Ryan and I went out on a fondue date last night!
Our first date night of 2013 took us to The Melting Pot in downtown Ocala.
Downtown Ocala is still decorated for the holidays, so we had fun walking around the square before dinner and taking in the holiday sights before they’re put away until next year.
Once we meandered over to the restaurant, we were immediately greeted by the hostess and escorted to a cozy booth.
Drinks!
Tipsy Turtle + Blackberry Bourbon Bramble
Ryan and I planned our date night after I received a press release from The Melting Pot inviting me to try some of the dishes on the restaurant’s new Skinny Dipping menu. The Skinny Dipping menu features three courses – a salad, fondue entrée and dark chocolate fondue dessert – for less than 700 calories. I selected a salad and entrée off the Skinny Dipping menu last night and loved both of my choices! (I veered off the Skinny Dipping menu for the cheese and chocolate fondue courses.)
Our meal began with the cheese fondue!
Ryan and I selected the special of the day which included a big pot of brie and bacon cheese fondue, served with bread, tart apple slices and fresh vegetables for dipping.
Oh cheese fondue, you are so fabulous!
Our waitress suggested placing a piece of bread and an apple slice on our fondue forks at the same time before dipping it into the cheese and the flavor combination was fantastic!
Salads were delivered to our table shortly after we finished the cheese course.
I ordered the spinach salad topped with baby Portobello mushrooms, red onion, chopped bacon, Roma tomatoes and a warm burgundy shallot vinaigrette. Though this salad came off the Skinny Dipping menu, it didn’t taste lightened up at all! The toppings were quite generous and the dressing was delicious.
When it came time to order our entrees, I decided to go for a combination of shrimp and teriyaki-marinated sirloin.
At first I thought the portion looked rather small, but as I started eating, I filled up fast. (I think I had a head start on filling my belly with the cheese course!)
Every entrée comes with fresh vegetables to cook in your fondue pot and I couldn’t get enough of the mushrooms! They were the best, especially when dipped in the various sauces.
Ryan and I both agreed that the five dipping sauces that came with our entrees added so much to our meal. My favorite two sauces were the teriyaki and the mild, yogurt-based curry sauce.
And then it was time for dessert! The shining star of any fondue experience!
It didn’t take much convincing from our waitress for us to order the crème brûlée white chocolate fondue for dessert.
Caramel shavings were sprinkled atop creamy white chocolate and set afire before we cracked the caramel coating with our fondue forks and dipping items.
I am normally not a huge white chocolate fan, but the caramel component of this fondue took it to another level. Ryan and I used our spoons to get every last bit of chocolate out of our fondue pot. Incredible!
And now here’s the really fun part!
One of YOU will win a $100 gift card to The Melting Pot to enjoy your own fantastic fondue experience! (To find a location near you, you can visit The Melting Pot’s Locations page.)
To enter this giveaway, please tell me what course you would look forward to enjoying the most if you won the gift card. Cheese? Chocolate? Entrée?
I will randomly select a winner on Tuesday.
Good luck!!!
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Normally I would say the chocolate but the cheese looks amazing!
The cheese course for sure! I can’t get enough cheese 🙂
I would go nuts over the chocolate fondue! Nice giveaway!
The chocolate course!
It’s a tough call, but I think cheese is my favorite 🙂 Although I do love chocolate too…..
I look forward to the chocolate course!! The marshmallows are the best part!
The cheese definitely!!! I could do cheese for all the courses:)
Definitely cheese!
Dessert is always my favorite course, so the chocolate would definitely rank highest on my list!
I’d love to try the Brie cheese course you had! It looks delicious with the apples dipped in 🙂 yum yum yum
You can’t go wrong with any oh those choices but…. Chocolate duh! 🙂
I would love the cheese! Yum!
Tough choice between cheese and chocolate! I think the cheeses would win!
Cheese! I love cheese!
I have always wanted to try The Melting Pot! I think my favorite course to try would be the cheese course! Great post!
I LOVE the Melting Pot, but I’ve only ever been there for dessert for my bachelorette party! (So fun!) I would love to try a full meal there — cheese, meat, chocolate, the whole thing!
I was so excited to see this post this morning because my hubby and I were just talking a couple days ago about wanting to try the Melting Pot for the first time! What a coincidence!! I know I would enjoy the dessert course the most but it all looks so good!
Oh the melting pot! <3
The cheese is always the highlight! How do they make it so oooey goooey!!!
The desert course!! I lovi chocolate so much that, some days, I could swear that it is the reason I ws put on Earth 😉
My favorites are the salad, cheese and the chocolate! Yummy!
I think it’d be a tie between the cheese and the dessert! I haven’t had fondue for years but it would be so much fun to try again!
I think it all sounds fabulous.
Can’t get enough chocolate!
Cheese!!! I wonder if they have goat cheese!?
Most definitely the cheese! All about the cheese:)
Definitely the chocolate!!
I would most want to try the desserts! Yum.
Everything pictured look yummy, but my mouth watered the most when I saw the white chocolate/caramel fondue! I’d love to win the $100 giftcard so that I could take my husband on a date night there!
LOVE the melting pot! Chocolate for sure 🙂
The cheese course looks delish!
Definitely the cheese. I love cheese!
As a lover of all things cheese I would look forward to the cheese course the most. My husband and I were just talking about making this a date night soon before reading your post
My husband and I went to Melting Pot in Fort Lauderdale on our Anniversary trip a while ago. I’d never been to one before and it was so fun!
I liked the main course but the best part was definitely desert. I would love to try one of the flaming deserts.
I’m normally a sucker for the cheese fondue, but you may have changed my ways after I read your white chocolate description! PS. You and Ryan are just so dang cute together I can hardly stand it!
I love The Melting Pot – we started my bachelorette party there with the chocolate course so that is definitely my favorite! Chocolate for sure! 🙂
Cheese + Chocolate….I could skip the entree altogether!
I’d have to say the cheese fondue – it looked delicious!
Definitely the dark chocolate fondue from the new skinny menu. Sounds amazing!
Oh goodness! It all looks incredible! I’m dying to try the chocolate fondue. I’ve never been to a Melting Pot before and have always been curious!
Cheese!! But chocolate is a close second!
Chocolate for sure. The cheese is basically just flavored queso, and of course the salad and entree can just be made at home. But chocolate fondue? THAT stuff is GOOOOOD. I love the Melting Pot! I went there for a birthday a couple years ago, and am seriously looking forward to when I get to go again!
I am pretty obsessed with cheese. Obsessed might just be an understatement! I would definitely look forward to dipping breads and veggies into delicious warm cheese 🙂
An entree for sure! The steak and chicken pieces get super tender in the sauce, and all the dips are amazing!
DEFINITELY the chocolate portion! Yummmm!
No question…. that white chocolate with caramel tops everything!
Chocolate For Sure 🙂
Chocolate, of course! Your meal looked delicious!
Chocolate of course!
I’m drooling just THINKING about the spinach artichoke cheese fondue, wow. Yum.
I love the Melting Pot. My husband and I have celebrated most of our anniversaries there sine we started dating in college. It’s a toss up between the cheese and chocolate course for me 😉