I was excited to try Mellow Mushroom last night after hearing my friends recommend it - I'm a pizza fanatic. Overall, I had a good experience and will go back.
Atmosphere: This place was more casual that I expected, and you walk in to a trippy, psychedelic / 60s music theme, as you can see from my photos. I found the restaurant to be very clean, which I appreciate. And you can watch them making pizzas behind the counter.
Service: Our server was very perky and pleasant. While she started out fairly attentive, I started wondering where she was while we waited for drink refills and eventually our bill as the night went on. It was pretty empty there and the pizza took about half an hour - although she did warn us about the typical pizza wait when we sat down. This isn't unusual for handmade specialty pizzas, just don't go if you're ravenous and can't tolerate a wait. And that wait will easily double if there's a crowd. I think competitor Dewey's is faster.
Menu and pricing: The menu selection has a good variety of tasty-sounding appetizers, salads, pizzas, calzones and hoagies. We had trouble deciding what to order! And while I've seen some review complaints on pricing, it was in line with what I'd expect from a handmade specialty pizza restaurant. Id say prices were pretty on par when compared again with Dewey's, until you get to the large pizza size, which was a bit higher. The beer was priced reasonably at about $5, and they had a good seasonal selection available.
Food quality: My salad was just OK - I'll forgo next time, I didn't enjoy the handmade ranch. Dewey's wins out there. As for pizza, we got a large split into two flavors - the Funky Q. Chicken (BBQ chicken, bacon, caramelized onions, mozzarella & cheddar, and red sauce) and the Thai Dye (curry chicken, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, olive oil and garlic, mozzarella and Thai chili sauce). The crust was absolutely the best part - I found it to be fantastically delicious, thick, and both crunchy and fluffy, better than Dewey's. The pizzas had plenty of toppings, they weren't stingy - lots of cheese, and big meat chunks!
The BBQ chicken pizza was just ok though - too much soggy onion piled into it for my tastes, and the bacon was chewy and just meh. Ditto the BBQ sauce. I very much prefer Dewey's version.
However I really enjoyed the Thai Curry pizza, it had a great, traditional curry flavor and was very saucy. I would eat again!
I'd like to go back to try a couple more menu options, like the Mighty Meaty, calzones and pretzel appetizer. And it's worth mentioning that the friend I was with said their Holy Shitake Pie is the best pizza he's ever had (we didn't order bc I don't like mushrooms).
Overall, a good place to pop into when you want to spend more for a specialty pizza and have time to spend waiting with good company!