Melt in a pot, not in your hand

A Girls' Night to Melt the Appetite
Submitted by Jamie Wollberg on Sun, 09/26/2010 - 18:04
in

* Reviews

Photo credit: Jessie Lee Rumpf

Monday nights at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant in downtown White Plains, are all about pleasing the ladies. For the month of September, the eatery’s girls’ night out special celebrates 35 years of dining with a 35-dollar four-course meal.

The lounge feeling and décor can be experienced at 30 Mamaroneck Ave. and many other locations around the United States. The frosted front doors are inviting upon entering, and after walking down a small flight of stairs and another set of frosted glass doors boasting their logo, patrons can enjoy a calming waterfall behind the front desk.

Dark wood panels and cream-colored walls become therapeutic and calming while waiting for a table. Even the bathrooms are designed with a Zen motif that’s accented by automatic metal sinks resembling leaves.

The restaurant is so large it would be easy to get lost, but the hostess leads the way to a granite tabletop with a built-in heating tray.

The menu is thoughtfully planned out with enough options to make stomachs rumble, but the jazz music, low lighting, and artwork could be soothing enough to carry on.

Generally, patrons choose the four-course meal, which includes a cheese fondue, salad, meat fondue, and a dessert fondue that’s sure to delight. The wait staff adds to the whole experience, as they are knowledgeable of their items.

The special titled Fondue a la France is exquisite and has a strong flavor because of the assortment of cheeses. After watching the fondue prepared tableside, platters filled with granny smith apple slices, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, honey wheat bread, rosemary bread, and French bread accompany the fondue.

Midway through the cheese fondue, a classic and well-dressed Cesar salad, or another of choice will be brought to the table.

Next, a fondue with a sauce base such as Coq au Vin is prepared tableside, but this time, visitors cook the vegetables and meats themselves. A platter overflowing with roasted-garlic shrimp, chicken Provencal, peppercorn-crusted New York strip, duck a l’orange, and ratatouille with goat cheese ravioli is placed on the table.

Suddenly, multiple sauces such as sweet and sour, a tarragon aioli, cocktail, teriyaki, a mild yogurt based curry, Gorgonzola, and a “green goddess” are squeezed into the mix. Add that to the vegetables, which include broccoli, mushrooms, and red bliss potatoes. The cooking process takes only a few minutes and provides enough time to digest.

Finally, the meal ends with a luscious and silky chocolate fondue, also prepared tableside. There is no way to go wrong with the s’mores fondue while dipping cheesecake, pound cake, strawberries, graham crackers, fudgy brownies, bananas, and two different types of marshmallows.

By that time, patrons are likely ready to explode, but guiltless to indulge. The Melting Pot could quite possibly change the way anyone looks at dining with the girls on any occasion, especially when some chocolate is necessary.