Photo Courtesy of Naperville Patch
If you’ve ever Google’d a restaurant that serves fondue you’ve likely only come across one: The Melting Pot. It has 150 locations around the country and this review is focused on the Naperville, IL location.
I’ve been to three different Melting Pot restaurants in the area and Naperville, the newest of the three, has a similar set up to the others. The restaurant is located right off of Rt. 59 at the end of a small strip mall.
When you walk through the first door there is a table with flyers, Melting Pot meltaways, toothpicks, and various other items. Just past the second door there is a host or hostess to greet you. They will ask if you have a reservation, which isn’t required but highly suggested, if you do have one it normally doesn’t take long to get seated.
While we waited for our seats we admired the floor to ceiling wine wall and noticed that the restaurant seemed rather loud for a Sunday night. As we were lead to our table we noticed that many of the customers seemed to be women and children. It turned out to be mommy/daughter night. The Melting Pot offer’s events on various days of the month like Ladies Night every Thursday.
My guest and I were dressed up for the occasion but many, if not most, of the patrons there were dressed casually. For some, this could be a turn off. The Melting Pot is a fine dining establishment where two people will likely pay around $120-$160 to eat dinner. Seeing kids running around and people dressed in jeans and hoodies takes away from the fine dining experience. Then again, this could have been because this particular night was meant for mothers and daughters to relax and have a fun meal.
We were seated in one of the larger four person booths, as I requested when I filled out our reservation online, and the waiter quickly greeted us and took our drink order. Their specialty drinks carry a hefty price tag of about $10 but they are usually quite strong. So strong, in fact, that I’ve had to ask them to split the drink in two and dilute them both with juice (which they were happy to do).
Every table in the small dark restaurant has a burner in the center, which is where the pots sit during your meal. After you make your dinner selection of cheese, salad, cooking style of main course and meat selection of main course the waiter brings you your first pot, the cheese.
We chose the plain cheddar cheese. The waiter came with a tray full of cheeses, some type of liquor, some seasonings and mixed it all together in the pot right in front of us. Bread, apples, cauliflower, carrots, and broccoli accompany the cheese. I’ve never had a bad cheese dish and this time was no different. I recommend reading the ingredient list very carefully and choosing wisely because a bad pot can really spoil your dinner and make you think the meal isn’t deserving of such a high price tag.
After the cheese, you will get your salad. I chose the California salad, which is still the only salad I’ve ever tried in the dozen or so times I’ve been to the restaurant. It is delicious. I absolutely hate Gorgonzola cheese and pecans, this salad has both and somehow I love it. It may be the raspberry vinaigrette or the way the pecans have been candied but the Melting Pot blows me away every time I eat this salad.
After the salad, comes the main course. For the main course you can choose from three different cooking styles. I have tried all three and I highly recommend the mojo style. It is a Caribbean style bouillon with a citrus flavor. Just like with the cheese the waiter mixes this up right at the table. Along with the bouillon comes whatever selection of meats you choose and mushrooms, broccoli and potatoes.
The waiter gives you an overview of the dipping sauces, which are all so delicious and flavorful, and also gives you a suggested cooking time for all the meats. After that you are left to eat. They replenish the veggies as needed but for the most part it’s a romantic and cozy dinner. You eat one bite at a time and cook as you go. The meal can be as quick as 1.5 hours to as long as 4 hours, it all depends on how fast you eat.
Once you’ve completed your entrees you will be given a dessert menu with the different chocolate’s available. We chose to try the flambéed turtle chocolate, which was milk chocolate, caramel and pecans flambéed tableside. It complimented our desserts dippers quite well. The dessert course comes with a plate of strawberry and banana pieces, a small slice of cheesecake, cookie covered marshmallows, pound cake, brownies and rice krispies.
Although the portions are small, after four courses you won’t leave the restaurant hungry. Although it does fetch a hefty price of about $120, minimum, per couple it’s definitely worth it if you want to have a fun fondue date night. Between the food, the ambiance, the variety of food and the fun factor I would certainly recommend The Melting Pot.