menu because it was so confusing. The food really was not that good, vegetables did not taste fresh, meat was nothing special, and desert was just alright. The absolute worst part about this place is the price, it costed $ 50 a person which is about the average price. For a restaurant in a shopping mall that has below par food that is wayyyyyyyyy overpriced! The only reason I am giving this restaurant two stars is purely for the fun we had, you wouldn’t think fondue would be fun but it is. My recommendation is that if you go either bring a coupon or just go for desert. It is a fun experience worth trying once.

This one of my favorite «Date Night» spots! How could you ever go wrong with cheese and chocolate?!? We usually order and share one of the 4 course meals and just add on an extra serving of cheese and chocolate. Personally I don’t mind «cooking» my own food, its part of the experience and fun to mix and match the sauces that accompany the entrees. This is a place to relax and enjoy the experience, fondue is supposed to be fun and interactive!

I am willing to come back here only for dessert… and maybe the appetizer… but not both per visit.
First off, the menu is confusing. With just 2 of us dining in, we gave up and decided to be adventurous for our first time.
We went for the 4 course experience;
1– Cheese Fondue (Spinach and Artichoke) Would order again.
2– Individual Salad (forgettable)
3– Individual Entrée (Bourguignonne style: steak, chicken, shrimp, salmon, tuna, white fish) Would never order again.
4– Chocolate Fondue (pound cake) Would order again to try the red velvet.
Entrees were too troublesome to prepare and eat. The bourguignonne style seemed easy as we thought it would just be deep frying. The entrees included rub, batter and tempura. My complaint? Took too long to cook and eat. Even with 2 people. Preparing and frying the chicken was not feasible. The table top gets quite warm… so it didn’t seem appetizing after thinking about all that can happen to the raw chicken with the temperature rising. We would have been better off with just the shrimp and fish or something that can be cooked quickly.
The place itself has a nice cozy and intimate ambiance. Perfect for an appetizer fondue or desserts with wine.

Doug and I decided to celebrate our two year anniversary by checking out this location after visiting the Syracuse location (on a mini-​vacation) and loving it… and this location did NOT disappoint.
First, I want to start with how AWESOME our server, Brian, was. He was funny, upbeat, had great timing on when to check in on us, didn’t overwhelm us with anything, made wonderful converastion, and made sure we were taken care of. He was one of the best servers I have ever had the pleasure of meeting with.
We ordered the cheddar fondue, then the burgundy wine broth (the name escapes me… something I can’t pronounce), and the smores chocolate fondue for dessert and everything was amazing. I love that you can cook your own food right there, just the way you like. I like my meats basically alive and Doug is a medium-​well kind of guy, so it’s very convenient to not have to wait longer for his overcooked leather food.
The manager stopped by once to make sure that everything was in order and wished us a happy anniversary. Actually, everyone we ran into wished us a happy anniversary, which was really nice of them. When we got our dessert plate, they had decorated it beautifully as well. I was really impressed with how well both Doug and I were taken care of and we definitely will be visiting this location again.
I’m not sure why people are saying this restaurant is «kid friendly» and giving it bad ratings because it isn’t. I can’t imagine bringing a child here… besides the chocolate dessert, I can’t see any child having fun here since the hot plate and fondue pot get so hot (I don’t think many parents would want their children to cook their own food).
Cozy, romantic, great food, and great staff!
For Fondue, this location is as good as it gets… worth the five stars, and in my personal opinion, better than the one in Syracuse.

Love it here, especially for dessert! I don’t think I’ll go back for dinner. Kinda pricey. List of wine to choose from!
Tip: make a reservation And ask for a table with 2 burners… Very Important. That way you and your party can enjoy 2 dips to choose from.

Melting Pot provides a refreshing if pricey change of pace. A fun experience for a group, share a big ol’ pot of cheese, dip and play with your food like a child, avoid scalding yourself on the oil used for self-​frying your entrée and then get melted chocolate everywhere for desert. Preferably spooning the last bits off your plate with your finger :)
Would recommend getting the oil cooking stock as you then get a variety of batters and sauces that give you even more opportunity to goup up your food.
The salads are good, using the nut/​fruit/​cheese model popular at fancier places. Expect some amount of interaction with you wait staff as they’ll prepare your Fondue and explain things along the way. Some may even tell stories about their alcoholic grandmother! Ours was very friendly and charming but a little too talkative at points.
Favorites regarding entrée options were the vegetarian combo, duck, tuna, salmon, and pot stickers. Leave the potatoes in a while they are tough to overcook.
Overall a very fun and exciting experience but seems a bit overpriced for what you’re getting, considering you’re mostly preparing the food yourself :)