A Perfect Date Night at the Melting Pot

The Melting Pot is a unique fondue restaurant chain with locations in Dallas, Arlington, and many other states. Even though it may be a national chain, the unique atmosphere and interactive nature of the food makes it the perfect place to go for a night out with friends, a double date, a birthday party, or even just a romantic night with your significant other! My husband and I went for a date night, so I can give you a rundown of what to expect your first time.

Ahead of Time

While the Melting Pot doesn’t require reservations, I would recommend making one anyway. Reservations can be made on their website (you don’t even have to call!) and it removes the stress and uncertainty caused by long wait times. If you’re a little bit nervous about the whole fondue concept, you can go ahead and look at the menu and the little “what to expect” video while you’re on their website. This is also a great time to set expectations for the evening because it’s a bit more of a financial and time commitment than a lot of other restaurants. Their basic four-course dinner for two costs $85-$88 total (not including drinks) and I would plan to spend 2-3 hours dining. If either of those things seems a bit too daunting, it’s also a great place to go just for dessert, which will run closer to $25 and take less than an hour!

The Experience

Since the Melting Pot caters toward smaller parties, all of the booths are cozy with tall partitions between the booths so you can’t see any of the other diners while you’re seated. The waitstaff is incredibly helpful and are excellent at making suggestions, especially if you’ve never had fondue before or if you’d like to try out their extensive drink menu. If you select the date-night dinner, you’re signing up for four courses: a cheese-fondue appetizer, a salad course, an entree-fondue main course, and a chocolate-fondue dessert course. With each of the fondue courses, the waiter will bring a bowl of fondue to the table and place it on a hot plate in the center of the table. After that, you and your dinner buddy take fancy skewers and dip a variety of tasty morsels into the fancy fondue! The waitstaff are very efficient and really know the menu well, so they’re incredibly helpful when it comes to making decisions and showing you what to do if you get a bit stuck. We chose a spinach artichoke appetizer, a bourguignonne fondue with a variety of meats for the main course, and a flaming turtle fondue for dessert. Every single one of the choices exceeded our expectations, and I would recommend them; for those that are wondering, they have so many more options, including vegan and gluten free!

Overall, my husband and I really enjoyed eating at the Melting Pot! It was definitely on the expensive side, but it was well worth the cost because the food was delicious. Additionally, the time we spent at dinner was so much more fun because everything we ate we “made” ourselves, and since it took over two hours to make it through all four courses it was the only activity we needed for the evening!