Mellow Mushroom Florence — Restaurant in Florence

We have been here a few times and have had a descent experience. The food has always been good. There was one occasion where service was quite slow but the food more than made up for it. NOT YESTERDAY, though. What a HORRIBLE experience. We had family in town with 2 little kids so we thought this would be a good place to take them. We went on a Saturday arriving around 6 p.m. They were not too crowded initially and we were seated right away. We started by ordering a couple of appetizers; meatballs and pretzel bites. The meatballs came out right away but were cold and the pretzel bites took 25 extra minutes. The server came by every so often and stated the pretzel bites should be "just a few minutes", which in Mellow Mushroom talk equals 25. Eventually the pretzels showed up and we placed our dinner order; 2 personal pizzas, a calzone, a steak sandwich and an avocado hoagie. And we waited.....and waited....and waited, all while 2 little kids started to get antsy as little kids would after awhile. But don't fret. Our server came by a couple of times to let us know "it would be just a few more minutes" ...... in Mellow Mushroom time. After 40 minutes of waiting, we asked for a manager. She came by and explained to us that it was their typical "hectic Saturday" and she would check on our food. Instantly she returned with the calzone and 2 personal pizzas (ironic considering we waited so long but they magically appeared after complaining)....oh and the bill which she took $10 off of for our troubles. She said she would be back with the rest of the dinners. As we stared at the congealed cheese on the pizza and calzone, we thought "well this doesn't look fresh from the oven". The calzone was cold and luckily 2 hungry kids don't care about pizza temperature or congealed cheese. When the Manager returned with the other meals, we handed her the cold calzone and the bill and said we weren't going to eat the calzone. She indicated that she would remove the calzone from the bill.....like she did us a favor. WE DIDN'T EAT IT.....you CAN'T charge someone for food they don't eat. That's not a favor. She offered to make another calzone but we didn't have an hour to spend waiting for it so one person at the table went without eating dinner. We also let her know that $10 does not compensate for 2 cold pizzas and an hour and a half spent waiting for food (appetizers and meals). We told her to do what she felt was the right thing to do with the bill. After eating, the server returned and let us know that the manager removed $15 from the bill. In our opinion, this is UNACCEPTABLE. That barely covered one sandwich. What a terrible experience. Horrible service, a barely attentive server, and a non-apologetic, excuse driven, smug Manager. Not sure if we will return. P.S. If the Manager had a better attitude and a little more concern for our ruined family dinner, I wouldn't even be writing this. In my opinion, it's the Manager's responsibility to ensure a great guest experience. She was more appalled that we weren't happy with the long wait and...

So this place brings a whole new meaning to Mellow. Tonight we decided to celebrate so we went to Mellow. We ordered our apps, one of which was the new Cloud 9 wings. We’d eaten them a week ago and they were delicious. Tonight they came out and weren’t sauced and were overcooked. We sent them back and they came back the same way. We ended up eating them anyway but they weren’t nearly as good.

The other apps were ok but the next issue was with the bar. My wife ordered a beer and after about 10 minutes we were still waiting, so I walked in to ask about it. While I was standing over on one side I saw one of the bartenders stop three times to serve someone at the bar. Each item was unprompted by the patron. Meanwhile our order was sitting on the computer unfilled. I spoke to a second bartender who informed me that the reason they are behind is because of people like me stopping them. Really dude? I saw you hanging around outside several times during the evening NOT working. Do your job man.

Lastly we ordered the Luigi pizza. It’s supposed to be a white sauce pizza with pepperoni, salami, pepper rings, carmelized onions, and fresh basil. We also asked that it be thin with an extra crispy crust. What we got was a soggy mess with no onions or basil. Really? I shouldn’t be surprised because this isn’t the first time this restaurant ran out of ingredients and served stuff anyway, tonight though we were done with it.

Lastly the manager didn’t give an S about any of it and given the choice of redoing the pizza or comp the meal he chose the latter. Guess he didn’t want to keep the kitchen open past 9 to do one pizza. So we ended up with a free meal and bad memories. About par for the course for this place.

So. The owner reaches out to me. Call him he says, but the number he gives is the main number at the restaurant and when I ask for him I’m told he rarely comes into the store. Dude. You want me to talk to you or what?

PS: the restaurant had no clean silverware and gave us plastic ware to eat with. Didn’t get any plates or napkins either. Last night the place was a mess. Who...

Horrible experience, and horrendous staff. I wish I could give negative stars. I used to go here as a kid on road trips, and drove 47 miles off route to get there today for nostalgia and a good pizza. Instead there was no one to order from at the front desk or bar, not a single kitchen employee looked up, and I was forced to go order online in my car. I walked in again promptly when the food was supposed to be ready, and instead was greeted coldly by the hostess, and met with hostility and anger after being ignored while the female brunette employee started and finished a personal conversation with her male kitchen staff. I was physically standing in front of her, and she did not stop her conversation until I made eye contact with her coworker, and he physically had to remind her to help me. When she did turn around, she was nothing but hostile and rude- and to top it off, my food “wasn’t ready yet.” Well my pizza was cold and tasted like it was spoiled, so I don’t know how it “wasn’t ready” when I arrived. To top it off, I even said thank you to this horrible employee and she turned her back on me without a word. I worked in food service for over years, there is no excuse for this treatment. Me and my 7 family members, as well as their own families, will never be returning- and you have absolutely ruined a childhood tradition I was hoping to bring back to my own family road trips. NEVER AGAIN. $20 absolutely wasted on 6 slices of disgusting pizza and a horrific customer experience. Just go to Dominos and save yourself the trouble- Mellow Mushroom employees obviously do not the want your business or money, and it’s not...