The Melting Pot gives you the feeling that you're living in a parallel
universe. Everything is very much like you would expect in a luxurious
restaurant except there are some fundamental changes that are both
subtle and dramatic.
First off the place is gorgeous. It's
dark and intimate with deep woods, frosted glass, dramatic lighting and
inviting carpets. The staff is handsome, courteous and prompt - all
decked out in black. For a new restaurant, it's moving very smoothly.
The building is circular and the theme repeats itself in large and
small curves. The bar and private rooms over to the left are just
begging for a Hollywood movie crew to shoot. Although it was fairly
quiet when we arrived, I can see this becoming quite the spot.
I know what it is. It's like Gulfstream or Houstons, except it's round! That's the vibe. But that's just the beginning.
The
menu is half wine, and as soon as you walk in the door, you can see
that they are nuts for wine at the Melting Pot. They have several
hundred bottles on display in a glass case that reminded me of the
house in Thirteen Ghosts. Very cool. But since you know I'm not a wine
guy, that's about all I have to say about that. But if you must know,
they had some bomb cocktails. I myself had a lemonade, vodka and basil
concoction that was frosty and chock full of strawberries. It didn't
knock me over, nor was it too fruity. It was pleasantly different -
parallel universe style, and it didn't make me feel like I was
experimenting with my masculinity.
The other half of the menu
is what the Melting Pot is all about and it is about as different as
possible. What the Spousal Unit and I had was called the Lobster
Indulgence. It was a huge, delicious, continental meal. Now you've had
teppan, Benihana style, and you may have even had Korean Barbecue
cooked right at your table, but you have never had fondue, so get
prepared.
It works like this. There are four courses, three of
which center around two hot pots cooking in the center of your
marble-top table. Or just one if you're a party of two. Fondue is all
about dipping and boiling. You get a huge variety of foods brought to
you and you dip it or cook it right at your table. Yeah. Different! The
first is the appetizer. In this you have six choices of cheesy treats
as a basis to cook up in your two pots. We had the triple Wisconsin and
the spinach and artichoke. Hey. Hot spinach dip is like Houstons, but
we're in the parallel universe and the server prepares it right in
front of you. For dippin', we had apples, celery, carrots, cauliflower,
crusty breads and tortilla chips. Aha, now I know what those big long
skewer forks are for.
Now since the restaurant is new, the
servers don't have their speil down while they're preparing, but
knowing what we know of Benihana, we can be sure that they're going to
have some entertaining banter as time goes by. This time I decided to
dominate the conversation. Next time, we'll see.
Next comes
salad. I had Southwestern Cobb. Mmm bacony! The Unit had a ceasar with
pine nuts. Really superb. Hey, I'm getting full already.
The
main course for the Lobster Indulgence is what this is all about. I'm
going to try to spare you some details because I'd be here all day. And
by the way, when you go to get this which is the full-on treatment, you
had better bring your appetite, have three hours (seriously) and a
watch. Lobster, beef tenderloin, salmon, spiced chicken, shrimp. Those
are your meats. Mushrooms, red potatoes, broccoli. Those are your
veggies. Two boiling pots of broth - we chose the Coq au Vin French and
the Mojo Caribbean. And nine, count 'em nine sauces. Pick a meat, pick
a veggie, fondue it for 90 seconds or 120 seconds in a pot, shag it
onto your plate and pick a sauce. The combination of tastes is
astounding. How is it that food so familiar can be so different? It
must be a parallel universe.
I never do dessert. 99% of the
time, I'm too stuffed or make some kind of excuse. I'm telling you now,
there is no way to resist a simmering pot of chocolate for dipping. We
had two, one with milk chocolate the other with cherries jubilee en
flambe swimming in dark chocolate. For dipping? Rice Crispies Treats,
marshmallows in graham cracker or Oreo dusting, cheesecake, poundcake,
bananas and brownies.
I'm trying to remember how I got out of
the joint under my own power. As you know, I only give five stars when
a restaurant shows me something I didn't know and didn't expect. This
was out of this world. I've got to go again.
21525 Hawthorne Boulevard
Torrance, CA 90503
(310) 316-7500
Across the street from where Al's Bar used to be, we have Wurstküche. The food is simple as it is exotic. I am a huge fan of beer and sausage, but I tend to stray away from places where the people's teeth are too white and exoticism is sampled for its own sake. That said, I'm going to have to give this joint another sample because maybe the exotic is just what I need.
You see I got a bockwurst with onions and peppers and a Curiosity Cola, and the cola was by far the better experience. Maybe next time I'll get the duck & bacon with jalapeno. Part of the fault of this was mine, having left my reading glasses in the car I parked *four blocks away*, I had to rely on looking at what I could see in the case, rather than eyeballing everything on the small paper menu. Sure I could see Rattlesnake & Rabbit in the case, but not the italics on the menu wich would tell me 'buttery but mildly spicy'. That being the case, I would have seen no adjectives whatsoever after the Bockwurst which would have indicated the lack of pride they proprietors take in their 'classics'. I've had better wursts from hotdog stands. The other part of my fault was my anti-foo foo attitude which was probably initiated by seeing the guy walking out of the joint with his underwear on the outside. Not shocked mind you, nor particularly disturbed, just rolling my eyes. It would have helped if they had better music playing, alas it didn't. So either Bockwurst is completely boring (I've never had it before, and the pale whiteness of it stood out) or their's is. Even though I'm writing about it, it's nothing to write home about.
Since I'm still in a lather about Galco's Soda Pop Stop, as should every restaurateur in Los Angeles, I savored my two bottles of Curiosity Cola and said later for the beer. And I did so despite the warm and chummy extraordinary service given by Wayne who took the time to set us up with some fine samples. I liked the Christmas Ale best.
So this is a joint that's definitely up for a re-run. Maybe next time if I drink the beer, all will seem better.