. . . "5"^^ . "Do Swiss Army Knives have a fondue fork that folds\naway into the knife? They should. While nobody yodelled\nfor us this definitely is the place for lovers of cheese\nand chocolates. Everybody kept asking what was being \ncelebrated. For the price of the meal it sure seems like\nyou need a reason to splurge to even walk through the\ndoor. We all had a pretty good time regardless. I'm not\nsure if all locations are like this but you probably \nwant to make a reservation if you are coming in on a weekend.\n So the most popular way of enjoying a meal at The Melting\nPot is the four course deal. You get cheese fondue, salad,\nan Entree and dessert (chocolate fondue). I must say that\nfor a lot of people by the time the third course is done, \nthat is pretty much it. You can tone down the amount of food\nto fit the actual amount your group can handle eating. Even\nif you have four people in your group, you can order the salads\nfor 2 or the entrees for 3. That helps a lot in terms of\nportion control. When I was there, even the final dessert which \nwe ordered for one seemed to be a lot. \n So you start off with a cheese fondue - you can choose from\nSpinach Artichoke (Fontina and Butterkase with spinach and\nartichoke hearts), Fiesta Cheese (aged cheddar with lager beer, \njapaleno peppers and salsa), Cheddar Cheese (aged cheddar and\nEmmenthaler Swiss with lager beer, garlic, and seasonings),\nWisconsin Trio Cheese (Fontina and Butterkase with buttermilk\nbleu cheese, white wine, scallions, and sherry), Traditional\nSwiss Cheese (Gruyere and Emmenthaler Swiss with white wine, \ngarlic, nutmeg, lemon and Kirschwasser) and finally the Big\nNight Out Seasonal Cheese. The waiter comes and sets up a fondue\npot and mixes the cheese and all the ingredients which you can\nthen dip breads, fresh vegetables and apples into. This is sort\nof like an appetizer so there's only one plate for everyone to \nget items to dip from. \n Then you have a choice of salads for the second course - The\nMelting Pot House Salad, Spinach Mushroom Salad, Caesar Salad,\nCalifornia Salad, and Big Night Out Salad. These are rather big\nportions for a salad so if you have a small capacity you might\nwant to share rather than have each person getting their own salad.\n Then we get to the entrees. This is the fun part because you\ndo your own cooking. First, you have to choose a cooking style.\nPretty much one for the whole group. You can choose from Coq au\nVin (Burgundy wine with fresh herbs, spices, and mushrooms), Court\nBouillon (vegetable broth with herbs and spices), Bourguignonne\n(cholestrol-free canola oil), and Mojo (bouillon with fresh garlic\nand citrus). For the entrees themselves, you have all sorts of \ncombinations of filet mignon, shrimp, salmon, chicken, sirloin,\npork tenderloin, duck, potstickers, ravioli, asparagus, tofu, \nedamame, artichoke hearts, Andouille sausage, onion rings, lobster\ntail, and Portobello mushrooms.\n The cooking times were given for each type of food:\nPoultry, Pork: 2 1/2 minutes\nSeafood: 2 minutes\nBeef: 1 1/2 minutes\nEverything else: 1 minute\n I used my iPhone's timer and used both fondue forks at a time\nto try and get the cooking down to a science. A little silly and\nfun at the same time. But by the end of it, I was stuffed. Our\ngroup decided we'd have only one person's portion of the final\ncourse - dessert. \n For the final course, chocolate fondue (dessert) you get a \nchoice of Big Night Out Seasonal Chocolate, The Original (milk\nchocolate, peanut butter), Yin & Yang (dark and white chocolate),\nCookies 'n Cream Marshmallow Dream (dark chocolate topped with\nmarshmallow cream flambeed and topped with Oreo cookies), Flaming\nTurtle (milk chocolate, caramel and candied pecans flamb\u00E9ed), Pure\nChocolate (dark, white, or milk), Bananas Foster (Bananas and a \nhint of cinnamon swirled in white chocolate), and Chocolate S'mores\n(milk chocolate with marshmallow cream, flamb\u00E9ed and topped with \nbits of graham crackers). We opted for the Cookies 'n Cream Marshmallow\nDream. They brought a plate of strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, Rice \nKrispies Treats, marshmallows, pound cake and brownies to dip in.\nIt was definitely decadent and filled us all to the brim.\n Parking is easy to find. It's in the same mall as Zendejas Grill and \nNext Coffee. The restaurant itself is right across from Sylvan."^^ . "4"^^ . "2012-06-03T00:00:00"^^ . "3"^^ . "0"^^ .