It was my baby girl’s 20th birthday and Allison wanted to go to the Melting Pot in Troy for dinner. I went to the bank, took out a second mortgage on the house, and prepared for our visit. Kidding, but dang, it is expensive. So let me begin by saying find a coupon. Or check the website for specials. This night out is crazy expensive and you have to do it right. Thanks a bunch to Maria Slawick who graciously gave me her Entertainment Book coupon. That saved my $25!!
The menu basically covers 4 courses. A cheese fondue course, with a variety of different cheese selections. Second, a salad course, with I think a variety of 4 different salads (and to answer a questions posed to me when telling this story previously, no, you do NOT dip your salad into anything hot!) Third, a main meat course, which offers ample selections for all you meat lovers out there. Fourth and finally, and my favorite, the dessert course, which is a decadent chocolate fondue. You can order each course a la carte or you can order as a four course meal, which really is the best value. The four course meals range from about $39 to upwards of $48 depending on the type of meat you choose. Now we learned that we could split the meat course on 2 four course meals and I would only be required to add an extra cheese and extra dessert (I opted against salad) this method saved us $20 as well, so consider it when you go – there is a LOT of food. Especially for 3 girls who don’t eat a ton.
We ordered our drinks, Jamie a basil infused strawberry lemonade made with strawberry vodka, and me, my standard Mojito. After what seemed an enormous wait, they came back to say no basil, so what was her option. As I didn’t even get my mojito yet, Jamie said she would try mine before ordering. After another LOOONG wait, I got my mojito, or should I say my mint salad with rum dressing! The drink was OK, kind of weak, but had so much mint in it it seemed more a salad than a drink. I had trouble even sipping through a straw. Jamie liked it, and ordered the Lemon Berry Mojito, which I think was better, since it was sans mint. 20 minutes later she was finally enjoying her cocktail.
We started with Quattro Formaggio, which was Butterkäse and fontina cheeses, roasted garlic, basil and tomato pestos, mozzarella and Parmesan. They brought apples, carrots and cauliflower and a variety of breads for dipping. The bread was a wee bit stale, but the cheese was tasty.
As I said, I skipped the salad course, but Allison got the house salad, which was a basic salad with Peppercorn Ranch and Jamie a Caesar salad. The interesting thing about the Caeser was it was topped with Parmesan encrusted pine nuts, which Jamie enjoyed, but for me, seemed out of place.
Our meat course we split the Classic, with Certified Angus Beef sirloin, pork tenderloin, Pacific white shrimp, herb crusted all-natural breast of chicken and teriyaki marinated sirloin. We added more steak with the Steak Lovers which included Premium Filet Mignon, teriyaki-marinated sirloin and Certified Angus Beef sirloin. The meats were tender and well seasoned. My favorite was the Filet, which had a peppery rub and super tender. The meat course also comes with potatoes, and veggies to cook as well.
Our broth however, the classic court bouillon, as we began was not quite hot enough. We were cooking our meat longer than suggested, and it still wasn’t cooked. A little worrisome when dealing with chicken and pork. It quickly rose to temperature and we were on our way!! We did pretty good, but even splitting the 2 meat courses, we still couldn’t finish it all. At the end of the meat course we were all stuffed. Good thing they take a TON of time in between courses so you can get hungry again, well at least not stuffed beyond comprehension.
For desert, Allison got a special Happy Birthday plate with a chocolate covered strawberry and a candle. They said they would bring her a champagne toast NEXT year when she was all legal like. We ordered the S’mores fondue with chocolate, flambeed marshmallows, and graham cracker stir ins. With that, we got plates full of brownies, marshmallows, fruit, pound cake, rice crispy treats and more for dipping. We were so full!!
Overall, we were there over 3 hours. It is an adventure, not just a meal. Plan on a long leisurely meal and don’t go when you are in a hurry. The food is good, not exceptional, but the cook your own fondue is different and could be very romantic. Keep in mind though, due to cooking at the table, you will walk away with your clothes and hair smelling like chicken soup!! Should you go? I would say that it is a special occasion type experience everyone should do at least once. It falls into that dinner and a show category like the Brazilian type steakhouses, or Hibachi. We had fun, and did not leave hungry that’s for sure. Hence my title, Fondue or don’t it is really up to you!! Happy birthday Allison!!
