Mellow Mushroom Mesa — Restaurant in Mesa

We had a comically bad experience. I wanted to have a birthday party/pre-JurassicPark:7 early dinner.

I thought “Hey, the Mellow Mushroom is next to the AMC movie theater on Stapley, we’ll eat there and then talk over to the movie.” Since we were going to have a large party, I called ahead.

I called on Sunday the week before. “Party of 15, for the party room, for 5:15 PM on Sunday the X ( in 1 week ). “ No problem they said, my manager isn’t around but I’ll write it down and give her a heads up. I said “sounds good, see you then”.

I called on Wednesday to make sure they had it. Nope, they had no clue what I was talking about, but no worries, I re-make the reservation.

I call on Sunday at 2 PM, just to make sure. Nope, they had no clue what I was talking about. Okay, well, maybe they’ll have enough staff, maybe not.

Sunday at 5pm, I’m almost there. Me and my girlfriend split up so I can run an errand and she can get the party going. 5:25 PM, people are there, they didn’t put the reservation in the party room. My girlfriend said “Shouldn’t this be in the party room”, they responded “You can’t have more than 30 people in the party room”. “What are you talking about, it’s a party of 15.”

I get there late, but with 45 minutes to spare before the movie, and people had ordered me a chicken Caesar salad and a diet coke. They had about an hour to get this out the door and didn't manage.

Most of the guests got their food ( four, besides me didn't at all ). I didn’t. I did get charged for it though, but some people got pizza I could have a slice of. Our movie was at 7:15 PM, a few people got their food at 7:15 PM, some didn’t get it at all. The billing was all over the place ( wrong item, wrong person, nobody ordered that, extra items ), and we didn’t have time to figure it out before the movie.

So, the food we did get was good. A few people got their food about 10 minutes before we had to leave. We were there for about 2 hours, so they should have been able to get everything out.

The organization was comically bad. I think if they had it together they would have gotten another server for the party. I don’t think I could have called or cajoled any more than I did – maybe if I went in and watched them write it down and made note of the staffing for that day and made sure it was known to all the people who were going to work on Sunday afternoon on a one-by-one basis. That's not normal though.

Long story short: I think you’ll be fine if it’s just one or two of you, don’t plan...

I was a bit skeptical at first, hoping that the name did not mean there were shrooms in my food options, but I couldn’t let that stop me from trying it out. No side effects whatsoever though so I’m good! They do not use hallucinogenic shrooms in their food😅😋 I was pleasantly impressed with the atmosphere decor and design of this place that’s bigger on the inside than it looks from outside. They spared no expense it seems like! It’s a very modern steampunk meets hippie artsy vibe. I like it! The only thing I couldn’t put a fifth star on for atmosphere is because the floors everywhere were dirty. I would have loved to see someone sweeping or a push broom out on the dining floor. When they clear a table, under the table is forgotten and we go to to our table, I noticed others still have fallen food and straw wrapper trash and napkins on the floor under the tables of others too. The bathrooms did also need attention in cleaning, but the aesthetics are very pleasing and it was still nice. The music is louder in the bathroom, which some may prefer, but there and in the dining area, you may have to speak up to have a conversation. The music matches the vibe of the place, some of it is techno or workout music style, some of it is chill. Just keep in mind you may have to speak louder and that makes others speak louder to hear each other. The bar crowd also gets loud on occasion too, but it’s near the entrance so if you’re able to sit in the far booths that helps. The booths are a comfortable luxurious tall back seat design, if kids are jumping on them in a neighboring booth, you will feel it. I like that they have booth, table, bar and outdoor seating options! They can definitely accommodate large parties and groups! The food is soooo good! 👌🏽😋 The staff is very nice and smiley 😃 and attentive! The pizza did take maybe 20 minutes to be prepared but the appetizer helped in the wait and it was also good! 😌 😋 I would come back to try other menu items! I think it would be rad if they had a multi-slice option pizza since I would want to try a slice of multiple kinds of their pizzas like a sampler but a whole pizza made up of slices of their varieties if that makes sense? Just throwing it out there 😁🍕😋it was so good! 😊 😋Also! I love that they’re open late! ⏰...

So going in, obviously Mellow Mushroom is not going to be the best pizza in town, however it generally is a very good consistent pizza. Having said that, the biggest draw for me to be going here is my girlfriend is allergic to dairy and they have an excellent vegan pizza. This visit the food was not very well made but this review is more on the service.

We arrived before the dinner rush and the restaurant was generously staffed, so much so that we had 6 different servers during our visit. We ordered appetizers and two pizzas. Our food took about 40 minutes to come out and it all came at once, mind you no server came to check on us or give us any updates on the status of our food or refill our drinks during this time. Normally that doesn’t bother me but it was an incredibly long wait to just get it all at once. My cheese pizza was hot and fresh, a little heavy handed on the cheese, the pretzel bites were decently warm, and my girlfriends pizza was room temp and dry, clearly it had been sitting there for a minute. I am a firm believer that someones meal should not get cold waiting on someone else’s, I would not be offended had she gotten her pizza before mine and it should have been brought out hot. For $20 and the special trip to one of the few places offering vegan pizza she definitely deserved a fresh pie. For the sake of time, she ate the pizza and we did not complain or ask for another, again this review is more about the service.

The table next to ours was constantly getting refills of their wine, and the servers were very attentive to them and others. Now all this being said everyone was very kind, they just missed out on all the basics of what is needed to serve the customer. I am not a customer is always right kind of guy, I managed a pizza restaurant for over 8 years, I know for a fact the customer is most often wrong. I just want to be able to enjoy a meal and get the basic service and fresh food I paid $40 for. I do not feel like that is...