Melting Pot

I was so excited for this experience and to say it fell short is an understatement. I honestly don't know how they stay in business other than the astronomical pricing. Service was slow and staff (other than the kind gal who seated us) were not attentive. I stated that I have a gulten allergy(celiac disease)and was reassured their would be no cross contamination. Fail! The server mixed gf and gulten items and when later was questioned she said "yep there was gulten mixed." It was brought to management's attention and was addressed in a very flippant manner. I get it, they most likely don't live with celiac and don't understand the silent risk they are exposing people to. I am and have been a fine diner for a long time and this would and will not ever come recommended. Also, sad to see I am one of MANY that have shared a negative experience.

The Melting Pot has been our go to location for special days/nights off for about the last 10 years. My wife and I had very little time available to ourselves, and on those occasions when someone watched our special needs daughter to give us a break, it was always our first choice for comfort food. Even more so, it was a location we knew we could go to just slow down and refocus. It didn't hurt that it was one of the few restaurants that made it possible for my celiac wife to have dessert. The four course experience was pricey, but being taken care of and allowed to leave the stresses behind for a few hours made it worth the bill at the end. When our daughter was older, we started coming out as a family. Potentially celiac as well, it made sense. She never ate a lot, due to a host of conditions, but for whatever reasons she packed it away on our visits and it became an almost magical place. As time passed, my wife and I noticed a shift away from a healing safe haven to just another restaurant with table turnover as a priority. Servers became a force to, gently and politely, work customers out the door. Time that had thoughtfully been given between each course was eliminated. Instead, servers had seemingly been trained to bring in the next course with the previous unfinished. They gathered information about each course selection as quickly as possible to ensure there was never a period where we weren't eating. We often told our servers we weren't in a rush. We asked them to please take their time. The onus of preventing previously relaxing getaways from turning into rushed events was on us. We had to work to get our time, and as a result we got so much less of an escape. Our last visit struck a huge blow. We lost our daughter in early November. My wife, my son and I decided to eat here after our final visit at the funeral home because we knew she would have chosen it for herself. It was 3:15 and we were one of the few dining at this odd hour. Despite this we were still pushed though our meal. We needed this time together. We got it, but it wasn't without effort on our part. Effort we shouldn't have needed to exercise. You don't need to know the story behind each of your guests. But you should know that most come for more than just food. For some, like us, it was a matter of comfort and escaping the crushing responsibilities of life for a while. Training your servers to move tables, to get people in and out, is to your detriment. In the end it doesn't save the business any money if people are less inclined to come. That is where we are now. Given the choice between your establishment and finding something better, my wife and I tried out another restaurant last night for our anniversary. The grief of losing our daughter is fresh and we needed a getaway. We knew we wouldn't find it at the Melting Pot.