The Melting Pot La Jolla

So hello again everybody! I'm back for post numero dos and today I am featuring my fantastic little restaurant, The Melting Pot, no less! This is monumental. Rarely do I follow through with anything, so let's keep our fingers crossed that this lovely little blog keeps rolling.

I apologize if this post isn't as thorough as my first; I've been to The Melting Pot so many times I'll probably take a lot of details for granted, but I'll do my best! And my pictures didn't come out as great or look particularly appetizing, but there is a super cool video of chocolate on fire that I will hopefully be able to upload for you, my pyromaniac friends.

This is a copy of The Melting Pot's a la carte menu.

Traditional Swiss Cheese

Gruyere and Emmanthaler Swiss Cheese with White Wine, Garlic, Nutmeg, Lemon, and Kirschwasser

I usually get the spinach and artichoke cheese when I'm at the Melting Pot because I like it the best. It's the most mild and who doesn't love spinach and artichoke? Another plus is that the spinach and artichoke is made with a vegetable bouillon base while all the other cheeses are melted down with an alcoholic base. But to keep from getting too complacent, I thought I'd jazz it up and try something different so we decided to order the swiss. I've only had the just bites of leftovers of the swiss here and there during my shift and while I've had it once where it was really good, this swiss didn't really measure up. The Kirschwasser was incredibly strong--as was the nutmeg--and we got through maybe half of it before we decided to order another cheese.

Cheddar Cheese

Aged, Medium-Sharp Cheddar and Emmanthaler Swiss Cheeses, Lager Beer, Garlic and Seasonings

The cheddar cheese was a lot more mild--at least, the alcoholic after taste wasn't as strong. I still like the spinach and artichoke cheese better though. I like the white blend of Butterkase and Fontina much more than I like the cheddar. All of the cheeses are served with apples, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mixed bread. Ordering the Fiesta Cheese warrants a side of tortilla chips, too.

Virgin Sour Patch Cocktail

Originally made with: Stoli Raspberry Vodka, DeKuyper Sour Apple and Watermelon Puckers, Strawberry Puree, Lemon and Cranberry Juice, Sugared Rim

When the right bartender works, I usually get my pick of non-alcoholic drinks. 

French Quarter and Land & Sea in Bourguinonne

Premium Filet Mignon, All-Natural Breast of Chicken, and Pacific White Shrimp seasoned with Cajun spices accompanied with Andouille Sausage

Premium Filet Mignon, Herb-Crusted Chicken, and Pacific White Shrimp

The entree course is brought out unprepared on platters and then presented to you with instructions on how to cook your meat. We chose to do the bourguinnonne cooking style, which is a pot of canola oil. Pretty standard, very similar to Chinese hot pot. What differentiates The Melting Pot from the myriad of other hot pot-esque places are the accompanying sauces. Entrees are served with teriyaki, a yogurt-based curry, sweet and sour ginger plum, gorgonzola bleu cheese port, spicy horseradish cocktail, and green goddess sauces. You also get a basic tempura batter and a sesame tempura batter if you end up doing the bourguinonne. The best part of doing the bourguinonne is making stuffed mushroom caps! You stuff the mushroom cap with green goddess--a mix of sour cream, cream cheese, and chives--and then dip the mushroom in sesame tempura batter, after which you deep fry the battered mushroom cap. I'm pretty sure we also got the Pacific Rim entree, which includes teriyaki sirloin (my favorite) but it's not pictured here. Each entree plate is about $20-$30 and comes with several pieces of meat and although it looks small it generally ends up being really filling.

Flaming Turtle with Marshmallow Fluff and Amaretto

Milk Chocolate, Caramel, Candied Pecans, Marshmallow Fluff, Amaretto

Dessert is served with fresh strawberries, bananas, cheesecake, pound cake, brownies, Rice Krispie treats, oreo-crusted marshmallows, and graham cracker-crusted marshmallows. I feel like the bananas, Rice Krispies, and marshmallows pair really well with the chocolate, but everything else with the exception of strawberries--which I like plain more than covered in chocolate--is too rich to eat along with chocolate. I really like the dark chocolate here. Usually I order the cookies and cream, but Lucy doesn't like oreos at all so we got the Flaming Turtle instead. All the desserts are highly customizable and the marshmallow fluff and amaretto really added to the dessert. You can request for any of the desserts to be flambeed tableside, which is always fun. 

The servers at The Melting Pot really go above and beyond, but Tony is especially great (we had him tonight). Service at The Melting Pot is generally very attentive and personalized because the dining experience takes about 2-3 hours, giving the server a lot of time to get to know their dining patrons. I probably wouldn't dine at The Melting Pot without my employee discount, and even with it, I can only afford to go once every two months, but it's always fun as long as you go with good company.

The menu has since been completely revamped since the pictures taken for this post, as we are now catering to a more family-style and value-oriented approach. It has a lot of the same options from the old menu but some new offerings and I can't wait to try The Melting Pot under this new menu philosophy. 

The Melting Pot

8980 University Center Lane

La Jolla, CA 92122

Inaugural Post - The Marine Room

Hello my loyal (aka. non-existent) reader base!

Well, everyone has to start somewhere.

So today, one of my good friends Kelly flew into San Diego for a visit and clearly that means we had to celebrate! With food! I've been wanting to try The Marine Room for a very long time now and luckily, Kelly and Alice let me choose the restaurant so off we went.

This is a copy of their list of offerings for the evening.

Sea of Cortez Crab Timbale

Butternut squash nectar, Vanilla Pearls, Trout Caviar

Kelly and I started off with the blue crab timbale, because let's face it--real women do not eat salad. It's times like this where I am so thankful for the feminist movement. I was really curious to taste the caviar but since the presentation was so muddled in the nectar, I wasn't sure how to isolate a single caviar. If it was what I thought, it greatly resembled and tasted like a salmon roe--like the ones you get on sushi rolls. Overall, the timbale was wonderfully balanced. I was kind of nervous that the sweetness of the butternut squash nectar paired with the natural sweetness of the crab meat would be too overbearing, but it was perfect. A very light dish to start.

Hokto Kinoko Farm Trumpet Mushroom Soup

Truffle Croutons, Pine Nuts, Mt. Tam Cheese, Aged Madeira

Alice, on the other hand, chose to start with the mushroom soup. I only got to try a little bit of her soup, but from what I tried, it was really good. It had the texture of a chowder moreso than a soup and was hot, but not scalding. It was interesting because it had a curry-esque undertone which gave it another layer of complexity in flavor.

Dill Pollen Spiced Diver Scallops and Wild Prawn

Carrot Tangerine Risotto, Green Papaya, Tarragon White Port Reduction

This was my choice for the entree course. To be completely honest, I'm not a huge fan of scallops and it's very easy to do prawns wrong for me, but I wanted a larger variety of pictures for my first blog post so each of us chose something different... and I was the last to choose so I got what was left. I ate the deep fried lotus chip garnish first and it tasted... like a deep fried chip. The scallops were seared and seasoned perfectly but I felt like the prawn was a tad overdone. I always imagine prawns as being extremely juicy and succulent and I'm not sure if the prawn was overcooked or if it was the seasoning, but it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I really enjoyed the risotto though. Initially, I was really concerned that it would have too much citrus in in because of the use of tangerine as a descriptor, but it ended up being very mild in taste and creamy in texture.

Center Cut Angus Filet Mignon

Cipollini Potato Puree, Quince Chutney, Garnacha Sauce

So again, I only had a small bite of Alice's steak, but it was one of the best bites of steak I've ever had. It was the perfect temperature and a beautiful melt-in-your-mouth texture and the sauce was deliciously sweet. Being Asian, I'm a sucker for sweet sauces. I almost cried tears of joy when Alice offered me a second bite of her steak.

Red Walnut Crusted Butterfish

Black Thai Rice, Fennel Mango Salad, Saffron Yuzu Essence

Kelly chose the butterfish and was gracious enough to give me a bite as well. The bite that I had had a great nutty essence. She also gave me some of her black thai rice, which tasted very much like--huge surprise--rice, just maybe a bit harder.

Dessert Trilogy

From left to right: Orangecello Pot de Creme, Honey Chestnut Gelato, Cacao Nib Cordillera Chocolate Dome

We were each given a dessert trilogy to end our meal. I tried the honey chestnut gelato first. It had the icy texture of gelato but I wasn't a huge fan of the flavor. I couldn't taste the honey at all; now that I'm blogging I'm surprised to find honey as a descriptor for the gelato. I feel like chestnut as a flavor is very distinct and either you're a fan or you're not. Next, I tried the orange pot de creme. The berry on the top was actually infused with alcohol so my first bite just tasted very alcoholic. However, the pot de creme was infused with alcohol as well. I think it was probably orange liquer. The alcohol taste was a little bit too overwhelming for me. Also, I had creme brulee that my roommate Jenny made me just last night and I was comparing the pot de creme to that. Seeing that her creme brulee is one of my favorites, there was really no contest. I wasn't sure what the chocolate dome was when I'd read the description, I thought it would be similar to one of those chocolate bomb cakes. It ended up turning out to be a very dark, very rich, very thick chocolate mousse. I feel like if I had taken the chocolate dome with the chestnut gelato, it would've offset the richness a bit but I finished the gelato in two bites at the beginning so the chocolate wasn't as pleasurable as I'd hoped. Unfortunately, the highlights of the dessert for me were the orange and berry reduction used in the plating.

Our server Hector was attentive enough throughout the night; however, the service was pretty stuffy. I guess working at The Melting Pot with all of my coworkers has made me very accustomed to very personable service. I was pleasantly surprised that I was satisfied at the end of the meal. Too often, I find myself still hungry at the end of a fine dining experience. The view was beautiful, but I'm sure it'd be much more beautiful in the day. They have a huge glass window so you have a great panoramic view of the ocean front. I'd really love to come for high tide brunch. The next one is on February 9th or 10th, so hopefully I can convince someone to go with me! All in all, it was a steal of deal at $40 per person before tax and gratuity.

So whew! That's that, my first post ever! That was a lot harder than I thought it would be. A shout out to Alice and Kelly for a lovely evening, and Alice's contribution in "liking the word 'decadent'" for its inclusion in my blog's URL.

The Marine Room

2000 Spindrift Drive

La Jolla, CA 92037