For my oldest son's last birthday, my wife and I decided to take the family out for something different, and so we went to a local restaraunt in our area called "The Melting Pot". I had gone there many times with my wife. It is a fondue style restaraunt where you have a complete meal based on the fondue (appetizer, entree, and dessert). Well needless to say, my kids enjoyed themselves immensely, with getting to cook their own food, and enjoy a scrumptious dessert. At the end of the meal, my son asked "Daddy why can't we do fondue at home". I looked at him quizzically and answered "There is no reason we can't, daddy just needs to get a fondue set. With that said, the Trudeau Lazy Susan Fondue set was the one i selected. Was this the proper selection for my family. Read on and you will find out.
Honestly, my opinion on this set kind of goes back and forth. It has some very nice features, and does just an excellent job of cooking anything we have tried in it. It has handled chicken, shrimp, lobster, beef, london broil. it has properly handled any type of cheese as well as all dessert things we have tried in it as well (The chocolate mixed with different items is to die for). For this reason, I do not regret getting this item. It also used the gel based fuel, so its clean burning and has a mechanism that keeps the flame from getting too high and burning someone.
The other great advantage that I found for this set as opposed to some of the others I looked at was the material that the fondue pot and trays were made up of. Most of the ones I looked at were made of the standard metal that you see alot of the home fondue setups made of. This set is made of stoneware, both the fondue pot and the dipping trays, which gives you a more solid and attractive setup. The setup is also completing dishwasher safe, of course with the exception of the metal parts.
The lazy susan aspect is also a great little feature. If you are someone who has done fondue with any kind of regularity you know the problems you have when you have multiple people, with multiple forks, trying to get pieces of meat and such from all different corners of the pot. Well with the lazy susan, all you do is spin it around until you get to the desired tray you want and take your piece. This was an idea that i wish more sets had.
As i mentioned earlier though, this set is not without its issues. To get the set prepared for cooking, you have to take the two metal pieces and attach them together to form the frame. There is no hassle assembling it, but the problem is that even when assembled, the setup appears to be crooked and off centered. You are able to work with it, but as your filling up the trays with the goodies for the fondue, you have to make sure that you balance the portions out correctly or the wobbling becomes that much more pronounced. It has never led to a spill at our table, but it can sometimes cause a bit of worry.
From this stability standpoint, you also need to remember to fill everything you need at the table, instead of trying to do things in the kitchen and carry them in. This is again do to the metal frame which is hard to carry with any sense of ease. Remember the pot has the handle, not the framing.
So in conclusion, this is a set with some cutting edge ideas when it comes to fondue. Both the lazy susan and the stoneware make the experience an easier, and much nicer one. However the metal two piece frame is one thing that definitely needs to go back to the drawing board. So be forewarned if you select this one you will need to do a bit of a balancing act and follow the rules i talked about. If you want to do that, then this very well could be the set for you.
More details
Performance
Excellent performance
Design & Look
OK
Ease of Use
Easy
Cleaning & Maintenance
Very easy to clean and maintain
Value for Money
Excellent value for money
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Add to list 
Recommend it 
Receive review alert 
Write a review 
Publish video review 
Make a comment 
Print it 
This product has not yet been reviewed. 
