My family of 4 spent $344 on dinner at The Melting Pot, and we'd return to the fondue chain just for the experience
Terri Peters
- My family of four dined at The Melting Pot, a fondue chain known for its melty cheese and chocolate.
- Our four-course meal took two hours and included three rounds of fondue, a salad, and drinks.
- We spent $344 after tax and a 20% tip, which felt worth it for the experience we had with our teens.
As a mom of two teens, I find it's becoming increasingly rare for my entire family of four to sit around a dinner table together.
My kids have their own social lives and busy schedules, but going out to eat as a family can still bring us all together. So, on a rare night when all of our calendars were open, we headed to The Melting Pot for a four-course fondue dinner.
My teens loved visiting the fondue chain when they were younger, though all I remembered about our previous visits was that the cheese was delicious and our dining experience took several hours.
With that in mind, we headed to our nearest location about 40 minutes from home in Melbourne, Florida.
Here's what it was like to dine at The Melting Pot with our two teens.
Terri Peters
The Melting Pot first opened in Maitland, Florida, just outside Orlando in 1975. At the time, it sold just three fondues: Swiss cheese, beef, and chocolate.
Over time, the chain began serving more varieties of fondue, plus things like craft cocktails and salads.
As its menu grew, so did its reach. Today, The Melting Pot has almost 100 locations throughout the US and one in Canada.
Terri Peters
We started our meal at The Melting Pot with a round of drinks.
My husband chose an old-fashioned cocktail ($15), my daughter and I selected alcohol-free mixed drinks ($8 each), and my son ordered a soda ($5).
As someone who stopped drinking alcohol months ago, I was impressed with the restaurant's spirit-free menu, which went beyond Shirley Temples and club soda with creative options involving fresh ingredients.
Later in the meal, my husband had two $12 glasses of red wine, and I ordered an additional $8 alcohol-free drink from the bar.
Terri Peters
The menu at The Melting Pot can feel a bit overwhelming at first.
The chain does a great job organizing a few fondue-for-two meals at a pre-fixe price, but its à la carte menu of separate cheese, entrée, and dessert courses can be hard to navigate with a larger party.
For example, the cheese course alone starts at around $30 for two people, but the cost goes up for additional diners or add-ons like charcuterie or gluten-free dippers.
Thankfully, our server helped us decide how much we needed to order so everyone got enough to eat without us having tons of leftovers.
Terri Peters
Our Alpine cheese-fondue course for four cost $56.
Alongside the cheese, which was a blend of gruyére, raclette, fontina, white wine, and garlic, we were served dippers like crusty bread, apples, and a blend of carrots, cauliflower, and broccoli.
This course was incredibly delicious. Having made fondue at home many times before, I can say having someone assemble the dish and clean it up afterward was well worth the price.
Plus, the portion was large enough that we could've been pretty happy ending our meal here.
Terri Peters
Although salad is typically the last thing on my mind when a fondue spread is on the table, our server told us there was one on the menu he loved and suggested we order one to try.
His pick, the bacon-and-blue-cheese spinach salad ($8), came with spinach, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, tomato, and blue cheese. It was pretty incredible — so much so that I'd consider ordering it again the next time I visit The Melting Pot.
At our server's suggestion, we also shook a bit of the restaurant's garlic-and-wine seasoning on top. The flavorful blend added a lot to the already tasty salad.
Terri Peters
For our entrée course, we chose the coq-au-vin cooking style, a yummy blend of burgundy wine, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic.
Since we were already a bit full from our cheese course and salad, our server suggested we split two entrées among the four of us.
We ordered the $34 Pacific Rim selection, which included proteins like shrimp, ahi tuna, and chicken, and the $38 classic, with meats like pork and steak.
We enjoyed cooking the proteins in our fondue, but the real star of the entrée course was the array of sauces paired with them. It was fun to taste the dips, which ranged in flavors from teriyaki to curry.
Terri Peters
To end our meal, we ordered the chain's yin-and-yang chocolate fondue for the table ($56).
The pretty mixture of white chocolate and dark chocolate made for some great photos and was a delicious way to try two flavors of fondue.
Terri Peters
At the time of our visit, my daughter and I were on a special diet for medical reasons, so we asked for gluten-free dippers.
We were charged $8 for an extra plate with things like gluten-free brownies and cookies.
The extra cost was worth it, as she and I were able to fully enjoy the course without having to stick solely to dipping fruit into our melted chocolate.
Terri Peters
Although I remember previous dinners at The Melting Pot taking a long time, it only took us about two hours to move through cheese, salad, dinner, and dessert courses.
The experience felt perfectly timed: We could take as long as we wanted for each course but were readily ushered into the next one as soon as we were ready.
Terri Peters
Our meal cost $268 before tax and tip — a price that felt worth it for the food, service, atmosphere, and overall fondue-making experience.
For me, The Melting Pot's unique dining experience alone made this meal worth the cost. There aren't many restaurants where you can dine out while having the feeling of cooking together as a family.
My husband and I loved having our kids at the dinner table with us for a few hours. We had easy conversations as we all busied ourselves with picking up food and dipping it in cheese, broth, and chocolate.
Next time, though, we might save money by skipping the entrée course and only ordering cheese and chocolate fondue.
They were the highlights of our meal, and we'd have been plenty full with just those two courses. I'd still order that amazing spinach salad to go with them, though.
