Anderson's by Mimi — Restaurant in Columbia

Food is great. Service is great until they get busy. There was 12 of us that made the trip from Somerset and Monticello. Most of us had been there previously but around 2 years ago. The karaoke DJ ran karaoke poorly so we hadn't returned until last night (2 years later). Same DJ ruining karaoke just as poorly as before, we truly hoped he had learned and changed the way he ran it. As a side note, 4 of us have hosted karaoke ourselves and one of us is a DJ by profession, complete with DJs that work for him. I say that to hopefully show that we weren't just customers that were being difficult. I won't go into a lot of detail on the failings of service but the main reason we were there, karaoke, and to have a fun time as we are all friends that karaoke together. Ricardo was the karaoke host now as well as 2 years ago. Ricardo had a full house of singers and for the most part singing songs that kept the crowd going very well. But he still felt the need to waste far too much time on the mic himself. In fact in the first round, he sang first and he sang at least 2 more songs before the first rotation ended. It was like he wanted it to be the "Ricardo Show". But it didn't stop there, he had multiple people singing multiple times before the first rotation ended and all of them appeared to be regulars there. Ricardo did tell one of us in the group that that's just the way they do it. Wow. With 2 colleges nearby it appears they probably have no trouble packing the place for karaoke so maybe they simply don't mind basically running off a few people.But while most of us left earlier than we would have liked, those that remained saw many more disgruntled customers leave as well.

Again, the food was great and it appears the owner, Mimi, truly wants to provide a pleasurable experience for patrons. It can get hectic when it's that busy. I'm sure she is working on that part her business. I hope I'm being fair with this review. Anderson's by Mimi might be the only place in town doing karaoke and live bands, I honestly don't know. I like the place but I fear for them that someone may come into Columbia and do things better and leave them in the dust. Best of luck Mimi and...

BEWARE- Fri 9/2/22 8:50pm looking to get a bite to eat and most places listed online close at 9pm. Anderson's Pizza website indicates open till 11pm so we drive over. Lot's of cars there but open sign turned off. Walk up to the door of the restaurant and says Fri hours open till 11pm. Go inside and waitress while polite apologizes the kitchen just closed. I said "I don't understand, your hours on the door & online say open till 11pm". She replies "That's the bar, not restaurant" (Bar in separate but connected part of building) I asked in discouraged tone, "Well do you sell any bar food?" She goes to speak with very tall young man & returns apologetically replying "No". So we leave. Here's a pizza dive that won't advertise truthfully and after seeing other reviews online the last few months, doesn't seem to care about bad customer service or addressing existing problems. So if you are looking for slow to bad service & bad food, you have found them both here. Otherwise, go anywhere...

Anderson's was great! I went around three o'clock, between lunch and dinner, so they weren't very busy and it didn't take much time at all to get my food.

I ordered a build-your-own 12" pizza with chicken, bacon, Alfredo sauce, and I requested they also put parsley on it which made it taste fantastic.

I got the regular crust this time, but in the past I've gotten the stuffed crust, which I thought was horrible. I would definitely suggest you avoid it unless you like crust more than you like the toppings.

My waitress was very kind and attentive, and there was another waitress off the clock who also offered to help her when she got busy, so they were both very nice.

I didn't order any appetizers, but that's because they seemed a little expensive? I usually don't want to pay more for an appetizer than for a pizza, but maybe the portion sizes are large or something to justify the cost.

Note: I went back and today around 5:30 and ordered a cinnamon apple cheesecake....