Problem: A great deal more happened since my last review and you can see I did up it by one star. After my last review an employee from The Melting Pot decided to privately contact me and was rude towards myself and my review as well as made some snide remarks towards myself and my boyfriend. This really upset me so I contacted The Melting Pot's management and worked with the Area Manager, Kelly Cooper. Kelly was extremely helpful, and offered us a free dinner for the trouble we went through. Last night we took up the offer and arrived on time for our reservation. I requested for a table in the main dinning area, rather than one of the private booths. I never considered myself someone uncomfortable in small spaces but I really didn't like the private booths the last time we were there. The booth and area seemed very clean and much more comfortable this time around. Our server was extremely personable and courteous the entire evening. Everything came out promptly and we were able to dine just under the two hour mark. I've seen others complain about how long it takes to dine here but that's really just part of the experience. Plus my boyfriend and I can sit and talk for hours so we were fine with it. The food was...okay. We had the spinach artichoke dip, which honestly was bland. We LOVE spinach artichoke dips and this was the worst one we've experienced. It lacked flavor; it needed more spices or even some kick with jalapenos. We had the Coq Au Vin broth for the entree and again it didn't really give the food much flavor at all. Our meal wasn't awful but it wasn't amazing either. As stated in my previous review I've been to The Melting Pot before and remembered how my entire family felt the food didn't match the large price you paid. I still feel the same, I dont think the food has really improved and maybe its because you're cooking it yourself. For example, we really love beef at medium rare, which you can't really do here especially since you're mixing meats and everything needs to be cooked all the way through. We love veggies steamed or roasted and well seasoned but that's not how its cooked. Without the different dipping sauces the food tastes pretty plain. It's just boiled meats and veggies, and after the boiling process the meats come out over cooked for our taste, and the veggies just seemed so boring. Also one thing I noticed, the mushrooms weren't washed; they still had that dark soil-dirt all over them. So for each one I was trying to brush off the dirt before putting them in the broth. For our dessert we chose the s'more chocolate and opted to take out the brownies, cheesecake, and marshmallows, and had them add extra of everything else. Those three treats are just way too sweet to be dipped in chocolate; the sweet chocolate is more balanced by less sweet items like the fruit, pound cake, and surprisingly, the rice krispies treats. We had a good enough time, so why is there still a low star rating? Well just under an hour after we left we both became extremely ill. I'm not exactly sure why because we followed our servers instructions by letting the meats boil for at least 2 minutes and sometimes our pieces ended up boiling longer while we had some of the veggies. Also, we didn't touch any of the raw meats to our plates either. So, we spent all last night in and out of the bathroom. Not exactly how we wanted to spend our Friday night. After some light research on Google I did find quite a few reviews on other sites, blog posts, and forum comments about people getting food poisoning from The Melting Pot. So needless to say, this will be our last visit. After the previous bad experiences, having employees angrily contacting me, and now food poisoning we're not planning on going back. The only reason I upped the star rating is because the manager, Kelly, was so understanding with my complaints and took my concerns seriously.
How would this review be described?
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A: negative

Problem: THIS PLACE IS A DUMP! Do Not Stay here. 1. non-functioning electrical outlets 2. shower runs from cold to scalding hot. 3. towels feel like sand paper. 4. Ice machine on first floor out of order our entire 4 day stay, second floor ice machine stopped working on day 3! 5. window locked, you can't let fresh air in. 6.dirty carpets, old and worn out furniture. 7. located in an industrial area, NO PLACE to go within walking distance. NO REASON FOR ANYONE TO EVER STAY HERE! ZERO STARS!!!!
How would this review be described?
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A: negative

Problem: I initially sent this review to the restaurant only. However, since they did not have the courtesy to even respond, I will now post it on Yelp. We dined at Verses a Friday in November expecting excellent service and meal execution. Neither occurred. We were clearly an afterthought to our server, but that is the lesser of the issues. It was the food that failed and was so extremely disappointing, especially for the price. But, this review has nothing to do with price. We dined at Au Pied de Cochon the previous evening and spent an equivalent amount, however the level of attentiveness and quality and execution of the dishes was so far above that of Verses. We had four dishes, and I would have been forgiving of one dish below expectation. However, when 3 of the 4 are almost inedible, I feel the need to address the situation. We started with the foie gras torchon (as expected) and the sweetbread. The sweetbread was very minimal and completely overcooked, dry and falling apart as we attempted to eat it. It lacked flavor and the richness typically associated with the dish. From there we had the wild boar and the cod with poached egg. The boar was overcooked - certainly not the medium rare we ordered - as well as tough, chewy and flavorless. It reminded me of a cheap pork chop. The cod was extremely overdone - dry and cold. The 'poached' egg was hard-cooked. Had our server come to check on us, we would have mentioned these issues. He did not. Last, we ordered dessert and coffee for my husband. Our dessert came. The coffee arrived about 10 minutes later. By then we had no dessert. There are many better options in Old Montreal than this pretentious, ill-performing restaurant.
How would this review be described?
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A: negative

Problem: Great food reasonable prices
How would this review be described?
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A:
positive