Sept 2021
More of a 3.5 stars. Very interesting experience, good food, decent service, and very expensive. Reservations are recommended, and plan to be there for at least 2.5 hours. All the staff wear masks.
The place is clean, dimly lit, and has many 2 people booths in addition to tables. It seems that 1 fondue pot is for 2 people. Each person gets 2 skewers, and they give each person different colored skewers. We were seated at a 2 person booth.
I am a little iffy on the placement of the pot, which is by the far corner opposite the booth seats. On the one hand, all the food is spread out between us and the pot. Plus the servers cook the cheese fondue at the table, so they have easy access to the pot. On the other hand, you have to stretch to put things in or take them out. And if you have to go searching for something, you have to stand up to see into the pot.
The service was rocky at first, but managed to improve a bit. We arrived a few minutes before our reservation and were promptly seated. We then waited 15 minutes before our server arrived. About 5 minutes in, someone came by to give us water and said our server would be along soon. When our server did arrive, he apologized for the wait and was very friendly and earnest. I did get the vibe that he was new and trying too hard to impress, but I give him points for trying. I do think he could have checked on us more often, as he mainly delivered each course and came back after we were done with each. This led to a few minutes of waiting between each course.
We had the 4-course dinners for 2: cheese, salad, entree, and dessert. The cheese fondue is cooked at the table. Note all the cheese fondues have some kind of alcohol as a base, which is boiled out. The cheese course comes an assortment of breads, veggies, and freshly chopped apple. Very yummy. The salads were good, with fresh and crisp greens.
Also, I highly recommend the Bee's Tea (non-alcoholic). It was very good: sweet, citrusy, and with a nice lavender taste that you feel in your nose. Very refreshing.
The pots for the entree and dessert course come ready made from the kitchen. With the entree comes six side sauces, and not necessarily those listed on the little table menu. Our favorites were the Green Goddess and the Yogurt Curry. You also get special plates for the entrees, with four little depressions to the side for the sauces. I personally found it easier to just spoon the sauces directly onto my food, but I admit that's not very sophisticated 😜. The food with the entrees was decent, nothing amazing. Sadly, there were no potstickers that night, and we didn't learn that until after the plates were delivered to the table. According to our server, it's a not uncertain whether potstickers are available at any given day since they're popular and tend to go quickly. Also note that even though there's not a lot of food delivered, it is still very filling!
A note on the cooking times. The server does tell you the cooking times for each type of food. If you forget, the times are listed on the little table menu. Also, there is a cooking timer on the website. From the menu, hit "The Experience". At the very bottom is a "Use Fondue Timer" button, which will open a new window. There are timers for chicken, beef, pork, fish/shrimp, veggies, and pasta.
After the entree, everything except the skewers and napkins are cleared from the table. Finally, it's the dessert course! The chocolate fondue is already made and just needs a few minutes to heat up. I believe the flambeed fondues are lit at the table, but I'm just guessing. It comes with an assortment of sweets and fruit. Note the server will ask if you want a second helping of any of the dessert items.
I would go back just for the chocolate fondue. Though I would order it to go so I can use up all the fondue with more goodies than they provided us 😋.
This is definitely more an experience place than a food place. The food was good, but I feel like coming here is more for the experience of fondue than anything else. Especially when considering the prices.
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