For Luke’s birthday this year, I decided to treat him by taking him to MY favourite restaurant haha. He always enjoys the Melting Pot, so he wasn’t too upset about my choice.
The Melting Pot is a fancy fondue restaurant, with burners set into the tabletops to keep everything warm. You can choose to do one, two, three or four courses depending on your hunger and budget.
We had just returned from our two week Disney wedding trip, so we were really trying to be budget-friendly with eating out, so we decided to skip the classic 4-course meal we typically get at the Melting Pot. They were offering a promotion called the “Crave” combo, which gave us a choice of a cheese fondue and a chocolate fondue to share, along with a salad for each of us for $25/person.
We started with drinks!
We each drove our own vehicles to the restaurant (Luke met me there from work), so my drink was non-alcoholic (Alberta has a strange thing where there are two levels of Class 5 licenses, I’ve just never gone to get my advanced one, and as such I have a zero tolerance policy for alcohol on my license). Luke enjoyed the Whiskey Thistle – Jameson Irish Whiskey, white peach syrup, raspberries, fresh lemon and Sprite, $11.50. I went with my trusty favourite, the Strawberry Basil Lemonade – a light and tasty blend of fresh strawberries, basil and lemonade, $7.50. I typically have the recommended shot of strawberry vodka added to it, but kept it non-alcoholic this time.
I did have a sip of Luke’s, and it was quite delicious! I still prefer my choice, but it’s also one of my favourite restaurant cocktails anywhere…
Our first course was the cheese fondue. We’ve tried a few different kinds, but always seem to come back to the Spinach Artichoke – featured Cheeses: Butterkäse, Fontina, Melted with: Fresh spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic.
For those who have never been, they actually melt the cheese in front of you. Your server will turn on the burner on your table once they take your order, and there is usually already an empty pot sitting on there. They come out with a tray containing all of the ingredients required for your requested cheese fondue, and they mix it all at your table. They pour in oil, then add the shredded cheeses, lots of garlic, chopped spinach, artichoke hearts, a few drops of tobasco sauce, etc and stir it all up until the cheese is melted.
The server also brings out the dippers for the cheese at the same time – we’ve had a bit of variation with these items over the years, but for the most part it’s been consistent. On this trip we received two types of bread, granny smith apples, broccoli, cauliflower and cherry tomatoes. On various past visits, we have had baby carrots, tortilla chips and a third type of bread (although this was our first time seeing the tomatoes – it might be based on what’s in season, what’s in stock right now or just the items that came with the Crave promotional package we had chosen).
We always end up asking for more apples, they are so good with the cheese! We typically finish off all the dippers with this course, and today was no exception – we handed back empty dishes to our server 🙂 We are also pretty good at getting every last bit of cheese out of that pot haha.
Next up was the salad course. We were each allowed to pick our own salad – we rarely switch this up, and order the same thing every time…
I love their Caesar Salad – Romaine lettuce, shredded Parmesan cheese, croutons and Parmesan-encrusted pine nuts with Caesar dressing. Their dressing tastes house-made, and it’s elevated even more by sprinkling some of their Wine and Garlic seasoning on top. I’m not a huge pine nut fan (I know, they are really expensive, but I don’t like most nuts), so I usually pick those off and put them on Luke’s salad. Their croutons appear to be house-made as well, and they are very generous with the shredded parmesan!
Luke ordered the Melting Pot House Salad – Romaine and Iceberg lettuce, cheddar cheese, fresh tomatoes, croutons, and sliced egg with your choice of peppercorn ranch dressing or our Sweet & Tangy House Dressing.
He opted for the peppercorn ranch dressing. This is his go-to salad every time we go to the Melting Pot, he always finishes it and really enjoys it.
Our third and final course for this meal was the chocolate! Again, we’ve tried a few different kinds but always come back to our favourite, the Flaming Turtle – milk chocolate melted with caramel and candied pecans.
The Flaming part of its name comes from the presentation of it being flambed at the table. The server stirs until the flames have disappeared, and then pours in the candied pecans.
I’m always impressed by the variety on the tray of dippers they bring. This one had cheesecake, pound cake, brownies, blondies, melon, strawberries, bananas, oreo-coated marshmallows and graham-cracker coated marshmallows.
Some of these (the cheesecake especially) don’t work great on your fondue spear, but your server leaves a spoon so you can drizzle the chocolate fondue over top of it. I also find the marshmallows too large to stick in my mouth at one time, so I like to chop them in half before dipping them into chocolate. We always eat everything on this plate, and then ask for more fruit and marshmallows (I seriously can’t get enough of them with those coatings!).
At some point, Luke got a beer and I really wanted a root beer – I didn’t take any pictures.
Overall, it was another successful trip to the Melting Pot, and I left feeling full even without the fourth course.
