The Melting Pot is an ideal place for special occasions and a formal dinner. The restaurant serves delicious foods and desserts, as well as cheese fondue that is out of this world. You will not regret going to this restaurant. The Melting Pot is located in Towson, near the Towson Mall on York Road.

From Bel Air, it’s about a 45-minute drive, depending on what time of day you go.

As you walk into the restaurant, the lights are dim and the place is quiet. The hostesses are very friendly and the place is hardly ever crowded which also lessens the amount of noise in the restaurant. The entire restaurant is filled with booths with a fondue pot in the middle of each booth.

The four course meal is the way to go. As an alternative option, you could order just an entree individually and not include it in the four course meal package, although this may be more expensive.The four course package also includes your choice of a small salad, an entree, and for dessert, chocolate fondue.

The cheese fondue is first on the list for you to eat once you arrive. The server will melt the Wisconsin cheese in the pot first. The cheese fondue includes bread, carrots, apples, broccoli, and cauliflower for you to dip. Yes, I said cheese and apples, it’s better than you think.

There are six different choices of cheese fondue you can get. I got the simple cheddar fondue and I couldn’t complain. It tasted fantastic with every one of the dipping foods. The other cheese fondues include fiesta, garlic and herb quartet, spinach artichoke, classic alpine, and bacon and brie.These choices of fondue are immersed in the Wisconsin cheese the server prepares for your table at the beginning of the meal.

After you finish the cheese fondue, you get your choice of four salads. You can get a California salad, the Melting Pot’s house salad, a caesar salad, or a spinach mushroom salad. The salads are a decent size for being about five dollars per salad, depending on which one you choose.

If I had to pick a weak spot for the restaurant it would probably be the salads. Although I’m not much of a salad kind of guy, the caesar salad wasn’t all that caesar-y. There was hardly any dressing, but nonetheless it was still satisfying. The romaine lettuce and pine nuts, however, were good.

For your entree there are various items on the menu. You can make your own fondue and add three items of your choice. There are a wide variety of meats you can get, from steak to chicken to shrimp, and there’s even duck.

The Melting Pot also has their own fondues if you don’t want to create your own. The entrees include the same types of food as the “make your own fondue” section of the menu, but the portions are different. This section of the menu is included in the four course meal package. The Melting Pot fondues have combinations of seafood and meat.

The way the Melting Pot stands out from other restaurants is their idea of having the customer cook their own food. The pots located in the middle of each table are heated and prepared in a cooking style of your choice.

The server gives you two plates, one for your raw food and one for your cooked food and sauces. The server  will tell you how long to cook each item that you ordered. Every person at the table will receive two sets of forks so they can stab their meat and put it in the pot.

The food cooks in the pot along with some potatoes and vegetables. This was one thing that I didn’t like too much about the dinner. There were just vegetables sitting in the same water that your steak and chicken were being cooked in. It was odd to me and I guarantee a lot of people don’t end up eating the vegetables and potatoes because after you finish your entree you’re stuffed.

I got the Land and Sea fondue, which includes four shrimp, four pieces of steak, and four pieces of chicken. The shrimp and steak were phenomenal, however, while the chicken was seasoned very well, it is a little bit harder to cook to perfection.

And finally, for the best part of the dinner: dessert. If you skip dessert at The Melting Pot, you’re really missing out. A chocolate fondue is served in your own pot and the server will bring out a variety of foods that you can dip into the warm, creamy chocolate. You can dip strawberries, marshmallows, pineapple, brownies, pound cake, and, best of all, mini Rice Crispy Treats. The dessert was simply amazing.

To anyone interested in a formal dinner, I cannot recommend The Melting Pot enough. However, the prices are steep. I understand why they charge as much as they do, since it isn’t just some regular restaurant, but it was about $80 for two people, without the tip, which is on the steep side.

Although the restaurant is expensive, if you’re looking for a romantic and formal dinner I would definitely recommend the Melting Pot for your occasion.

Alex Rasmussen is a News Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.