Fond-EW
Last night Megan and I ate at "The Melting Pot" in Bricktown with the Hines fam for her step-sister's 19th birthday dinner.
Unfortunately Taylor missed out on this experience because his ass missed his flight home from Vegas yesterday...like I knew he would...but that's a whole different blog...GRRR.
Anyways- THE MELTING POT.
You know, the whole idea of a fondu restaurant SEEMS like a really fun idea...but this is of course if you aren't required to drop $50 (on the cheap end)-$100 or more (per duo/couple) + drinks for little pieces of torn up bread/chips/tiny bowls of carrot sticks/meat chunks and shrimp. Oh- and fruit nuggets.
All that you have to cook yourself.
All of these things you dip into bowls of melted cheese, vegetable broth or chocolate. To charge such an assanine amount of money on SNACK and FINGER FOOD, that place must make a KILLING.
The "experience" (what the manager called it after almost two hours of waiting for our "entrees") is cleverly disguised by a posh smoke screen of contemporary flare: a ritzy interior- deep mahogany wood, sleek Japanese style light fixtures, waiters dressed in all black... and a dizzying wine selection encased in an over-the-top wine cellar displayed behind a huge wall of glass.
Even the menu is a 2lb. wine bible bound in hardback silver- about 10 pages of wine by the bottle selection, and 3 pages of actual food options consisting of cheeses to melt, meats to dip and salads to pick.
They have made such a distractingly fancy atmosphere that you forget that you are about to drop a bill or two on tiny food that you spear with little metal sticks to dip in what I can only describe as variations of queso with designer names. Meals are split technically between two people- and when the meat cutlets are actually brought to the table, I can not be convinced that they would collectively create any one single cut of meat to justify charging such a stupid amount of money for TWO people to split.
The whole cooking raw chicken in a pot of volcanic hot vegetable broth that is expected to be used to also cook your beef/vegetables/and seafood really freaked me out. That just doesn't seem like a good idea.
I am honestly surprised that patrons aren't required to sign some sort of waiver cutting the restaurant out of any liability should someone consume a chunk of fondued salmonella.
The food was good- don't get me wrong- but I can't give credit to a restaurant whose menu consists solely of snack food and uncooked meat and vegetables. Hell, if anything I will give myself credit for becoming an awesome fondu chef since I cooked the damn meal myself.
Poor Carter- I can not even imagine what that bill came out to. Megan and I tried to order modestly...we saw how his face kind of fell/turned a little white once he opened the menu and realized how expensive it was considering the number of mouths he is required to satisfy on the always-needing-something-more gravy train he supports daily (this of course excludes me! I'm just a guest!).
My opinion aside for one moment, I must express that I AM grateful to have had the opportunity to TRY the place, so that I can write this blog...had Taylor and I gone in there just the two of us, we would have looked at that menu and laughed before snickering as we walked right back out that front door, "Surely they aren't serious in there? Let's go grab a STEAK or something." Sheesh.
My verdict on fondu dining? Fun idea, but seriously...SAVE YOUR MONEY! I didn't even spend any money and I felt overwhelmed at the prices- uncomfortable even. You can create melted cheese/chocolate product and provide your own dipping snacks for, OH, about a quarter what it costs for the "Melting Pot" dining experience.
And you can buy your own beautiful cut of beef/fish/chicken and cook it safely without fear of mixing different raw meat cooties together in a fancy pot.
Maybe this is why people were so damn skinny back in the day when FONDU was all the rage...they survived off of tiny bites of food and dips and called them meals...that and the abundant use of blow and disco dancing until the sun came up.
