I don't even know where to begin with our experience at The Melting Pot because it was an absolute disaster from start to finish. Before arriving, we called the restaurant because we were running late, which was completely our fault, and asked if there was any way to push our reservation back, but the employee who answered, Joseph, told us they were "completely booked" for the night and "no longer taking any walk ins" and could not change the reservation, which was clearly untrue because when we arrived there were only two other tables in the entire restaurant for the nearly three hours that we were there. After being seated, it took over 15 minutes for a waitress to even come to our table to greet us and ask for drinks, and we then found out they were not serving alcohol because they no longer have a liquor license, which is something that should have been disclosed when making the reservation or at the very least posted somewhere on their reservation site.Once the waitress finally came back about 20 minutes later to take our food order and then returned another 10 to 15 minutes after that to turn our burner on, she gave us a warning that the table we were sitting at had a known issue where the burner either gets too hot or not hot enough, which made no sense as to why we were seated there in the first place considering how empty the restaurant was. After waiting nearly 40 minutes total, she came back to start preparing our cheese only to tell us that they did not have all the ingredients to make the cheese we originally ordered, which meant she had to remove the pot that had already started cooking and we were forced to choose a different option that we did not even like. Shortly after that, we were informed that they were also out of lobster, which my husband had ordered and was one of the main reasons he chose to go there, and again this was not communicated until after we had already placed our order. At this point, we had been there almost an hour without any real food, so I had to ask for our salads, and when they finally came out my husband's salad was completely unacceptable because the lettuce was brown and clearly not fresh, and when I pointed it out to the waitress she simply said she was sorry and walked away without offering to replace it. When the vegetables for the cheese arrived, none of the peppers had been deseeded, leaving seeds all over the plate, and the bread that was served alongside it was stale, making most of it inedible. When the meat course came out, things only got worse because the burner issue we had been warned about made it nearly impossible to cook anything properly, forcing us to leave the meat in for almost triple the recommended time, and even then it was either undercooked or came out overcooked, tough, and rubbery, and our waitress was nowhere to be found during this time, so we had to flag down another server to help us fix a problem that should never have existed in the first place.When it came time for dessert, they were once again out of the option we originally wanted, and the chocolate they brought out was barely enough to even cover the bottom of the pot, which was extremely disappointing considering that was the one part of the meal we were actually looking forward to. I ordered a slice of cheesecake because I was still hungry after everything, and what I received was a completely frozen, rock-hard piece that was impossible to eat without it falling apart if it was placed in the chocolate. Despite all of this, a 20% gratuity was automatically added to our bill for just two people, which is something I have never seen in my 16 years of working in the restaurant industry, especially considering the level of service we received, and after paying nearly $180 for this experience, we left still hungry and had to stop at a drive-thru on the way home just to eat. After getting home, I could not let the situation go, so I sent an email that night and received no response, which led me to call back on Tuesday, where Joseph once again answered the phone and placed me on hold for nearly 20 minutes just to speak with a manager, forcing me to hang up and call back before finally being connected with a manager. I do want to point out that Joseph was the same individual who originally told us the restaurant was completely booked, and when I did speak with the manager, Tristan, she was pleasant (during this conversation) and listened to everything I had to say and offered us a complimentary return visit to make up for everything that had happened, which brings me to our second attempt tonight to give this place another chance. Two hours before our reservation, we received a text message stating that they were once again out of multiple items, including potatoes needed for the cheese we like, sirloin, lobster, white chocolate, croutons, and several other items, which immediately raised concerns considering everything we had already experienced, so I called the restaurant to ask read more