If you were to ask me what it’s like to eat at Mellow Mushroom, I’d appropriately reply “Just groovy, man.”
Located on the corner of Mill Ave. and Seventh Street in Tempe, Mellow Mushroom is a ‘gourmet’ pizza place and bar.
Upon entrance, the restaurant appears about 2500 sq feet covered in a vinyl-wood flooring with red-orange painted walls. Along the front entrance are huge wall windows that keep the inside connected to the busy street outside. Graffiti art, skateboards, and pictures of mushrooms adorned the walls everywhere. These aren’t your pizza-topping portobellos, either; these are the kind of mushrooms you’d hide from your parents.
The receptionist greeted us instantly, and seated at a comfortable leather booth seat near the bar. The appropriately psychedelic music played softly in the background, which was hardly heard over the obnoxious laughter of the college students at the bar. On a sunday afternoon, the restaurant was roughly 25% occupied.
We received our menus immediately and given time to browse. The prices were exactly what you’d expect. Most meals ran five to ten bucks, while pizzas ranged from a small $12 one to a large $25 one. The menu was decent, and the place hosted an impressive selection of vegan and vegetarian items.
I appreciated some of the cleverly named pizzas, such as the “Holy Shiitake Pie” and the “Mellowterranean”.
I ordered an appetizer of bruschetta, as it’s typically my favorite. About five minutes later, our waitress brought out a glass platter of six bread slices topped with diced tomato, feta cheese, basil and a balsamic vinaigrette. The presentation was impressive, but my first bite told me it lacked flavor.
Ten minutes later came our entrees, a greek salad, and a small barbecue chicken pizza. The restaurant served the salad untossed, with a wide variety of ingredients, including iceberg lettuce, kalamata olives, portobello mushrooms, feta cheese, and banana peppers, among others. The pizza tasted standard-fare. Both were readily acceptable, but easily forgettable.
The dessert menu limited its options to common cookies and brownies, and the waitress ominously warned against the Key Lime Pie, which “tastes like cheese”.
When the time came around to leave, our waitress offered us our sodas in to-go cups, as opposed to our faded Coca-Cola plastic cups they previously occupied.
In the end, Mellow Mushroom was not worth the trip. You’ll likely find better food for similar prices and more accessible locations at Oregano’s, Rosati’s, or Native New Yorker. Mellow Mushroom may have been mellow, but it lacked the mouth-watering appeal that keeps people coming back.