Ate at Mellow Mushroom

Had an interesting experience at MM on Friday after work. Went with a large group, got there early otherwise we would have walked into a MOB. The place was a zoo from 6:00 until I left. They were doing a decent job service wise considering the slam.

Really like the feel of the place. Casual. Friendly. Good food.

The interesting part is that they quickly ran out of their domestic mass market bottled "beer". First one, then another was dropping (sorry, we're out of Miller Lite. Sorry, we're out of Bud Light) as a few at our table insisted on drinking that even when presented with a huge selection of better alternatives. I was glad they were out but sad that obviously many of my fellow east enders were making that choice. Way to live up to the stereotype guys and gals.

Fortunately, I got a couple of them to try something at least a little more interesting and next thing you know they were ordering that.

My fear is they will give in to the masses and begin offering nasty beer on tap. My hope if that the servers will continue to become more educated on a way to offer alternatives to someone who orders a Bud Light or Miller Light and maybe expand their horizons. Or else just lets those people head back over to Wick's because even without them there was no shortage of business.

Loooooooooong wait on food. When we finally got around to ordering we were told they were running 45 minutes on pizzas, and I heard them telling people as they were coming it "We're 30 on tables and 45 on pizzas". Wow. At least they were up front about it.

I liked the food. I loved the beer selection. I'll definitely go back.

Amy, certainly enjoyed your comments and have to agree about the owners! They stopped by to talk to us when we were in and they certainly have a devotion to the business. It seems like they're doing everything right and continue to do so. Hopefully the owners in St Matthews will have the same devotion.

We stopped at the Middletown location last week had a pretty horrible experience. I realize it was opening week and I was very forgiving because of this. But our server took our drinks and app orders and then didn't show back up at our table for about 30-45 minutes. Someone ran one of our apps out in about 5 minutes, but the other, an order of wings, took about 30 and came out cold. When our server finally did return she took our menus without even realized that we hadn't ordered our pizzas yet and I actually had to tell her that she never brought our drinks. Pretty inexcusable even for opening week. She only had like 3 tables.

The worst part was in the 2 hours we were there we never saw a manager. Someone should have definitely been stopping by tables to see how things are going or apologize for opening week jitters. No excuse there.

I will definitely return and give them another chance. We thought the pretzels with beer cheese were really good and the wings might have been pretty good if they were delivered on time. My pizza (pepperoni) was mediocre IMO, but my wife seemed to really enjoy here specialty pizza with spinach and mushrooms. I like the atmosphere personally and great beer selection. Would be a great place to catch a game and location is great for Middletowners. But they better work out the kinks pretty quickly.

Stopped in to the St Matts location today (opening day). Once again the pizza was great, albeit it won't replace Coals on my hit parade (both pies are great but it's an apples and oranges kinda thing). The jerk wings were awesome, albeit (still) a little on the scrawny side. The wait for food was not unreasonable and while I can't speak for the table service, the service at the bar was top notch. As I suspected the room/s have a comfortable-funky feel to them and the atmosphere was <ehhhhh.....how should I say this> a little more vibrant than the other location. The beer list is -top- notch...and as I said in my little mini-review of the Middletown location...if you can't find a beer to like here, your cause is likely hopeless. Great place, we'll be back.

Thanks for posting Amy B and welcome to the forum. I hope you continue to read and post, it never hurts to remind the public what it's like to serve the public and how WE can be be more appreciative of you, your co-horts , and your labors.

Thank you for the welcome. Serving can be frustrating especially when I have to comfort a server that came crying to me last week because a guest called her an idiot to her face and to the manager and it's frustrating when another server tonight got a "you suck" written on the line where the tip goes. Sad thing is, there are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes that guests don't see that the server cannot control. The only thing we can do is apologize, get a manager, move on and don't let it get to us. I still love serving regardless of how mean or rude people are.

The interesting part is that they quickly ran out of their domestic mass market bottled "beer". First one, then another was dropping (sorry, we're out of Miller Lite. Sorry, we're out of Bud Light) as a few at our table insisted on drinking that even when presented with a huge selection of better alternatives. I was glad they were out but sad that obviously many of my fellow east enders were making that choice. Way to live up to the stereotype guys and gals.

Fortunately, I got a couple of them to try something at least a little more interesting and next thing you know they were ordering that.

My fear is they will give in to the masses and begin offering nasty beer on tap. My hope if that the servers will continue to become more educated on a way to offer alternatives to someone who orders a Bud Light or Miller Light and maybe expand their horizons. Or else just lets those people head back over to Wick's because even without them there was no shortage of business.

Miller Lite was a popular choice with patrons last week and I remember it running out. We shouldn't be running out of beer. Actually we shouldn't be running out of anything. I am guessing before we opened, we expected that we weren't going to be this busy but it's actually quite the opposite. Trial and error, hopefully it won't happen again. I can see how your friends would have chose a common beer. I would have to if I stepped into a place that had a huge selection of beers and instead of dishing out money for a beer I might not like, it's just easier to choose one that I know for a fact that I do like. I have heard other servers that worked in other restaurants say that our beers are a few dollars cheaper than other places. I believe we offer samples. I will have to double check on that. Thank you for the suggestion of offering alternatives in case if this happens again. Looks like I have some homework to do as far as beer goes. lol

We stopped at the Middletown location last week had a pretty horrible experience. I realize it was opening week and I was very forgiving because of this. But our server took our drinks and app orders and then didn't show back up at our table for about 30-45 minutes. Someone ran one of our apps out in about 5 minutes, but the other, an order of wings, took about 30 and came out cold. When our server finally did return she took our menus without even realized that we hadn't ordered our pizzas yet and I actually had to tell her that she never brought our drinks. Pretty inexcusable even for opening week. She only had like 3 tables.

The worst part was in the 2 hours we were there we never saw a manager. Someone should have definitely been stopping by tables to see how things are going or apologize for opening week jitters. No excuse there.

I do apologize for your experience. I unfortunatly have made the mistake of forgetting to get drinks for a table before and I can see why it would have upset you waiting that long for drinks. I'd be upset to waiting on food with nothing to sip on. I try to get drinks out before I do anything else however there have been times where I have gotten side tracked dealing with another issue and then turn around realizing I had forgotten something. Unless it's something being ordered from the bar, I head straight to the drink station to get drinks first. 3 tables isn't that hard to manage, servers just need a system of taking care of those tables - something I had to learn when I started serving a few months ago. The manager's name is Jeremy. I'm pretty sure he was there because I worked every night last week and he was there. Tonight was the first night that I haven't seen him. He's the very tall skinny guy, can't miss him. It might take him a few minutes to get to a table when he's requested due to dealing with 50 other issues at the same time. Again, I apologize for your experience and I hope that you are willing to give us another try.

I'm getting the feeling about Amy that I used to have about Marsha...

The owners aren't paying them enough!

Good job Amy. Way to go above and beyond!

I do apologize for your experience. I unfortunatly have made the mistake of forgetting to get drinks for a table before and I can see why it would have upset you waiting that long for drinks. I'd be upset to waiting on food with nothing to sip on. I try to get drinks out before I do anything else however there have been times where I have gotten side tracked dealing with another issue and then turn around realizing I had forgotten something. Unless it's something being ordered from the bar, I head straight to the drink station to get drinks first. 3 tables isn't that hard to manage, servers just need a system of taking care of those tables - something I had to learn when I started serving a few months ago. The manager's name is Jeremy. I'm pretty sure he was there because I worked every night last week and he was there. Tonight was the first night that I haven't seen him. He's the very tall skinny guy, can't miss him. It might take him a few minutes to get to a table when he's requested due to dealing with 50 other issues at the same time. Again, I apologize for your experience and I hope that you are willing to give us another try.

This is a polite response and I do appreciate it. But I waited tables for about 7-8 years in college. I know the drill. Of course everyone has forgotten things at some point. But 30-40 minutes for drinks...waters... is inexcusable. I think one of our server's tables were being really rude to her due to the poor service and she probably got extremely flustered. I actually felt bad for her and still left a 20% tip. But my god man if you are that far in the weeds ask someone for help.

And like I said, as far as the manager I never saw one. I almost got the feeling they were avoiding tables so they didn't have to comp food. I mean we were there for a good 2 hours and it's not that big of a restaurant. No one ever stop at any table in our section. Surely someone was supposed to be tending the FOH during opening week.

Like I said, I will be back but a lot of people are not so forgiving. Those people that were rude to our server probably went and told all their friends that the restaurant is horrible and not to go there. An apologetic visit from the manager probably could have alleviated that. I'm just trying to offer some constructive criticism on here, hopefully someone will notice and step it up.

We tried MM on Thursday and were left a bit underwhelmed. I called our order in at 4:45 and the guy taking the order seemed nice but distracted. I asked how long and he told me 30 minutes. Hubby volunteered to get the order and got there around 5:20. He said the place wasn't overly busy, and there were at least a dozen employees sort of standing around. There was one young guy handling the phone and seating guests who seemed clearly overwhelmed. It took Mike 10 minutes of waiting before anyone was able to help him. Two different people looked and could not find our order. One girl told him something about not having a yellow ticket in the kitchen and that he could reorder but it would take another 45-60 minutes. By now it was almost 6:00 and he was ready to give up and come home. Finally, another employee found the order - it had been sitting in the kitchen the whole time. My husband is not someone to make waves, so he dutifully paid $34.29 for two woefully cold and congealed pizzas.

I really can't pass fair judgement on the pizza, as they had to be reheated and looked pretty sad upon their arrival. Mike had the 14" Mighty Meaty - it looked to have a lot of pepperoni with a smattering of ground beef and a few skimpy bacon pieces. My daughter and I split a 10" with meatball and spinach. Perhaps I've been spoiled by Papalino's, but the toppings were very sparse and the sauce was a bit bland. We all agreed that the crust had a nice texture/flavor though - slightly sweet and soft.

I was a bit disappointed that no one apologized for the huge delay and also questioned how they could send two sad pizzas out to a guest like that. For almost $35, I truly expected way more, especially with all the build up I've seen and heard about how great MM is. We will give them another try once the kinks are worked out, but we'll likely stick to apps & beer.

We tried MM on Thursday and were left a bit underwhelmed. ...

Thursday is when we were there too. Maybe they just had a total meltdown that night or something.

I went to the St. Matthews MM for a late lunch today and was very pleased. It's a nice-looking space, and larger than I thought it would be. I like the fact that they can open windows onto the street in front; despite that, and today's heat, it was very comfortable inside.

I sat at the bar and the service was fine. I was a little worried about how long a pizza would take, so I had a sausage hoagie, which was excellent. The half-size was just right for lunch. The guy sitting next to me got a "small" pizza; it looked good, and seemed more like what I'd consider a medium size.

As other posters have mentioned, the beer selection is extremely impressive: 40 taps and perhaps 50 or 60 beers available in bottles/cans. Prices were reasonable; most if not all of the drafts cost $4 or $5. I had one minor quibble: The beer list describes about 10 of the taps simply as "rotators" for various breweries. To find out what's actually on those taps, you have to ask the bartender, which is a little annoying. I'm glad I asked, though, since I wound up getting one of the rotators: Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest, which is one of my favorite beers.

We took a flyer on the St Mats Mellow Mushroom on Tuesday night. We got there at six and parked on the street right in front of the restaurant. When we walked in, the place appeared to be about three quarters empty. We selected a four top in the bar area near the entrance.

The rest of our party texted that they would be a bit late so we took our time ordering an app and took the place in. There was lots of character on display. Dragonfly shaped light fixtures made from tin cans hung overhead while urban faux folk art decorated the walls. Its a sure bet this is a “one off” build out. Its pretty large as well with multiple rooms branching off from the middle where a large bar wraps around a wall of taps and TVs. The kitchen is exposed and later as the restaurant got busy there seemed to be a half dozen guys hand tossing pizza dough at a furious rate. The front of the restaurant featured large windows open to the sidewalk like Drakes across the street.

Our server was the delightful “Gabby” and she made up with enthusiasm what she lacked in experience. A few things did not turn out quite right. We said pepperoni and Gabby heard green peppers. A Dragonfly IPA was delivered as something malty. All the food and my beers appeared on my bill while only drinks were totaled on the other. Everything was eventually handled.

Pretzels with three different toppings and two kinds of wings were tried and judged good but no better. Two combo pizzas, one with mushrooms and jalapenos and the other with Thai curried chicken came out in a reasonable time and were also Boombozz quality which is no bad thing. Nothing rose to that level where we'll find ourselves thinking we need to return for it. There was plenty of good tap beer on hand but the printed menu was already incorrect on day two and at $5 each the can and bottle pricing didn't seem a bargain.

I think the MM at St Mats is yet another suitable option in town to grab a beer and a bite while catching a game. I doubt any home grown place that specializes in pizza or beer will lose significant business to MM. Beyond the quality of the food, service, and atmosphere the corporate vibe was still apparent somehow. All of these things are done better elsewhere.

There was a little something missing this night that would have turned a good experience into a “can't wait to do that again” night. While I can't put my finger on it, I know I crave it none the less. I most often experience it at places like Coals, BBC, Majids, Bank St, River City Winery, and the Fireside. These are the places that make me mellow.