The Melting Pot in Maple Shade is must go to for people looking for a different restaurant that specializes in fondue, whether it’s for a birthday dinner with friends to just a dinner out. The Melting Pot has two regional locations, Atlantic City and Maple Shade. The Maple Shade location is new, the old Philadelphia location closed down and was moved to Maple Shade. This location is also a test location, so new ideas that are thought up at headquarters are tested out in this location. There are constantly new things being added to the menu.

As soon as you walk into The Melting Pot you are greeted with this huge wall of wine bottles that have been emptied and painted an opaque white. In the back of the restaurant is lover’s lane for couples.  You need reservations to eat here, especially during the weekend when it is its busiest. The menu is set up into four different sections. The menu is set up so that fondue, the entrée and the dessert is a combo this is $23.99 per person. The first thing is the fondue. There are six different options to choose from the most popular is the loaded baked potato fondue. It is sour cream, bacon, cheddar cheese fondue and scallions. With the fondue you get bread, vegetables such as carrots and broccoli and breads to dip into the fondue. You can also purchase rosemary fries to dip in as well. When the fondue comes out they come in these pots and they are placed on these heaters that are built into the table, there is usually two or more heaters at a table depending on the party size.

Next is the salad, there are many to choose from but this is optional if you are doing the combo previously mentioned. There is the classic Caesar and the Melting Pot house salad, cranberry apple pecan and California. Next is the entree there is either “fondue” or “fondone”. The fondue is when you cook your meat yourself or fondone where the meat is cooked in the kitchen. You can choose from four different cooking styles when you chose fondue. When you get one of the styles it comes in a pot that it heated up on the table and when you get the meat you want you cook it inside the pot. You can choose from poultry, steak or seafood. Each meat comes with potatoes and mushrooms to be cooked as well.

For anyone wanting to finish off a good meal with an even better dessert then their dessert menu is for you.  There are many to choose from. One of the most famous is the s’mores fondue it is milk chocolate with marshmallows and graham crackers. With every dessert comes fruit, brownies, marshmallows, cookie dough and rice crispies.

This is definitely a place for everyone from large groups to families to couples. The service was excellent and the food was even better. When I went our waiter was also taking care of a party of 35 and us and other tables, so we had to wait a little bit longer for our dessert.  But it was worth it, it was still hot and fresh. They even took off $40 from our bill, gave us a free dessert and free chocolate covered strawberries and even another $40 gift card for next visit. They may have slipped up a little bit in the end, they gave us all these things to make up for it and everything before the dessert was out quickly and even when the dessert was delayed it was still amazing and after that the waiter was quick on cleaning up and getting our check on time.  This shows the dedication to satisfying the customer, which everyone was after our meal. This is definitely a place to check out next time you have a dinner party or a just a dinner out with family.