Mellow Mushroom Winston-Salem — Restaurant in Winston-Salem

My partner has type 1.5 (adult onset type 1) diabetes as well as lactose intolerant and follows a strict vegan diet to help manage his blood sugar. He ordered the tempeh hoagie and requested that it be vegan, which they advertise as something they’re able do. When it arrived, we questioned the cheese as we noticed something was off. His dad got a cheesesteak hoagie, and I got a vegan avocado hoagie. The cheese on my partner’s was exactly like his dad’s and nothing like mine. We were very respectful and asked the waitress if she could check and see if they had made my partner’s hoagie with vegan cheese—just to be safe. She obliged happily, and came back saying the cook reassured her that it was vegan. We were still hesitant, but my partner decided to try it anyway. Then, my partner noticed there was Mayo on his hoagie after he’d already taken a couple big bites. That gave both of us pause. I checked online to see if Mellow Mushroom normally supplies vegan mayonnaise, and most sources said no. So I decided to walk up to the counter and politely ask if they had any vegan mayonnaise. The lady at the counter was very kind. She said, “No, unfortunately we don’t.” At this point I feel my blood boiling but it wasn’t this lady’s fault nor the waitress’s. So I calmly said, “Okay, look, I really am not trying to be a Karen, but my partner is diabetic and follows a strict vegan diet. He ordered the tempeh hoagie, vegan, and they put mayonnaise on it. First, we were suspicious about the cheese. But we let that slide. Then we noticed it had mayonnaise. This is going to mess him up for the next day or two regarding his insulin.” The lady said she would talk to the manager, and the manager would talk to us. The manager did in fact talk to us, but all she did was ask if we were okay, very loudly so everyone else in the restaurant could hear her present our problem and hear what was happening, and my partner does not like to make a scene so all he could do was nod. I reaffirmed this was a medical issue for him, and she said she would talk to the kitchen staff and make sure they knew that mayonnaise was not vegan. Then that was it. She walked away. On one hand, I’m glad that hopefully others who eat vegan at Mellow Mushroom have a better chance at not experiencing what my partner did, but he also should not have to be spending not only extra time in the restroom but also injecting 2x more insulin than he normally would. They did not reimburse my partner or offer a coupon or anything. So he had to pay for a meal that he didn’t even order and also suffer health consequences as a result. If you’re ordering vegan at this restaurant, please be safe and check everything over on your plate to ensure it is, in fact, vegan. I don’t like causing a scene, but at this point I wish I had if it meant getting a point across. Or, just steer clear because the kitchen staff and manager obviously don’t know what they’re doing nor take people’s...

Really a 0. I used to love coming to this location. However, on 2/4/2023, around 8:00pm. I received the worst service that I have ever had in my life. Our server, came to take our order and never returned. Prior to her taking our order, I let her know that I had a to-go order that I would like to place and she instructed me to wait until my meal was completed to order it. I ordered pizza and wings with half buffalo and half garlic parmesan extra crispy. I received the soggy buffalo wings with plain wings as well. I had to ask the lady who brought the food for the correct wings. She sent over the manager and he asked me to remove the buffalo wings and veggies and he took back the plain wings and assured that the wings would be right out-- they weren't. I then received my pizza and completed my meal around 8:45pm, still no wings. No worries, I can just cancel them. The manager proceeds to remove the wings from my tab but promises that I will still get them I paid my bill and waited for the wings. Impatiently waiting, a new server then brings me someone else's bill along with their debit card. I try and try to get help and no one comes to the table. I then had to get up and walk around the restaurant to ask people their names so that I could find the owner of the card so that I could leave. I find the owner and grab the manager and "Knox" and let them know what happened and the severity of the situation. I let them know that the woman should not have to pay her bill at all and that she should cancel her card because there is no telling who else had possession of her card that evening. The manager said that he would not comp anything and that it was just a simple mistake. I made him aware that there had been mistakes the entire not and I left him with the card owner to discuss the issue further. He then comes to my table (69/1) and asks for my name and number and says that he will let Cindy handle it since I continued to complain. I have tried multiple times today, 2/5/2023 to follow up with Cindy and I have yet to have a response. Any one could have taken the lady's card info and used it illegally. Also, If I or anyone else had mistakenly left with her card, she would have been there looking all over for it, knowing that she had given it to her server. I am sure they would have then blamed her and accused her of trying to get a free meal. This is completely unacceptable and there needs to be consequences due to the way the manager handled it and his lack of empathy. He kept telling me there was just 5 more minutes left for my wings and tried to make it as if he did me a favor by removing the wings from my bill when I never even received them after waiting an extra 30 minutes. I will not be returning and I advise you all to choose a different location if you really want this food. Also, ask to watch them take your payment or pay in cash. You don't want...

I really dislike leaving negative reviews, especially around the holidays, but I've been trying to get past this and finding my receipt today just reignited the absolutely terrible service we experienced last weekend 12/23/23.

We walked in approximately 2pm, or a few minutes before. We were greeted and promptly sat in the front room by the windows/doors with 2 other tables of guests (1 wrapping up their meal and 1 waiting on their food). More than 5 minutes past before the server, Kursten, even approached us. She took our drink and 1 large pizza order at the same time, brought our drinks and then nothing.... Another family came in and the father had to get up to go locate a server (same one) to come take their order. A few minutes later, a single person was sat behind us.

As we sat there watching the pizza maker only throw one pie in the air, we thought it was ours... boy, we're we wrong. The last lady to come in got her pie and was finishing it up. All this time, approximately 8 staff members were standing by the end of the bar chatting. 1 member of our party got up to go find someone to order another beer, the other 2 of us never got a refill. The gentleman he spoke to said our pizza would be out in 6 minutes. Nearly 5 minutes later, the server came back with his beer and the same "6 minutes" story. When questioned, she blamed the pizza maker, the oven, and then proceeded to tell us there were 2 more orders ahead of us.... umm, excuse me? "We've been here an hour, we've got to get back to work and appointments" we told her.

About 10-15 minutes later, she comes back "it's been 40 minutes" (like that makes it better). We requested to cancel the order and she says "it's coming out of the oven now but there's still 2 in front of you" MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE PLEASE.

We were charged for a drink and 2 beers, 1 of which we had to go ask for ourselves and 1 we never got a refill on in the hour we sat there with no updates.

We ended up walking to Dominos, placed our order and vented about what had just happened at Mellow, walked to Footnote and grabbed a coffee, straight back to Domino's and our pizza had been ready and was piping hot.

Had they just been honest and told us they forgot to put the order in, forgot to make it, or whatever the real reason was, we would've been more understanding, but literally every interaction was a different excuse. Our favorite was "the pizza slid off the shelf in the oven and will be lopsided" Mind you, we could see all the tickets hanging on the prep line, there was never more than 2 hanging there at a time, in that entire hour plus from...