Food was good. It was my mom's birthday. Service, however, went from fine to non existent to worse. Went almost thirty minutes without our server (Ashley) seeing us. During that time, we were out of drinks and the oil got so hot that it was bubbling and popping - enough so that a blob of hot oil burned my finger while it was clear back near my plate. What did the server do? Nothing... She was nowhere to be found. We called for her and she did not come so we called for the hostess who seated us to come and turn down the oil. She kindly did so, brought us refills and apologized. When Ashley finally showed back up, we told her about what happened and without apology, her first utterance was to correct us and tell us that the hostess was not a hostess, but actually the manager. She then went on to explain that she got assigned another table clear on the other side of the restaurant. After she disappeared again for a while, the manager/hostess came back and my mom suggested that they consider placement of tables for a single server a bit closer together. The manager went on to explain that they do that on purpose so you don't have to hear all the explanations over and over as new people are seated around you. We mentioned that the consequence in this instance was almost thirty minutes without any service. We had to listen to several more excuses such as how they staff based on the number of reservations, the high number of walk-in customers they had that night, etc. She asked what she could do to make the visit more enjoyable (isn't that YOUR job to know... given that restaurants are a service industry and you are the manager?) After that, Ashley seemed pretty mad. She dropped off dessert at our table and was effectively giving us the silent treatment... No explanations of what any of the bite sized desserts were or any of the usual pleasantries. She provided only a caution that when the level of chocolate gets low, it might be extra hot, then ran off. The bottom line? Expect the same good Melting Pot food here as you would at other locations.... Just not the same good Melting Pot service. We paid over a hundred dollars for dinner for two to be left to our own devices with a pot of hot oil and have to listen to a laundry list of excuses why the service sucked. And perhaps most importantly... Don't roll the dice on this place for a special occasion. Awful service can certainly put a damper on someone's birthday! I spent the whole ride home trying to get her mind off of it.
Is this review positive or negative?
negative