Mellow Mushroom — Restaurant in West Chester Township

Updated review: July 5th 2025

My wife and I traveled 35 minutes to eat at Mellow Mushroom south of Dayton after a full weekend of BBQ and our annual 4th of July family reunion. So let this review stand as a continuation of prior experiences — a tree of reviews, if you will, for this same establishment.

Our waitress initially seemed attentive as I worked through the menu trying to build a plant-based pizza. My wife ordered a small pepperoni. Her pizza came out fine — but mine? They left off one ingredient and ignored the fact that I’d paid for double of another. What came out wasn’t what I ordered.

Here’s the truth about this Mellow Mushroom: they consistently screw up pizza orders. And when it comes to building your own pie with extra toppings, the staff rarely pays close enough attention to detail. I took one bite and could immediately tell something was missing — basil. Normally basil sits on top, but I’ve seen them hide it under the cheese or just forget it altogether. This time, it was flat out missing. On top of that, the pizza lacked several of the ingredients I requested — and the “double” tempeh? Not even close.

In Atlanta, where Mellow Mushroom was born, the tempeh gets crumbled and spread evenly. Not here. This place throws on oversized chunks that make the whole pie uneven — some slices get none at all. But since very few pizza joints offer plant-based cheese, I usually put up with it.

So I flagged down another waitress and asked for the manager. He came over, I explained the issue, and his response was to not charge me for the missing ingredient. That’s it. I brought up the lack of double tempeh, and this man got LOUD — I mean ignorantly loud — claiming it was “under the cheese.” That was a straight-up lie. Their tempeh is chunky, and it was clearly missing — not hidden. And let’s be real: Follow Your Heart cheese doesn’t have the same fat as dairy cheese, so yeah, it looks thinner even when doubled. But that wasn’t the issue.

Me and my wife tried to keep it respectful, but this dude just kept running his mouth in circles. I told him flat out, don’t worry about it — I’ll leave a review. Then suddenly he changed his tune: “I’ll fix it,” he said (paraphrasing). His “fix”? Again, just removing a few toppings from the bill. I looked at my wife. Shook my head. Told him again — don’t worry about the bill. I’m leaving a review.

This man damn near had a panic attack right there in the dining room — loud as hell, drawing attention from other tables: “We don’t want a bad review! I’ll take it off the bill!” Understand this: it’s not about the money. It’s about sloppy food prep, a kitchen that doesn’t check its work, and a waitress who didn’t catch the mistakes before it got to my table.

What did I expect? Simple. Take the pizza, remake it correctly. That’s it. But that was never offered. My guess? This loud, overbearing manager didn’t want to eat the food cost. It was cheaper for him to just comp a couple ingredients than to do the right thing. I even told him not to adjust the bill. Still, he kept yapping, so I just started ignoring him until he walked away.

To be clear: this is the worst Mellow Mushroom I’ve experienced — and I’ve eaten at many. From multiple locations in Atlanta, to Gatlinburg, to several across Ohio. This one? Bottom of the list.

— End of this updated review. —

I am utterly disappointed with the current state of this restaurant, as it seems to have deteriorated drastically since my last visit. Although they may attribute their shortcomings to the aftermath of Covid, I refuse to accept that as a valid excuse. The staff members are clearly present and employed, yet their lack of care is evident.

I witnessed a gentleman encountering difficulties with the staff, and while the bartender attempted to address his concerns, the manager was preoccupied with other matters. Despite receiving water at my table, I made the decision to refrain from placing an order, as I simply did not want to subject myself to a potential...

I called and inquired about the possibility of making a vegan tie dye pizza. It is an old menu item of theirs, but I have been able to order it previously as they have the ingredients to make it still. They confirmed they could make it, so I ordered two vegan tie dye pizzas via phone. My mother ordered her own pizza online. They confirmed my order over the phone. When we arrived, they flashed the pizzas at us. In the past, the vegan tie dye pizza had curried tofu chunks on it, so I assumed it was fine as once again I told them I was there to pick up the vegan tie dye pizzas.

Turns out it had chicken on it because I ate a piece before heading home and had an allergic reaction. I had my mom test her chicken she got on her pizza against what was on mine, and she confirmed it was chicken. Note that this was a vegan tie dye pizza. I called to complain and they offered me a gift card for one free pizza. They messed up two large tie dye pizzas and offered to take accountability for one. All this after causing me bodily harm and admitting they take vegan to mean someone has a dairy allergy. They still put the chicken on as it comes with chicken on the non-vegan option. Once again, these are vegan tie dye pizzas. Not only that, but there was a bone in the chicken on my mom's pizza that my elderly father almost choked on while home alone. He called us to tell us that after we left to go return the pizzas, as I could not eat them with chicken on them. Or after chicken touched them because of my allergy.

We arrive, and I am in a lot of pain in my stomach, so I refuse the remade pizzas as I no longer trust their handling of food. I had to explain how the vegan tie dye pizza is setup over the phone when I made my complaint to the lady as she asked how it should be. It should be vegan aka no meat. It was crazy to me that a restaurant that claims they can accommodate vegan diets doesn't understand the word vegan. In the end after driving 40 minutes both ways, twice for these pizzas, they give us a refund on all pizzas, but here's the kicker. The initial large tie dye pizzas they gave me were mediums. The boxes the remade pizzas were in were much larger. So they not only gave us non-vegan pizzas, left a bone in their chicken, but also gave us the wrong size pizzas initially.

If you have an allergy, avoid this franchise because they do not adhere to safe food standards. It was such a giant waste, and I won't be supporting Mellow Mushroom anymore. The way this was handled was so disappointing. We shouldn't have had to drive back to get a refund on something like this. They could have killed someone with a more severe allergy or even me if I had eaten more than the two pieces of chicken that were on the one slice I had. I would rate them zero...

My wife and I are picky when it comes to pizza so when an opportunity comes to try a new place (to us) we go forward with a bit of caution. But, if we have a coupon, ALL BETS ARE OFF!! Tonight’s venture took us to the Mellow Mushroom in West Chester.

After eating this evening, our only thoughts were, “Why did we wait this long?” Yes, it’s a little bit of a drive. Yes, there’s many good pizza places between our home and this establishment. We could have went to many others and been plenty satisfied. But…THE COUPON!!

We enjoyed a wonderful experience this evening. The atmosphere was casual, with cool decorations and the soundtrack of the 60’s and 70’s playing throughout the place. Our server Jarred matched the theme with a very laid back comfortable style that made us feel like we were long-time friends. We ordered a pizza with a meatball appetizer.

Mellow Mushroom advertises themselves as “pizza bakers” and they more than lived up to that moniker. With a wonderful crust that had characteristics of both a crispy pizza crust and a warm soft bread, we thoroughly enjoyed our pepperoni, green pepper, and garlic pie. The toppings were plentiful, but not so much to weight down the slice and their sauce had a hint of sweetness we loved. It could possibly be our favorite pizza place in the area.

Now, next time we go there, we won’t have our coupon…and you know what…that’s okay!! If you want some great pizza in a great atmosphere, you owe it to yourself to come here and give Mellow Mushroom a...