The Melting Pot, Lucy 51 and Timmy Nolans

Last night to celebrate a special occasion and because I had a coupon for a free chocolate fondue, we went to The Melting Pot. I hadn’t been to a fondue restaurant in many years and wanted to try it out even though it is very expensive. First we had the cheese fondue. We chose the Wisconsin Trio from the various types offered and it was wonderful, served with three types of bread, apples, and vegetables. Then we had a salad, an excellent Caesar for BK and a California salad for me. My salad consisted of greens, walnuts, gorgonzola cheese, tomatoes with a delicious black walnut raspberry vinaigrette. For our main meal we both chose the 6 ounce filet which we cooked in a very flavorful vegetable broth. It was extremely tender. There are many choices and combinations of meats and fish. We also added a lobster tail. The main dishes are served with mushrooms, portabella mushrooms, potatoes, broccoli and asparagus all of which we cooked. We also got numerous sauces that we could add to any of our food. The crème-de-resistance was the chocolate fondue. Again we were given many choices of blends. We chose one with dark chocolate, marshmallow and oreo crumbs and we were not disappointed. The waiter, Derek who attended to our every need, mixed the chocolate and then lit it on fire. By the way, he also made our cheese fondue right at the table. The fantastic chocolate fondue was served with strawberries, bananas, marshmallows, cheesecake, Rice Krispie treats and a chocolate brownie. Magnificent. I even took the spoon when we were done and spooned out the remaining chocolate. This is not a place to go for any dinner but it is one for a special occasion. The Metling Pot is a chain and is in Pasadena, Thousand Oaks, Milwaukee and many other cities. Loved it.

This past week we decided to have lunch in Toluca Lake at places we had never tried. The two places we picked happened to be sports bars but Lucy 51 is much nicer than one would think for that type of establishment. The food was good but a bit pricy. BK had very good sliders and French fries while I had a turkey club with sweet potato fries. Our servings were very generous and we each took home half our meal which we ate for dinner. That made the price a bit more palatable. They have a nice, full menu and, although there were TVs all around, the décor was not at all like a sports bar and the place was rather quiet.

As for Timmy Nolans, don’t bother. The food was OK but nothing special. The problem for me was that this was a true sports bar. Besides the waitress, we were the only women in there. The one TV that was blasting wasn’t on sports although many others were. It was on HLN and they were talking about women in the military. The men at the bar were having a field day making sexist comments about this and the news changed just before I had had enough which was good because I was ready to engage them in a discussion which would not have been very nice. Naturally, this colored my experience but I am not going back.