In a nutshell-Don't feel like cooking? Then don't come here.
So Friday my lovely Kim and I celebrated four lovely years together. After a stressful week I wanted to take her to some place nice. So we drove up to King of Prussia ti enjoy a classy night. First we didn't know reservations were needed, so we had to wait 40 minutes for a table. No big deal. We sat at the bar and had some really great drinks. Kim had whatever her go to sangria drink is and I had some Jack Daniels amazing blackberry drink. This would eventually turn out to be the best part of the experience.
We decided what we would eat at the bar. I admit we made a major mistake here by not reading about this place before we got there. The assumption on our end was that we dipped all our food in cheese or other fonduey dips. Boy were we wrong.
First the cheddar fondue dip we chose was very bitter. I kind of liked it but Kim certainly didn't. They gave three different bread cubes, broccoli/cauliflower, and apples. The apples were an odd choice and pretty gross in cheese. The breads were the best. We slowed down on dippin so we could have room for all our food yet to come. They brought me a flavorful California salad with vinaigrette and pecans and bleu cheese. Okay. Things seem great.
Then reality set in. They brought out the broth we ordered, but we were confused as the waitress already told us this choice was meant for how the meat would be cooked. Out came two small plates with raw meat and seasoning on the pieces. Kim's order included a smattering of duck. Ever see raw duck?
I instantly became skeptical. Now, I know that I maybe I should have read up about the melting pot, but I went in uninformed. If I had known I would do all the work, I would've chosen to go to Denny's. Her order also included lobster. At least they did us the courtesy of plucking the meat out of the tail. The meat wasn't gross or anything, but seeing all that rare meat, and having only two skewers to stab the meat and cook for "up to 2 minutes" was not appealing anymore. Two minutes turned to over 5 minutes, for a bite of food at a time. I stabbed all my chicken and pork onto the skewer. It tasted good to me, but Kim was completely turned off.
So, I pretty much ate everything on my plate. But it seriously took like 30 minutes for me to cook and eat. I'm pretty sure that only the end pieces of the meat I placed on my skewers cooked appropriately. Whatever, I was starving.
After we gave up on fishing vegetables out of the broth as well as giving up on the search for meat lost in the bowl, we opted for the chunky peanut butter fondue dessert platter. This was the second best part of the night (my drink, the Jackberry Splash, was tops). Cheesecake, brownies, marshmallows, crusted marshmallows, and for some reason fruit that were NOT apple slices came out on a plate. This was instantly filling.
The bill? $105 total, plus nearly $20 for our drinks earlier at the bar. And we were not happy. The waitress was nice, and she prepared the cheese fondue, broth, and chocolate fondue. Kim and I wondered if she goes home to her family and cooks for them? That's a lot of food to make on the fly for people. Our experience there lasted almost three hours. I think I would have rather read a dictionary or had a colonoscopy.
We noticed some dude was there by himself. Who just hangs out there? Not a care in the world, with three hours to kill to make, eat, and digest dinner? Maybe he just came from a colonoscopy and needed to relax by himself. Maybe he hates his family. I don't know.
I heard a couple with three kids there say to their kids that they were very impressed with how well behaved their kids are. Sometimes it's cool to see the food made right in front of you. I couldn't imagine trying to keep Rocco still there while he cooked his food. And for three hours at that. Sure he would've loved the dessert, but that would've been everywhere, as would the cheese fondue.
The novelty of a place where you can dip all your food in something is nice, not an everyday thing. I also have enjoyed places where I have had to cook my own meat. There was a tiki bar in Reading, PA, I used to go to that you would select your meat and prepare it yourself and grill it up outside. That was awesome. But cooking one bite at a time was lame. I think people who really enjoy this place also overuse and overemphasize the word "phenomenal." I am not one of those people. I overuse the word "awesome." Red Lobster and Famous Dave's are awesome.
No matter what, we made the most out of our night together, enjoying another day in our 4 great years together, so at least we didn't lose sight of that.
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