Furniture, Wood and Cabinetry Finishing - Ironed dining room table

I was ironing, using my dining room table as an ironing board, on top of a kitchen dish towel. The iron was really hot and I didn't realize that the finish (which I thought was polyurethene - highly shiney)got "soft" and the towel stuck to it. When I pulled off the towel the table remained rought and dull from the texture in the towel. No threads from the towel were left on the table just a really rough and dull spot, approx 6" x 3". Any ideas short of refinishing the table top to correct this problem? I was wondering if I could repeat this but use something that would smooth out the surface when it got hot.

From what you said, it seems that the finish on your dining room table was probably a lacquer or perhaps a shellac. I'll bet it was a lacquer and lacqers will get soft as one heats them up as you did. If you could heat it up again to make it reflow, you would make the whole table top reflow and you would really have some problems. I think it may be best to recoat your table with a high gloss lacquer. Lacquers will redissolve when coated with another lacquer so if your are real good with a spray can, you could respray the top of your table with a lacquer aerosol can and hop to have the bad spot reflow and become shiny again. Your best bet is to have it refinished by a professional refinisher.