I was visiting Charlotte a few weekends ago and Mario took me out to Zink American Kitchen downtown. Food, not bad. Service, lacking. We went in and were quickly seated in the main dining room. Oddly, you only get a drink menu when you sit down and no food menu, so we couldn’t even see what they had to offer in the 15 minutes we were sitting there without even a glance from a waiter. A group of 5 was seated next to us not long after we arrived, and were brought water and menus within 5 minutes. After that, we decided it was time for us to leave.

I guess at the same time we decided our wait was unacceptable, the manager did too, because he caught us about halfway to the door, apologized profusely, and offered us a free appetizer for being ignored. Apparently the person normally assigned to our table was helping with a large party in another room and none of the other waiters in the area noticed. Mmhmm. Whatever, we were hungry. I ordered us the Streetside Tacos (beef shortribs, mango, red onion slaw, chipotle crema) as our on-the-house app:

Streetside Tacos

We had a birthday celebration at our Midtown Melting Pot this weekend. I’ve been wanting to try this place out for a while, but it’s definitely not your casual dining spot. The Melting Pot offers a couple of different dining options, and we opted for a full four-course meal (with coupon for free dessert).  To start, a cheddar cheese fondue served with bread cubes and vegetables:

Cheddar Cheese Fondue

The fondue was made with Aged, medium-sharp Cheddar and Emmenthaler Swiss cheeses, lager beer, garlic and seasonings.  Pretty tasty, as plain fondues go.  Made me want to try making my own.  Next was a salad, but it was a fairly generic Caesar, so we’ll skip over that.  For our entree, we chose the “Pacific Rim” entree for two: Teriyaki-marinated sirloin, white shrimp, marinated pork tenderloin, breast of duck, breast of chicken and potstickers.  At The Melting Pot, this all comes out raw and you cook at your table using the cooking style of your choice.  We chose Mojo (Caribbean-seasoned bouillon with distinctive flavors of fresh garlic with a citrus flair).

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