Mellow Mushroom

Great service! The wait for us wasn’t great, but the waiter explained that there are new kitchen staff, and compensated our meal for it! We got the house special, which was a great balance between heavy and light with the bacon and other meats vs the pepper and onions. Definitely going again, a Columbia must eat!

This is some of the best pizza in Cola but incredibly maddening for ordering. I’ve had at least 3 times in the past 2 months where I’ve tried to call in for 15 minutes straight and couldn’t get through. They aren’t THAT busy and I was using automatic repeat dialing. When I asked them, they’re response was that their phone was wonky. Really?! De-​wonky your phone. They’re good but not worth that type of aggro!

Important note: KY/​SC basketball game just let out… Huge line, but we were seated in less than 20 minutes. Great job by the staff. Friendly and attentive waitress despite the massive amount of impatient people. Our pizza was a bit burnt, the waitress put it on the table with the words «this is just for you to snack on while they cook a new one for you». We were fine with what we got. It wasn’t too bad but the thought was good.

5 stars for offering vegan and gluten free options. 2 stars for consistently under cooking pizzas– each time I get a veggie pizza the vegetables are still raw when they come out. 1 star for trying to pass off a cream-​based salad dressing as «balsamic vinegarette.» 4 stars for offering take out. 2 stars for having to pay $ 5 to park in he adjacent lot on a Friday night because you probably won’t be lucky enough to get a spot in the restaurant’s lot or on the street. 5 stars for excellent hummus. 1 star for not offering it with veggies instead of pita. So I guess that averages to 3 stars. Sounds about right.

I love Pizza. It is most likely one of my favorite foods every day of the week. This mellow mushroom is just like any other good service, friendly people, and great pizza. I would recommend getting the maui wowie. The only thing I dont like is that it can get packed all the time, and it always seems like we have to wait even with just two people. Happy Eating!

I love mellow mushroom, but this is not my favorite location. Meal consisted of muffuletta cheese bread, half a turkey hoagie, and one of their new burgers with the carne. sweet tea, water, & tip brings it to $ 30.
Our waiter was sweet, she was perfectly fine.
The muffuletta bread was okay. Olives were a little heavy this time.
The hoagie had very bitter white onions on it. One bite and I had to take off the rest because it was too potent to eat raw. I’m tasting onions for hours now. Subway makes a better sandwich.
The burger was nothing special. $ 9.99 for any regular burger that you’re better off buying from the grocery store and grilling yourself. Toppings were average.

We had the portabella mushroom pizza and the Thai Dye. Both were delicious. Great crust. Pretzels were also delish. My son ordered the stuffed portabella. He was disappointed because he didn’t realize it was basically a salad. Waiter was nice but never refilled our drinks.

Awesome atmosphere with all kinds of trippy stuff on the walls! Their mighty meat pizza is probably the best in town, and they have a pretty good beer list that will quench your thirst! Always good service and great food.

There’s a lot of hype surrounding Mellow… I was super excited to try the place out a few years ago (way before I knew Unilocal existed) and was neither disappointed or overly pleased with the pizza — hearth or brick oven pizzas weren’t popular here in Columbia at the time… Mellow offers a WIDE array of toppings «unusual» (tofu/​tempeh) which is appealing to many searching for an alternative to the standard delivery pizza joints.
I can say that I was a fan of the Jerk Chicken Hoagie (had it over 5 yrs ago) — buuuuuut this week’s visit and the Tempeh Hoagie… ehhhhh.
I called in my order:
Medium (which is HUGE btw) Holy Shiitake
Medium House Special
Medium Cheese add Pepperoni, Tomato, and Sausage
Small Holy Shiitake (hold the garnish)
Small Cheese Half Pepperoni
Whole Tempeh Hoagie (with a side of chips — offered by the chick that took my order)
$ 106 (before tip)
The staff were VERY polite when we entered (cooks even bid us farewell upon our exit)… Bartender forgot the chips (chips that I didn’t even know about, but were offered).
Parking is kind of annoying on the weekends (there are 3 or 4 FREE designated spots at the back of the building) — you’ll either have to do «Valet» for $ 5 or find an open meter.
Overall the experience is always pleasant staff wise… I just personally never CRAVE the pizza.

First time here… wasn’t great, but wasnt too bad. Rather pricey… Ordered the Philosopher’s Pizza and was brought the Mellowterranian. Very different but still rather good. Food took quite awhile and was worth the wait… quite possibly an off day.
Would and will go again, just not for lunch hour. You need to allot about an hour. Service was decent at best. Looking forward to trying the one in Lexington.

The #1 reason to eat here is there pretzels. You MUST order the beer cheese with it. I crave these things weekly! The pizza options are unique and there is something for everyone.

One of my favorite pizza places in cola! The Thai pizza is my favorite. I always get that when I come here. I love how they decorated the place too.

Been to three MMs in Florence, Myrtle Beach and now in Columbia. Funny thing there is always something at each location that what would make a great dining experience somewhat discouraging. First Florence had warm beer, gross right! Second MB put deli turkey meat on the pizza expecting us to not notice it was supposed to be chicken. The Columbia, and this is my fault, I asked for the pizza to be cooked extra and it came out burned on the bottom. Now I think there should be a difference between a little extra and super crispy, but hey who am I to argue with pizza masters! Anyway I would still be willing to go back because the ingredients seems very high quality. Service was excellent and I never ran out of water.

I’ve held off on trying out Mellow Mushroom for the last year and am happy I finally gave it a shot! The pizzas are awesome and I also tried the Cali burger from their new burger menu. the burger was also delicious as were the roasted potatoes that came with it. The atmosphere is great, light, fun, the Vista location has two cool bars, and the staff are very friendly and helpful.

I have not been to a Mellow Mushroom in many years. They have such a cool variety of pizzas, salads and drinks.
Nice atmosphere and there is a very shiny gamecock upstairs for photo ops. There is one in the parking lot too, big enough to ride
Our waiter was great, although the kitchen had speed issues.

Mellow Mushroom is the best pizza in the vista. They have great pizza, sandwiches, and beer. Located in the heart of the vista this place is never disappointing. Service is good, and the food is great. It takes time to make their great food, so don’t go if you are in a hurry, just sit back mellow out and have a good beer while you wait. My favorites are actually sandwiches. I love the jerk chicken, and you can’t get better tempeh in Columbia. A half is never enough, but the whole sandwich is too large… At least you have a snack for later. Never been to a location I didn’t like. Two thumbs up!

Not a place for a pizza snob. This is a chain restaurant and that’s sort of what you get. The pizza isn’t of outstanding quality — we are in the south — but they do have a bunch of creative compilations which are nice.
The beer selection is really good and the atmosphere is nicer than your average pizza joint and people like it enough for it to be busy during most of their hours though I’ve never seen or had to wait in a long line.

Make sure to sit upstairs if you don’t want hear thunder like sounds when people move their chairs upstairs up above. Also make sure you park on the street or in Mellow Mushroom parking only because you will be towed. The pizza here is great, one of my favorites currently is the red skin pizza topped w sour cream and spicy ranch. It has bacon and thinly sliced red potatoes with caramelized onions that pair well together on the pie. Wait time can vary but most of the time it takes quite awhile to prepare, so don’t be in a hurry.

To be fair I was really hungry so anything tastes good !
Atmosphere I sat at the upstairs bar … It was ok. Small tv’s beers on the left side are colder baby he left side (per the bartender)8
Pizza I ordered was «house pesto». It was delicious ! Spinach roma tomatoes and hand made crust. Bottom line: I would order this again.

It’s the crust. I don’t know how they do it, but that crust is unbelievably good and the rest of my review won’t live up to it.
Last time I was there I ordered the «Maui Wowi» (or something like that), and man oh man was it delicious. It had so many ingredients but somehow they worked in perfect harmony. Let’s see, it had: bacon, chicken, ham, banana peppers, pesto sauce, pineapple, peppers… and I can’t remember the rest. Suffice to say it was very delicious indeed.
Their beers are a little pricey. Decent selection. I like that they advertise different beer combinations. I know you can combine beer at other restaurants, but I would never remember until I see it right there on the menu.
We went on a Friday night, so we did have to wait a little bit. The good news is that the pizza is so filling, you really only need one or maybe two slices and then you’ve got some to take home for lunch tomorrow.
It’s a cool place for the university students, but it’s worth checking out for anyone. It’s that crust.