Ah, the Melting Pot

Several years ago, a friend of mine online mentioned that her favorite restaurant is The Melting Pot. I had never heard of it, so I quickly Googled it. Wow! It looked fantastic! Every course is a fondue course, except the salad. Yum.

Right away I wanted to go there. As we lived in Utah at the time, I was thrilled to find a location in Salt Lake City, only an hour from our house. I joined their club, and got all kinds of coupons for my birthday and our anniversary, and even Valentine's Day.

But the time to go never came. We were busy. And then, we were moving.

There's not a Melting Pot in Arkansas. I checked. I felt sad every time one of those coupons arrived in my inbox. Sigh.

But there is one in Tulsa. And Tulsa is only two and a half hours away.

So when my husband asked me last week what I wanted to do for my birthday, I already knew. Right away I said, "I want to go Tulsa."

Tulsa? He looked at me funny and said okay.

Hee hee hee.
Yesterday we went to Tulsa for my birthday. And look! There's The Melting Pot! Yay! Of course we ate there.

I wish I had my pictures uploaded already, but I don't. It was fantastic. Let me give you a run-down of how it went.

First, we got the cheese fondue. We ordered the arichoke and spinach. In the middle of the table is a flat stove burner, with a big metal pot. Our waiter put our food together for us, then brought us fruit, vegetables, and bread to dip. So good!! We did not think we would be able to eat it all, but we did!

Second, we got salads. Mark and I ordered different salads. They were yummy and not fondue-ey at all.

Third, the main course. We chose to have our food cooked in the citrus-garlic flavor, so our waiter placed the broth on the burner, brought us out raw chopped chicken, New York strip steak, shrimp, filet mignon, ravioli, broccoli, bratwurst, potatoes, mushrooms, and seven different dips. Then he showed us how to cook our food in the boiling broth.

I thought our broth was a little too garlicky. Next time, I think I would just get the plain vegetable broth. They have other meats, such as salmon and lobster, but we didn't get all those. What we got was plenty.

The food comes and goes so slowly (the whole meal took about two hours) that it seemed we always had room for more. So when the waiter brought out the dessert menu, we were ready. We chose the s'mores: milk chocolate, marshmallow creme, and crumbled graham crackers. For our dippers, we got marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, rice crispy treats, brownies, and cheesecake.

We ate it all. Oh my.

Let me tell you...I walked in looking four months pregnant. I walked out looking six months pregnant. The drive home was very uncomfortable.

Oh, but I can't forget the bathroom. Of course I had to go, after three glasses of water. And guess what--the bathroom not only had soap and lotion, but hairspray and after-dinner mints. Mints! And hairspray! I got a kick out of that one.

Since leaving Tulsa, I've thought about how many times a month I would go to the Melting Pot if there was one close by. Once a month there's "girls night out", where a girl can eat all four courses for $35. Then they have happy hour during the weekday, where all cheese and chocolate fondues are half off. So you could eat a cheese and chocolate fondue dinner (you get as many dippers as you want) for $16.

Then again, maybe it's a good thing there's not one close by.

What's your favorite restaurant??? Why?? Maybe I'll go there next!