Mississippi Pizza & Atlantis Lounge — Restaurant in Portland

I chose this place because they had reviews regarding gluten free pizza being safe for those with allergies. They are very aware of gluten allergies and take precautions from seperate ovens to bringing in sealed crusts from Portland gluten free bakery. The only sign visible when we drove by the first time was Mississippi Pub. This is the same building. They have multiple outdoor eating spots (you see a row of wood slats from the road, which is the back of the seating slots) with ambiance, propane fires on the table. I'm not sure how warm they would keep you though. Today was drizzly and chilly, so we ate in the lounge. The pizza was out in less than ten minutes. They do have beer and wine choices behind a chilled glass case as well as four or five choices on tap...one of which is a malty apple cider. Unfortunately all the cider in the case is canned...which makes for a tinny flavor so I just had water. The gluten free pizza had the perfect topping ratio. The carmalized onions were excellent...not soggy at all. The ricotta must be local or in-house. It was fluffy, with a lightly salty, cheese tang a good ricotta has...no sour store-bought bitterness here. The sausage was perfectly balanced and a delicious, light mouth feel with notable, yet not overpowering sage and fennel notes. The basil was fresh and scattered in strips across the top. The sauce was bright red and simple...tomato sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and oil. Each table had dried chili flakes and powdered parm, as most restaurants do. The crust was the only area I would like to see improved. For gluten free, it was good. It wasn't dry, sandy, oily or cracker thin. It was a rolled out, quick bread texture thin crust without being too thin. I am so spoiled by New Cascadia Gluten free Bakery and thier yeasty, stretchy...just like a glutenous hand-tossed crust should be crust. They are the bar and it's a very high bar. If this spot charged even more to let me have New Cascadia as an option, I would very happily pay it. The service was friendly and the two bathrooms are gender nuetral...with an alien saying who cares on the door. The one I used was very clean. The building is dated but has old building character and wall heating units as well as AC. The whole street has a lot of locally owned and run spots with signs letting patrons know LGBTQ+ are welcome and support signs for black lives matter. This place does have live music on a regular basis as well.

Don't throw money at greedy, bloated corps. Give these guys your money and have an excellent pizza pie and great ambiance. Vegan options are here as well. If you feel like desert, check out the vegan, gf ice cream and goodie shop one block west (toward MLK) and across the street. I don't need dairy free but we each had a scoop and it was creamy and delicious! Then slip into Restore back across from Mississippi Pizza and see what inspires you. The whole street is a great day...

The food was really great. I ordered a pizza that came out to me within 10 minutes, I was impressed how fast the food came out. I took two stars away because of a situation we had before ordering. When we got there, there weren't any lines standing outside to get into the restaurant, everyone was standing inside. There were signs all over saying that there were only 6 customers allowed inside. We saw a woman coming out of the restaurant with a finished order so we went in after her but then we saw that there were 7 people in line inside. While we were waiting in the door for one more person to leave an employee came up to us and said, you need to wait outside. We were really confused and trying to figure out what to do. We tried to tell him that we went in after seeing a lady leave. Then that same woman that left after getting her order came back inside behind us to basically cut in front of us to talk to her boyfriend (who was at the front of the line). The employee didn't say anything to her but let her cut us and his excuse was, "We normally have someone directing people out here." But there wasn't anyone there right then. I tried to tell the lady that if she wanted to count herself in as one person with her boyfriend and social distance that way she needs to STAY standing by her boyfriend. The employee told me I was wrong he said Mississippi Pizza doesnt count groups, they count people. I felt like the employee didnt want to listen to me. He must have gone back into the restaurant and told everyone that I yelled at the lady customer that cut in front of us because when I got to the front of the line I heard the employees laughing at me saying things like, "We're social distancing to cut back on Covid and yelling isn't helping." I felt like they were talking about me. I was very embarrassed. It ruined my good mood. I wasn't able to enjoy the food because I felt so bad. I went there with my disabled boss that I caregive for and it ruined her night too. My boss is unable to walk very far and they could see that (she has a brace) but they still didnt let us in as one person, they told us we had to wait for 2 people to leave even though my boss literally physically depends on me to be next to her for things like this. She even told me shes never had this may problems getting food at Mississippi Pizza. She was so stressed that she didn't want to go back inside until the employee said we could. But the employee didnt come back so she waited until all 8 people left the restaurant before going inside. On top of that there were 3 more people that went inside before us to buy pizzas they had called for. They didnt wait in line at all. We were just trying to have a fun evening. I always try to follow all the rules. I know this was an accident but it wasn't handled well which is why I'm not going back.

I feel like part of what makes a good meal is...

My first time at Mississippi pizza was maybe a month ago when with a large 18" pep & saus. Afterward I decided it was the best pizza in the city. Sure it was $30+ for the best pizza in the city, but whatever, you get what you pay for. I decided to go back for round two, and went and got a little technical - same pizza, but specifically asked for the pizza to be "square" cut instead of regular pie cut (i.e. sweet home Chicago style). What they created instead was literally the least functional pizza I have ever gotten, even counting grocery store pizzas that have cracked while frozen but you don't find out until you try to put it in the oven. What they interpreted square cut to mean was just the traditional pie cut with a circle cut into the middle of the pizza. When I picked up the pizza they told me they didn't do it square cut - which I understand - most pizza places forget about the special request because they're in the zone of churning out pizzas, which would have been fine. However, when I got home, I realized they just created an abomination and called it pizza. Puzzled, I decided to give them a call. The guy was nice enough when I called, stating that they cut it into "tiny pieces" for me, to which I was flabbergasted. I, nor google, has apparently heard of pizza being cut into tiny pieces, or little or baby pieces for that matter. In any case, I felt (and still feel) like this was some kind of cosmic shade being thrown at me. Maybe they have a weird sense of humor and just secretly deplore square cut pizza - who knows! When I further questioned the frame of mind of how my request was misinterpreted, he stated that while he'd heard me say square cut, some people make the "tiny pieces" request, and that's what he believed I was asking for. He did offer several times to remake it, to which I said no, because I'd already driven 30 minutes back and forth to get the pizza and wasn't about to do it again (which brings the review from 2 stars up to 3). But seriously, if someone pays $30+ for a pizza, and this is the end product, this feels like some question-the-people-you-love type BS. I don't want to have to not go here, but I like to think I have self-respect - shouldn't I not? [Photo includes a bona fide square cut pizza for educational...