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| - I'm surprised that this place got so many awesome reviews. I'm glad I didn't read any of the reviews before I went, because I would have been completely disappointed. In fact, I literally knew three things about this place:
1. Fondue
2. Downtown
3. It's new
Walking in and seeing the mannequin and counter with various contraptions and butt plugs was unexpected. lol The condom business cards were a cool touch. I get it... places downtown have a theme. I can get down with that.
I'm used to having fondue at the Melting Pot, so I was surprised to see that there were no options for different cheeses, meats (other than steak and shrimp), broths, or chocolates. We ordered the steak (cooked with oil), a side of fries (which were delicious, by the way) and the dessert (dark chocolate with an admittedly generous portion of things to dip in it).
The waitress brought out the fries first (which were REALLY good, and a huge portion). Then she brought out complimentary edamame hummus, with was okay. The pita chips were very good, though. The steak came out with potatoes and cucumber salad, both of which were very good. The steak was just okay. I'm not a big fan of fondue with oil, but we didn't have a choice, since we picked the steak. They brought out three dipping sauces: a horseradish thing (which I liked, but found it kind of ordinary), something that tasted like A-1 sauce, and something that looked like it was supposed to be a buttery herb sauce, but it just tasted like oil. Or oil butter.
The chocolate fondue tasted like plain melted dark chocolate. I felt that it lacked depth.
If it wasn't for the fries, I don't think the two of us would have been full.
Oh, my friend had the wine (it was bottomless, after all), but I don't drink. I could see AYCD wine sealing the deal for a first time patronage. For the price, and if you don't mind drinking lower end wine, this is a very good value.
The waitress, although very nice and helpful, kept forgetting to bring out the wine. After we were done, we waited for far too long for our check. The restaurant wasn't busy; there were four other tables seated, if I remember correctly.
I would come back if other friends made up their minds that they wanted to come here. Other than that, it doesn't make my list of places to return.
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