Mellow Mushroom Aiken — Restaurant in Aiken County

Mellow Mushroom is a specialty pizza chain. Pizzas are better than your standard Domino's, but will also be more expensive and have a wider variety of ingredients.

Outside/decor: Mellow Mushroom in Aiken is located in part of downtown called the Alley. The city has restricted vehicle access and encouraged pedestrians in this part of downtown so you will have to park farther away from the restaurant. Parking is limited to on-street parking in downtown, so at peak hours it can be harder to find. Mellow Mushroom is generally known as more of a stoner decor that is reminiscent of the 60's and 70's and this location is no different. Lots of colors on the walls and various mushroom decor makes for a very funky vibe. Despite being a rather large restaurant, it is quite popular so, there is frequently a wait on the weekends.

Staff: The staff match the decor with most of them having tattoos and piercings. If that will bother you, Mellow Mushroom isn't your pizza place. I've never had an issue with the staff, they are professional and attentive. Never had an issue with my order being wrong either.

Food: I've had various appetizers, pizzas, and hoagies and have never been disappointed. Their specialty pizzas are not like anything you'd get from a chain. They have a variety of protein/vegetable/sauce combinations that are unique and delicious. Both BBQ chicken specialty pizzas are delicious and they have rotating specialty pizzas that are great. A small is generally more than enough for one person, you'll leave a little full, but there isn't quite enough for leftovers. I've had their bruchetta, meatball, and pretzels and appetizers and all are great. Very good things to order to share with the table while waiting on the main course. I've also had the meatball hoagie and thought it was flavorful and filling. Pizzas are made fresh so be prepared for a 30-45 minute wait for the pizza. You can tell the food is fresh out of the oven, as it usually comes to the table hot. On occasion, the ratio of sauce to pizza can be a little off, and the sauce dominates the...

Glorified bar pizza. Crust is good but too many wet ingredients for it to stand up to so it ends up having a soft middle where cheese slides off. It’s as if Subway took the veggies and made a pizza out of it and tastes like it also. Had a brick oven pizza the other day from a small local establishment that far exceeded this and was the same price. Bruschetta was very good and well prepared and served. Our bill was $70 including tax and tip for a small and medium pizza plus a small side salad, $5 app and a coke. Not a good value as you can eat fine dining and much better pizza for that much. We waited a while to pay and it was one of those situations where you walk up to the front to get service. Had to ask them to do the bill over because they didn’t have the discount they advertised at the entrance entered reflected in the bill. The salad also came out after the entrees we ended up taking it home, in a pizza box mind you which was kind of soggy the next day. Then we had to ask for a ramekin top to take the dressing home. I ate the soggy salad anyway the day after. It took a while to check out and get boxes while nice but slow waitress was chatting with other employees. She was young and made the check mistake because she did not pay attention to the discount and had at first told us there was no discount until we had her confirm it with another associate. This caused us to wait unnecessarily because we had to go up to the from and have the manager fix the bill and then get boxes and then get our change. This process was like pulling teeth and annoying. They seem to hire the high school kids who are very nice but very immature and not very good at customer service. Don’t think we will be back because it just wasn’t worth the visit in...

I love the outdoor dining area and the fact that it’s dog friendly but I wish MM could get its act together. It’s just never consistent. Ever. Our appetizers were the meatballs and the bruschetta. Husband said the meatballs were good. The bruschetta was not the same as I’ve had in the past here. The crostini was much smaller and the 2 slivers of basil on the entire plate was a huge disappointment. I will say their feta is amazing. It’s 100% sheep vs a goat and sheep mix but it is creamy and not as sharp as typical feta. It pairs really well in this dish as I didn’t overwhelm it. My husband ordered the Funky Chicken and I ordered The Merry Prankster. We were both disappointed. His was bland and overcooked. Mine wasn’t the pizza I ordered and I thought I had made the mistake until I thought more about it. I only ate one piece. Here’s how the Merry Prankster is described on their menu- The Merry Prankster Take the trip less travelled. Starts with an herb aioli base layered with chicken, Italian sausage, garlic roasted red peppers, green bell peppers, mozzarella, Wisconsin aged white cheddar, and finished with an herb aioli drizzle. One look at my pic shows that’s not what I got. The heavy “drizzle” on mine was some kind of disgusting mayo concoction. There was no herb aioli base, the amount of sausage was laughable and it was seriously lacking in cheese. The pizza- both actually- were extremely dry. I had to ask for a knife as the pizza wasn’t cut through, the crust was tough and chewy and the kitchen cut it dumb. One tiny piece and a huge piece… I just don’t get it. I can’t comment on the service. We had 3 different servers and ran out of tea so there’s that. 2 1/2 ⭐️ would be more...