The Melting Pot is a chain restaurant that specializes in fondue and has multiple locations across the country.

It's a fun concept because it's an engaging dinner - where, yes, you do have to cook your own food - but its interactive and lots of fun for a group.

Recently, I finally tried this restaurant with one of my best friends and her group of bridesmaids. We made a reservation at the Pittsburgh location and made our way back through the huge restaurant to our table.

The general concept is this: pick a cheese course, pick a salad, pick an entree and pick a chocolate course.

This all evens out to one standard price around $50. You can do a la carte, but it seemed easier for a group to just do the full experience.

So, first step is to choose the cheese course. We had two burners so we got to choose two different cheeses: Buffalo Wisconsin Trio - butterkase, fontina, gorgonzola melted with white whine, sherry, shallots, Frank's RedHot Buffalo Wing Sauce and Classic Alpine - gruyee, raclette, fontina, melted with white wine, garlic and nutmeg.



The cheese course was served with bread, tortilla chips and green apples.

Then, we each got to choose one of the salads. I went with a house salad - romaine, iceberg, chedder, tomatoes, croutons, cucumber and sweet/tangy dressing.

For the main course, we choose two kinds of cooking oil: Mojo - Caribbean-inspired, garlic, citrus and Season Court Bouillon - seasoned vegetable broth.

I created my own combo with: Teriyaki Marinated Sirloin, Shrimp, Wild Mushroom Sacchetti.

The entrees all come with additions of mushrooms, potatoes and broccoli. And, there are like 8 different dipping sauces for all the different options. They all cook for a little bit different time, but I honestly think it's tough to mess it up. It was all so, so good.

Then, it's time for dessert!

We picked the chocolate s'mores (with dark chocolate) - marshmallow cream and graham cracker. And we got the flaming turtle (with milk chocolate) - caramel and candied pecans.

Both were flambeed!

And, it was served with a number of delicious goodies - rice krispies, fruit, brownies, waffle.

It's not cheap, but it was a fun experience and interactive - without the cleanup!