Mellow Mushroom Durbin Park — Restaurant in Florida

Okay so listen, first and foremost i do NOT blame our waitress, she was over sat and clearly stressed out. However Our experience at this mellow mushroom was by far one of the worst experiences eating out i’ve had in a really long time. We arrived around 5:45 and was told it would be about a 5 minute wait, we were sat around 10 minutes later. Our drink orders were put in and arrived relatively quickly. From there in just goes downhill; Our waitress starts disappearing, about 15 minutes go by before she comes back and we’re able to place an appetizer order, which again comes out reasonably quickly & was amazing. We wait almost 30 more minutes before she comes back and we’re able to place our entree orders. This is around 6:30 at this point, and we’re all hungry and excited for our pizzas. We do not see our waitress again, until 7:15 ish when the food FINALLY comes out. We were not compensated, offered any accommodation or anything for waiting almost a full hour for the food, which was three pizzas, and a calzone. Two of us in the party ended up having to wait in the car because the restaurant was way too loud with the loud live music and noise level in general. The live music was advertised to start at 9pm yet started at 6pm… As soon as our food came to the table we asked for boxes as it was 7:25 and we had a 7:30 movie to catch next door. Which we almost missed because of this. Now keep in mind the food was COLD, after waiting almost a full hour for it to come out?! We even missed part of the beginning of the movie due to all of this. But the whole experience just sucked. At one point someone in our party had to ask the hostess who was seating tables to find our waitress for us because we hadn’t seen her in so long. I had tried multiple times to flag down a different waitress who completely ignored me even when we made eye contact and it was clear i was calling her over. Don’t let this 4.1 rating fool you look on yelp and see the MASSIVE amount of other people who have experienced something similar at this restaurant. (Also the drinks are stupidly overpriced)

The only positive things i have to say was the gluten free pizza crust was very good as well as the...

Mellow Mushroom is one of my family’s staple restaurants to visit. Service is almost always spot on… except this visit.

Upon being seated, our waiter took his time coming to the table. That seemed okay in the beginning, because I, myself, was indecisive about what I wanted to drink. It had been a good while since I had had a specific beer and I couldn’t remember the name of it. Once the waiter came to the table, he too, didn’t know the name. He NEVER admitted it, but I think he was new to Mellow Mushroom 🍄 and was VERY timid/shy and soft-spoken . He did offer to go to the bar and ask about the beer I was looking for since he didn’t know what it could’ve possibly been.

I was looking for a light beer and what he brought back had ZERO alcohol… I guess that’s a light as it gets. 😆 at least he tried! But, his speed never got any quicker. I’m not positive how many tables he was serving while my family was there, but I do know we were his only for at least 30 mins of his shift after he clocked in.

The appetizer was delivered to the table just before the food was. Not sure if this was a kitchen thing or an unknowing waiter thing. It tasted perfect, so at least there’s that.

When the pizzas and calzones were delivered — they were extremely hot! We had two toddlers at the table and there was no warning given about the temp of the food! I feel like this is a necessity given the fact that hangry kids (okay adults, too) want to rip right into their food upon arrival.

The food was plentiful and delicious but seems to be increasing in price! One meatball hoagie was $15.99! Each drink was $2.99 for an 8oz glass —which is ALMOST ALWAYS nothing but ice! And… there was a surprise surcharge on the receipt… while it’s only 37 cents… I don’t think the public has ever been made aware of it. It is called a PUBINF Fee (and is in addition to the sales tax.)

Wasn’t a horrible experience and definitely not the best…. But we’ll...

We were driving through on the way to the airport and figured we would pick up a couple pizzas on the way. We ordered 2 pizzas for roughly $55/60. When we arrived to pick them up we realized we had about 15 minutes and thought it would be much easier to eat them at Mellow Mushroom, considering we have a 14 month old baby. When we arrived I told the host stand (there were 3 people just standing there) that we would like a table and they told us we were not allowed to eat to-go pizza at the restaurant because of the servers. I let them know we would tip the server well and they still declined to allow us to sit and directed us to the bar. They also declined providing us with a high chair. We went to the bar to sit down and the bartender said no babies re allowed at the bar and directed us to a high-top table. My husband and baby waited at the high top table while I walked over to pick up the pizza at the counter. While waiting in line, I watched the bartender walk over to the server for our high top table to let her know we were sitting there, the server quickly responded "NO THEY ARE NOT!" in a very rude and upset tone. Feeling like we were not welcome at the business, despite spending our money there, I told my husband to "go outside as they clearly do not want us here". We went outside and put our baby on the ground to eat a few pieces of pizza before running off to the airport. On the way to the airport I found some mulch in my baby's mouth, lol. I just still can not understand this type of service for a paying customer. We also tip well, so unfortunately that server missed out on an extra $20 simply for letting us sit down with a high chair...