Mellow Mushroom

Date
5/27/09

Location
On the Corner near JPA
1321 West Main Street

What I ate
Pretzels; pizza with chicken, onions, and green peppers

What I drank
Bell's Oberon

Who came
Nora, Tiff, Matt, Suzie, Cameron, Xander, Miles, Eliza, Kat, Dan, Kasia, Sarah

Website
Charlottesville's place
Yes, it's a chain

Thoughts
Just a disclaimer - we went for dinner but the plan all along was to stay for trivia. Trivia is a lot of fun and you should definitely go, even if you are just going to order a pitcher of beer and participate. That said, I'll try to stick to reviewing the food part since that's the purpose here.

I was just discussing with another friend tonight how good the food is here. It's nothing outlandish, just good, flavorful pizza. The pretzels are really just knots of dough, but they're quite tasty. The specialty pizzas can be needlessly complicated, but you can create your own, so it's not really a problem. You'll have to wait for someone to comment to get a word on the sandwiches and salads as I've only ever gotten pizza.

That brings us to the biggest gripe - and it's not just mine - with Mellow: the service. I understand that the place was full, especially because people were starting to file in for trivia later. I also understand trying to seat a group of 10 (plus some) isn't the easiest thing, either. One of our pizza orders was misheard (white and Hawaiian don't sound that similar) and our waitress wasn't clear on whether or not we were going to be charged for that pizza. The service isn't nearly so bad that you should avoid going there, but you might want to budget in a little more time if you have somewhere to be after eating.

Recap
Pros - Really good food, lots of options for pizza and beer
Cons - Bad service
Overall - It's still the place to go for pizza on the Corner if you want to sit down and eat. The food is good, but don't expect great service.