I feel for The Melting Pot during these random pandemic shut downs. The owner is clearly doing what they need to do to keep a business running while trying to prepare for the worst again. That pass being given, there's things we saw last night on our date night that we weren't impressed with and we're fairly surprised by. Let's walk it back real quick...
We've had two stellar, reach-for-the-stars, holy cow experiences with this restaurant in 2020. They got to experience two very brief moments of being open, so we took advantage of those when we could. The staff was amazing both times, the procedures in place for protective protocols were on point and Melting Pot was on their game with food and service. We couldn't have been more impressed--seriously. But the last time we had this spectacular experience was back in June and September of 2020.
Which brings me to last night... it's March and this poor place has been shut down for indoor dining since about fall of last year. I made my reservations with them the moment they reopened for about 3 weeks after they reopened indoor dining. Unfortunately, this time was super deflating and didn't offer the grandeur that the other times had last year.
Their menu is now limited and a required 4-course meal--which we were not made aware of during reservation placement. The menu is also limited in its selection and no longer offers a pick and choose protein option, and only has a few cheeses and a few chocolates. Overall, we weren't super impressed, but it is what it is, and a night out in 6 months is a night out regardless.
We figured we'd get drinks--I mean it's drinks and that Love martini is a genuine favorite of mine! I rarely drink and only do so on special occasions, so I was really looking forward to this Love martini. Well, while tasty, the first clearly had only a splash of alcohol and the other had probably half the alcohol that they usually do. The consistency on drinks wasn't up to par, so we're not off to a great start.
Our service also unfortunately lacked and our server was hard to track down in the times we needed them. They were unfamiliar with several common Melting Pot things, which was new for us to see because we've had a new server frequently (some on their first nights and still in training) and we've never experienced such a lost look in their eyes when we asked about a drinks or a food item. Our drinks remained empty frequently and while we usually grant a ton of grace for pandemic times, we couldn't quite understand what was going on last night. As we sat there, we didn't see that our server had other tables, we seemed to be the only one for them because another server was managing the tables around us. That being said, I was confused about their Covid protocols at this point because we had people sat within 2 feet of us on either side and the rest of the restaurant seemed to be open.
At some point we both used the restrooms and while I can't speak for the male's side of things, the lady's room had white mess stains all over the floor, a flooded and clogged first toilet and an unattended candle (which is actually pretty unusual to see in a restaurant bathroom--to add: not docking on this, just noticing).
The Melting Pot has been our number one spot for a date night (planned wildly in advance due to needing a sitter and our opposite work schedules), but last night probably changed our future plans for this once in a blue moon special night after what we experienced. Hopefully they'll reopen fully one day and things will change for the better once they're back at it at full capacity. read more