The Melting Pot - Where time and money melt together. And not in a good way.

After this lunch, I'd decided to give up on the blog. That's how bad it was. But then we had a great idea for 2014, so we figured we better finish out 2013. It also helps that I'm slightly OCD, so I have to finish or I'll never feel complete.

For December 2013, we chose The Melting Pot in Troy. And after a slight detour to the Golden Pot, we finally found the place. It seems that some little diner tried to horn in on the Melting Pot name and when you look "The Melting Pot" up on Google Maps, it directs you to a strip mall and a family diner type place. And don't you dare call Golden Pot to ask if they're The Melting Pot. They get realllly pissy when you call and ask.

When we asked the manager at the Melting Pot about it, he said that they had to get lawyers  involved to get the GP to change it's name from Melting Pot to The Golden Pot. And they're still having problems with Google Maps and things like that directing people to the wrong place. In hindsight, we might've done better at the Golden Pot.


Place: The Melting Pot
Location: Troy, Michigan

December is always a hard lunch for us. We also go to the cemetery to visit the graves of several family members that we lost in close succession. We usually try to let off lanterns in remembrance, but it was so windy that day, we couldn't do it this year. We also invite along any other family members that want to go. This year our brother, Philip, came with us.

The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant. They have the cook tops right in your tables and make the cheese and chocolate fondues right there. They also boil Filet Mignon. No you didn't read that wrong. BOIL. Filet Mignon. Boil. Who boils Filet Mignon?

This won't be like other reviews. I'm not going to list what we had or any of that usual stuff. The only thing you need to know is this: It's super expensive (like seriously. Don't come with less than $200 and think more along the lines of $350) And it took THREE FRICKIN' HOURS! Oh. And they had us cook our raw meat at the table. And by cook I mean boil.

The cheese and chocolate part were okay. But the salad and boiling meat part was horrible. And so expensive. The drinks were pretty good. But the waitstaff was not. The dishes were dirty and chipped when we received them. Unfortunately, we didn't notice some of it till it was too late.

I'm not even going to put up pictures. I don't want people getting pulled in by the "fanciness". Cause it was all fake.  We were also the ONLY people in the restaurant. I wonder why?

Terra

Red Robin, Yuuummmm!..Or Not.

It is the 2nd year anniversary of our Grandfathers death. And what would've been his 90th birthday. This post, our first official one, is special. It wasn't just "Us Girls" at lunch. This time we also had our brother Philip, Jeri's husband Mike, Aunt Kathy (Mom's youngest sister) Aunt Wilma (one of Mom's younger sisters) and her husband Larry.

Restaurant: Red Robin

Location: Clinton Township, Michigan. Hall Rd.

Red Robin's main dish is burgers. All kinds of burgers. They also have never ending fries, which is a plus. Especially if your starving because you've been waiting to eat in anticipation of lunch with the girls. Just saying'.

Our waitress was Dawn and she was nice. We love it when the waiter or waitress is friendly, smiles and doesn't make you feel like you're imposing on their day. She took our orders and then asked if we wanted our fries brought out while we wait for our burgers. That elevated her to Waitress Goddess in our eyes.

Our food came out in a timely matter. It wasn't a very long wait at all. When we needed to re-fill our drinks or ask for mustard (Jeri. What's with you and mustard? Susie too. Remember the waffles in Daytona? OMG), it was easy to get her attention to ask for what we needed.

Highlights

Sand In My Shorts - Sound like something awful, doesn't it? It's actually a drink. It has Chambord, vodka, peach schnapps, Midori (or if you're Mom, Dora the Explorer. "Why is Dora in your drink? What about Sid the Science Guy?" -Mom "No Mom, not Dora, MIDORI. And it's Sid the Science Kid." - Terra and Susie "Then who was the guy?" - Mom "It was Bill Nye the Science Guy" - Terra [That was our actual conversation and I blame it on the Screaming Red Zombie. But more on that later]), triple sec, orange juice, cranberry juice, and sweet & sour. It was $7.49 and totally worth it. It tasted fabulous. Mom was surprised it didn't taste like sand. 

Sweet Jim Bean Bacon Swiss Burger - This was the favorite dish of the day. Marti ordered it and she let us each take a bite and we were jealous of her lunch. This burger is what would bring me back again and again. It's a Jim Bean bourbon-glazed burger with melted Swiss cheese, hardwood smoked bacon, caramelized onions and a garlic-buttered toasted brioche bun. Your mouth is watering now, isn't it? I know mine is. I can't remember how much it cost. But I don't care. It was worth whatever we paid.

Screaming Red Zombie - This isn't so much a highlight as a warning. Have a DD if you plan on partaking of this drink. It's strong and makes you ask odd questions.

The Ratings: On a Scale of 1 to 5

Waitstaff

Mom - 4; She had to order her drink twice but Dawn was very friendly. She joked with us and smiled a lot.

Jeri -  5; "She's practically our sister!"

Terra- 4; She was really friendly and easy to grab her attention. But if I wanted a re-fill I had to ask, she didn't ask me if I wanted one.

Susie - 4; She smiled and was friendly. That's important. She had a good technique for taking orders.

Marti- 3 1/2; I have no idea why a 3 1/2, but that's what she rated. 

Food Quality 
Mom - Tropical Sunburn Tavern Double; 3. I wasn't too impressed with the burger or the toppings.

Jeri - Tropical Sunburn Tavern Single; 2. I thought it was awful. The mango slaw wasn't very impressive.
Terra - Sauteed 'Shroom Burger; 2. It was bland. I had to add salt and even that didn't help much. I think if it had more of the garlic Parmesan spread (or any at all, since mine seemed to be missing) it would've been much better. 
Susie - Clucks and Fries; 5. It was really good chicken. The tenders were nice size and the ranch dressing for dipping was tasty.
Marti - Jim Bean Burger; 10. It was so good it far surpasses the rating scale. All of us except for mom had a bite and we loved it. This burger would be the sole reason to come back.

All of our burgers came with Bottomless Steak Fries. The fries were tasty. The seasoning salt that they had on the table was a good addition over regular table salt.

Value
Mom - $7.99 for her burger and her drink was $6.99. The cost of the food was not worth it.  
Jeri - $7.99 for the burger. It wasn't worth what we paid.
Terra- $9.99 for the burger and $7.49 for the drink. Definitely not worth what we paid.
Susie - $9.49 for the entree and $7.49 for the drink. The chicken was tasty but not worth almost 10 bucks.
Marti - We don't remember how much the burger cost. The drink was $7.49. We really don't care how much the burger cost. It was worth whatever we paid. Marti's lunch was the only one worth what we paid.

Bathroom
They fail at women's bathrooms. There was toilet paper shredded and all over the floor. The trash was overflowing with used paper towel and other things. And the floor was sticky. Do you know what has to be on the floor to be that sticky? It's nasty. Everyone rated the bathroom at 1.

Overall
Mom - 4
Jeri - 1; "I'd rather go to Steak N Shake"
Terra - 3; "The waitress made it tolerable and the Sand In My Shorts was really good."
Susie - 3
Marti - 3 1/2; (Again, with the half a point. I'm not sure what's up with that.)


We enjoyed our time mostly because of the company of our party and the waitress. We probably won't visit Red Robin again. Unless we are craving the Sweet Jim Bean burger.


Terra