The Melting Pot - New Orleans

Love this place, always have, but my only problem is other dinners. This is not a place for a toddler. Especially one who is shreaking and can not be made to sit still. I would just recommend that it would be good to inform dinners that this is a busy place, and you can't be swinging your child around just to keep them quiet. Like I said over all the food rocks, and this isn't a usual problem.

Four fondue virgins went here on a whim after Wednesday at the Square. It was a fun and unique experience. It was entertaining to have an activity to do during the meal. The server was very nice and tolerated all of our silly questions. We got the the cheddar cheese, classic alpine (gruyère, raclette and fontina cheeses), and the white and dark chocolate yin yang fondue. It was... a lot of fondue. We were able to dip a variety of breads and some fruit. We got the cheddar for 4, but decided to split a 2 servings of each of the others. The alpine went particularly well with apples. Dessert came with a bunch of fun things to dip- rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cake, vanilla pound cake, vanilla and chocolate marshmallows, and more! I ate a bunch of them without the fondue. It was so much fun to dip and play with the food that we ended up eating a lot in a small amount of time. Filling up on cheese and bread was a strange experience. Next time we'll have to try the meat. Definitely went home with fondue coma that night!

When I went back, at the insistence of the same friend that I went with for the first time, I have to admit it was much better than before. I would generally attribute this to asking the server to not put a pound and a half of shallots in the main course fondue because that is what happened last time. We actually asked for no shallots which proved to be a good decision. The overall improvement of my experience is why I am adding a star, but only one because I still don 't think this place is worthy of 4 stars. We went for happy hour because they have 2-1 cheese and chocolate. We tried the "Creamy Crab ' for our cheese course which was actually pretty good. For the chocolate we went with the smores and it was outrageously good. I don 't like sweets so for me to say that is a big deal. Anyway, my advice is if you are curious about this place, try it out during happy hour because you will save a ton of money and get a sense of what their food is like. Since my friend is a melting pot aficionado, and we go out to eat a lot, I will inevitably be back to the MP so I will let you know how it goes next time.

I really want to give them one star, but I understand the staff is just people and I 'm working on being more understanding, but still... We had a Groupon so I made reservations for Friday night at 8:45. We showed up at 8:44 and are told it 's crazy busy so we might have to wait... 15 minutes later we 're seated. I had already seen at least 3 couples leave when we arrived, and when they took us back there were at LEAST 5 tables open, but oh well. Pretty frustrating since we had reservations. Our waitress greeted us and said she would be back with waters.... 15 minutes later, still no waters. If we hadn 't had the Groupon that was going to expire soon, we would have left. It was 9:17 before we even got our waters and placed our order. That 's just absolutely absurd to me. The food was good, nothing super special, and while you pay for the experience it just lacked in my books. First, she made the cheese fondue too quickly, so it was half liquid broth, half strings of cheese that hadn 't melted yet, and it made dipping and actually getting cheese, hard. Then both the broth for food and chocolate pots were set too hot, and she hadn 't come to check on us for a bit and the chocolate on the bottom got scalded and we both burned our mouths. (Yes, I blew on it first, it was just that hot). We had to try to turn it down on our own because it was burning our food. We made the best of it, but the melting pot seriously needs some adjustment on operations because it really just wasn 't working. Plus, they try to make it an intimate experience, but the layout doesn 't work with the room 's acoustics, because we could hear everything going on at the table 3 booths over from us. Plsu, it took us nearly 2 hours for the whole experience, and while it was nice to have a fancy date with the hubby, it 's not a place I see myself coming back in the future. If you go regularly (without a groupon), it 's just not worth the $30ish a person. They want to be a 5 star restaurant, but I just don 't think they can cut it in the big leagues.

This place never dissapoints. I have been here several times, and every time the fondues are better than the previous visit. This last time we had the spinach and artichoke cheese fondue, and the smores chocolate fondue. The wete both amazing!! I was a little skeptica about the spinach and artichoke cheese fondue, but you have nothing to worry about, it is nothing like the dip! I has the right amount of spinach and artichoke to flavor the cheese, but not to steal the show. I loved it! I am a chocolate lover, and the smores fondue is my favorite chocolate fondue ever. Try it with the rice crispy treats, the best! If you are not too into sweets, try it with strawberries. The happy hour wine is $4 and the serving size is a little bigger than a regular wine glass. Finding parking can be tedious, but you can always park far and take the street car.