Looking for Melting Pot vegetarian options? You have more to work with than a fondue restaurant might suggest. The cheese fondue course is built for vegetarians, the Garden Pot entrée is meat-free by design, and the chocolate fondue is the easy part. The Melting Pot even runs a full vegan menu at most locations. This guide covers what to order, what to skip, and the one cooking question that matters most. We’re the site that asks what about the vegetarians, so we read the menu closely.
A Quick Look at The Melting Pot
Mark and Mike Johnston opened the first Melting Pot in Maitland, Florida, in April 1975. The original spot had only three items on the menu. The brothers bought the full rights to the brand in 1984 and grew it into a franchise. Today the chain runs about 95 restaurants across the United States, with 15 of them in Florida. Front Burner Brands, based in Tampa, owns the company. The format is the same everywhere: a four-course fondue dinner you cook at your own table, starting with cheese and ending with chocolate. That structure helps if you don’t eat meat, because two of the four courses are naturally vegetarian.
Melting Pot Vegetarian Options: What to Order
Here’s the short version. Start with a cheese fondue, since most are vegetarian. Add a salad or two. Order the Garden Pot for your entrée course, then finish with chocolate fondue. The one thing to get right is the entrée cooking style, because you cook your food in a shared pot. Ask for the Court Bouillon vegetable broth and your own pot so nothing meat-based touches your vegetables. The table below lays out the common menu items for vegetarians and vegans.
| Menu Item | Vegetarian | Vegan |
|---|---|---|
| Wisconsin Cheddar fondue (cheddar, Emmenthaler, lager, garlic) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Fiesta cheese fondue (cheddar, lager, salsa, jalapeño) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Hatch Green Chili Cheddar fondue | ⚠️ Check (Worcestershire, usually anchovy) | ❌ No |
| Quattro Formaggio fondue | ✅ Yes* | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Classic Alpine fondue (Gruyère, Raclette, Fontina) | ✅ Yes* | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Spinach Artichoke fondue | ✅ Yes* | ❌ No (dairy) |
| Vegan cheese fondue (vegan menu) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| House Salad | ✅ Yes | ❌ No (cheese, egg) |
| California Salad | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (omit gorgonzola) |
| Caesar Salad | ⚠️ Check (dressing usually has anchovy) | ❌ No |
| Bacon & Bleu Spinach Salad | ❌ No (bacon) | ❌ No |
| The Garden Pot entrée | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (some items) |
| Court Bouillon cooking broth (vegetable) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
| Chocolate fondue (milk, dark, or white) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Check (vegan version on vegan menu) |
These Melting Pot vegetarian options span all four courses, so you can eat a full fondue dinner without ordering around the meat. The trick is treating it as a sequence: a vegetarian cheese blend, a meat-free salad, the Garden Pot in vegetable broth, then chocolate. Each course below breaks down what works and what to watch for.
Cheese Fondue
Cheese fondue is the strongest part of the menu for vegetarians. It’s the first course, and most of the cheese blends are meat-free. The Wisconsin Cheddar (aged cheddar, Emmenthaler, Sam Adams lager, and garlic) and the Fiesta (cheddar, lager, housemade salsa, and jalapeño) are both safe vegetarian picks. The Quattro Formaggio, Classic Alpine, and Spinach Artichoke blends are vegetarian too, with one caveat on cheese rennet covered below.
Skip the Hatch Green Chili Cheddar unless you check first. It’s made with Worcestershire sauce, which usually contains anchovy. The vegan menu has its own dairy-free cheese fondue if you want to avoid dairy entirely.
The dippers for the cheese course are vegetarian on their own. You get artisan breads, crisp apples, and a variety of seasonal vegetables for dipping. That makes the first course one of the most filling parts of the meal if you don’t eat meat. Two people can share a small cheese fondue and a couple of salads and already have a real dinner before the entrée pot arrives.
Salads
Salads are the second course, and three of the four work for vegetarians. The California salad (mixed greens, candied pecans, gorgonzola, tomatoes, and raspberry walnut vinaigrette) and the House salad (romaine, iceberg, cheddar, tomatoes, croutons, and egg) are both vegetarian. The Caesar looks safe, but the dressing usually has anchovy, so ask before you order it. Skip the Bacon and Bleu Spinach salad, since it comes with bacon. Most of these go vegan if you leave off the cheese and egg, but check the dressing first.
Entrée Fondue: Cook Your Own
The entrée course is where you cook your own food in a pot at the table, and it’s where vegetarians need to pay attention. Order The Garden Pot. It’s the meat-free entrée, and it’s served with veggie potstickers, Vegan Polpettes, wild mushroom sacchetti, artichoke hearts, asparagus, zucchini, red onion, and mini sweet peppers. You can also build a Create Your Own plate and pick only the vegetarian items.
Now the part that matters most. You cook everything in a shared pot of hot broth or oil. If someone at your table cooks meat or seafood in that same pot, your vegetables are no longer vegetarian. Ask for the Court Bouillon, a seasoned vegetable broth, and request your own pot. The Coq au Vin broth (burgundy wine, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic) is also meat-free despite the name. The Bourguignonne style is plain canola oil, which is fine on its own, but it’s often shared. When in doubt, get a dedicated pot.
Chocolate Fondue
Chocolate fondue is the fourth course and the easiest one. Every chocolate fondue at the Melting Pot is vegetarian. The Original is milk chocolate with peanut butter. The Flaming Turtle adds caramel and candied pecans. The S’mores swirls in marshmallow crème and graham cracker, and the Yin and Yang blends dark and white chocolate. You dip fresh fruit like strawberries and bananas, plus marshmallows, brownies, pound cake, and Rice Krispies treats.
None of the standard chocolate fondues are vegan, because they’re made with dairy chocolate. The marshmallow dippers can contain gelatin, so skip those if you avoid it. The vegan menu has a dairy-free chocolate fondue made with dark chocolate if you want the course without animal products.
What’s Vegan at The Melting Pot?
Yes, the Melting Pot runs a full vegan menu, and it’s more complete than most diners expect. It’s a four-course vegan experience with a dairy-free cheese fondue, a salad, a vegan Garden Pot entrée, and a dairy-free chocolate fondue. Some locations price it as a set for two.
Not every restaurant promotes the vegan menu on the table, so ask your server for it by name. Confirm the vegan cheese fondue and vegan chocolate are available that day, since a few items vary by location. Pair the vegan entrée with the Court Bouillon vegetable broth and your own pot to keep it fully plant-based.
Special Dietary Requirements and Allergies
A few things are worth knowing before you go.
- Cheese rennet. Some aged cheeses, like Parmesan, Fontina, and Gruyère, are traditionally made with animal rennet. That affects the Quattro Formaggio, Classic Alpine, and Spinach Artichoke fondues. If you avoid animal rennet, the cheddar-based blends are a safer bet, or ask the kitchen.
- Worcestershire and anchovy. The Hatch Green Chili Cheddar fondue lists Worcestershire, and Caesar dressing usually contains anchovy. Both are easy to miss on a menu that reads as vegetarian.
- Shared cooking pots. This is the big one. The entrée course cooks in a communal pot of broth or oil. Cross-contact with meat and seafood is the main risk for vegetarians, so request a dedicated pot.
- Gluten. The Melting Pot marks several fondues and cooking styles gluten-free, but the cheese fondues use beer or are thickened, so confirm with your server if you’re gluten-sensitive.
- Gelatin. Marshmallow dippers in the chocolate course can contain gelatin.
Tips for Vegetarians at The Melting Pot
- Ask for your own pot and the Court Bouillon vegetable broth for the entrée course. This is the single most important step.
- Start with a cheddar-based cheese fondue if you want to avoid animal-rennet questions.
- Order the Garden Pot, or build a Create Your Own plate with the veggie potstickers, Vegan Polpettes, and your choice of veggies.
- Ask for the vegan menu by name if you want dairy-free cheese and chocolate fondue.
- Skip the Hatch Green Chili Cheddar fondue and the Caesar salad unless the kitchen confirms they’re meat-free.
- Check the marshmallow dippers for gelatin before the chocolate course.
Conclusion
The Melting Pot is a better night out for vegetarians than the meat-heavy menu suggests. Two of the four courses are naturally meat-free, the Garden Pot handles the entrée, and the vegan menu fills in the rest. Get your own pot with the vegetable broth and you’re set. For more on eating out without meat, see our guide to eating vegetarian and vegan at restaurants and browse all our restaurant guides. If you like the sit-down route, check what’s vegetarian at Olive Garden, The Cheesecake Factory, and Cooper’s Hawk.
