As a family we like to use our fondue set - the three of us togther most weekends dipping our bits into chocolate is a real treat. Occasionally we get the little lad off to bed and just me and my other half do it, but more often than not he remembers it's a friday and 'Fondue Night'.

We bought this dirt cheap from Amazon a few years ago now and it cost us around £6 I believe. It is basic, but to be honest that's all you want for dipping and melting yoru chocolate fancies. This fondue set is not like the more expensive ones you can get which are operated by a fancy gel cartridge - this one is operated the old fashioned way - ie by a little candle (or tealight to be precise).

The packaging is very basic but comes with a full set of instructions and safety advice on usage. The stand and the pot are both in white and are both ceramic. It comes with its own little tealight and four individual forks for pronging your nibbly bits and at the end of each fork is a different colour - so you don't get them mixed up, I presume, and use someone else's!! We each have our own colours which we stick to every week for some reason, and the yellow one never gets used!!

You have to melt the chocolate beforehand as the little tealight is not powerful enough to actually melt the chocolate, although once you have melted it and poured it into the little pot, you place the tealight underneath and this manages to keep the chocolate warm enough so that it does not go solid again. We dip in all sorts, inlcuding fruit, marshmallows etc and it keeps us entertained for ages while we watch a DVD. It can be very messy though, so be warned.

It has proven to be very durable and of a high quality, considering how cheap it actually was to buy and it is very easy to clean afterwards and is dishwasher safe.

A great little gadget that we all recommend. ..

This review is also published on Ciao under name of sorehead.