Mellow Mushroom Hickory — Restaurant in Hickory

I'm writing this after reflection of a couple of days, trying to be objective, and not one of those red faces ranters who you can imaging the spittle flying at the slightest thing!

I was, however disappointed at the food and general service during our visit on Saturday the 21st July around 12 noon.

My wife, my daughter, and our four grandkids had completed the tour of the "Jurassic Quest" attraction at the Hickory Convention Center, and I am sure parents and grandparents alike will already be able to envision our relief to arrive at the restaurant with four hungry and tired kids (aged 9, 4, 3, and 1 year old) in tow, looking forward to getting off our feet and into some good pizza!

The first sign that this was not going to be a happy experience was when our greeter really seemed perturbed when we asked to sit at one of the combination tables the restaurant has, where one side has booth seating and the other side has chairs, an ideal set up for kids who wriggle!

Gracie was our waitress, and she was the one redeeming feature of the visit. She took our drinks and appetizer order quickly, was welcoming, and bright and smiling. No complaints about Gracie at all!

We ordered our two starters, a cheesy bread with marinara, and a spinach dip with bread. They, and the drinks, arrived promptly, and were promptly devoured by our hungry mob.

Again this could just be my personal taste, but I found the seasonings on the cheesy bread to be a little "oregano heavy". I have never actually done it, but if I ever feel like sticking my tongue into the oregano jar and licking up a good portion I am now pretty certain I know what it would taste like.

We had already ordered our main food - one cheese pizza, one meat pizza with olives on one side, and a steak & mushroom calzone. We sat and waited with anticipation.

...and we waited

The restaurant wasn't full, though a few people came in after us, and as you do when you wait for long enough you notice the people around you at other tables a little more than usual. Funny thing, we started to notice a lot of the people around us, who came in after us, had indeed begun the "nose down" process of digging in to their food. Bellies were not the only thing grumbling around our table.

We asked Gracie when our food was due out (this was about 30 minutes after our appetizers were a distant memory), and she signalled it would be about 3 minutes.

And we waited...

After about 15 minutes more we decided to pay for what we had eaten, and move along to somewhere else. The gentleman taking my card took one look in my eyes (which by now was clearly readable as a man who had four kids, one wife, and a daughter all hungry and tired sitting with him at the table) and probably quite wisely decided to mumble an apology and not make eye contact with the 'savage beast'!

And as my card was processing... lo and behold the food arrived at the table behind me!

I was about to inform the gentleman that we were not going to accept them. I was going to stand firm and insist that it was too late, and did he know how long I had to wait and how would he like to be on the receiving end, but I noticed that my family had already devoured half the pizzas, and if I did not get back there quick i would be left with the crumbs and fighting my one year old for the pizza crusts that the others had tossed to the side.

Actually, on hindsight, missing the pizza would not have been the worst thing, because after all that wait, the food was terrible!

The toppings on the meat one weren't too bad, but the pizza base was overcooked to the point of being like shoe leather, with a burnt bottom too! I didn't eat the cheese pizza, but from what I could see it looked similar, and the kids were having a hard time chewing. The calzone dough seemed to be ok, but it held tough steak and over-caramelized mushrooms that left it inedible.

We got boxes to go for the items we didn't/couldn't eat. The last damning piece of the puzzle was our dogs wouldn't touch those leftovers when we got home either. Says it...

Years ago, the mellow mushroom in Hickory was good.

It’s now 2025 the food is still good but the store is always short staffed and the employees act dazed and confused like they don’t wanna be there.

My order has been wrong more than it’s been right over the years, never the same employees or managers. It’s like a revolving door of employees.

Mellow mushroom is supposed to specialize in vegan pizzas but if you call to order a vegan pizza, they don’t get it right or even understand what vegan is but don’t care enough to enquire what vegan means . They’ll just take they order for a 30$ pizza , say “yes I understand what vegan is” and then make it not vegan . then they will call the Customer liar when you arrive to pick up the order.

After many years of visiting the Hickory mellow mushroom I will never go back there again after my last experience. Rude and Incompetent.

This evening, my husband ordered a pizza. A vegan pizza and the girl on the phone answered “yes, I know what vegan is . We will make it that way “ At least three times while my husband was ordering. My husband said she didn’t sound like she knew what vegan was but she wasn’t interested in listening so he just hope she had it right. Of course, when I arrive to pick up my $30 pizza 30 minutes later , The pizza isn’t vegan And when I inquire about why it’s not vegan the little girl told me “ Who placed this order? It was a man who called in and he never said vegan.”

So basically, they called my husband a liar to my face after I heard him specifically place the order for a vegan pizza. These employees simply do not want to take responsibility for any kind of mistakes. This is at least the fourth time they have messed up my pizza over the last few years. And I really show no concern about doing it other than blaming others . Mainly because they don’t know what vegan is or they’re not even listening to me order the pizza vegan. I’m not sure that they’re even being trained.

the manager turned around and literally told the whole kitchen “y’all did it right” With me standing right there and then the kitchen staff stared at me the whole time while they remade the pizza . It got so uncomfortable I went outside to sit in the car. I think they’re looking for a confrontation and I wasn’t gonna bite.

Fortunately for me, I just kept my mouth shut because I knew what I ordered . I’ve ordered the same exact thing for 15 years From every mellow mushroom between hickory and Boone. The order was simple. It was one pizza.

They clearly got a simple call in order wrong , Even after I went over the order five times with the girl Specifically on the phone saying vegan at least five times (I wanted to be thorough and detailed when I ordered stating vegan 390 times because this happens frequently at mellow mushroom)

It’s no surprise either I suppose I’ve probably eaten there 20 times over the last five years and a good number of those times my order was wrong, but I never was called a liar in store , on the phone and in front of everybody else like I was today in the store .

The manager needs more patience , understanding professionalism and whoever Is taking orders should be trained what “vegan” means .

Every time I order (always order vegan) at the mellow mushroom in Hickory It’s always a different person who took the order and they usually don’t even know what a vegan is but , We never find that out until after we get our order and it’s wrong.

Employees should be trained better especially on important positions like the order taker

It’s not a good business model constantly very unprofessional in so many directions and they not gonna take responsibility. They’ll make the customer out to be stupid or something.

I think they have outlawed smiling in there Everyone looks so miserable either way that’ll be the last time I spend a dime in that place . I would rather drive 30 miles and go to a good...

Dear Leslie Knapp, CEO of Mellow Mushroom

Respectfully I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to express my profound disappointment regarding my recent visit to Mellow Mushroom Pizza in Hickory. As a first-time patron, I was eager to experience your establishment, but unfortunately, my experience fell far short of expectations.

Upon arrival, my party and I were greeted with a lengthy wait time, significantly surpassing the initially quoted 15-20 minutes. Nearly 40 minutes later, from the time we walked in to put our names on the wait list we had seen 5 or 6 dirty tables, 2 employees were having a full on conversation while all the tables remained dirty as more tables were adding to the work load.the uncleanness of the establishment created an atmosphere that bordered on unsanitary. We were finally seated, only to encounter a myriad of issues throughout the entirety of our meal.

To begin, the appetizers we ordered, specifically the pretzel bites, were not only subpar in taste, resembling mere bread balls, but they arrived at our table cold. Additionally, the soup we ordered suffered the same fate, adding to the overall disappointment of our dining experience.

Regrettably, our server's attentiveness was lacking, the only time she checked on us was to 1. take our order, 2. Deliver our drinks, 3. Deliver our appetizer and lastly 4. Deliver our pizzas other then that she disappearedlike who denie and was no where to be found multiple times and when we did find her she was at the bar having a conversation with tbe bar tender, then she disappeared again until it was time to pay that bill. Lmao the bill came faster then the food itself, that will never make sense to me. This coupled with the excruciatingly slow service, resulted in an unacceptably prolonged dining experience, lasting over two hours for a party of just four individuals.

Furthermore, As a result I found it difficult to enjoy my meal amidst such unsavory conditions.

Ultimately, I left Mellow Mushroom Hickory feeling utterly dissatisfied, both with the quality of the food and the level of service provided. For an expenditure totaling $91, I expected a dining experience far superior to what was delivered. I held you restaurant to a high standard but the experience made my family and I feel very disappointed. My wife's frustration is through the rough, she expressed to me that she just wants to cry because we felt like we lost out on $91 for the type of experience provided and I just wish I could fix it, we would love it if we could get our money back to be quite honest. We're not interested in a gift card at all.

Receipt information

3/16/2024 Order Number 10053 Online Confirmation #5YE2 Table 02

Paid- $96.15

I had intended to provide feedback through the dine-in experience survey; however, I encountered difficulty as the receipt number requested was not provided in my email receipt.

I sincerely hope that you will address these concerns promptly to ensure that future patrons do not endure a similar ordeal. As a fan of your brand, I believe in the potential for improvement and look forward to seeing positive changes implemented.

I Thank you for your attention and understanding to this matter. I thought I would bring this to your attention so that your atleast...