Atlanta Pizza Days #2: Mellow Mushroom

Fact #1: There are 9 Mellow Mushroom locations ITP

Fact #2:  Of the 72 votes I received on my pizza poll, Mellow Mushroom was the 2nd most popular pizza place in Atlanta, with 14.29% of the voters choosing MM as one of their favorite places to eat ‘za in Atlanta

Fact #3: I think Mellow Mushroom sucks, straight up. 

So how can somewhere so popular and clearly successful be so scorned by many the pizza fan? Maybe it’s just me? Slice (the pizza arm of Serious Eats) just did a write-up on Mellow Mushroom and they praised the crust as “garlicky, unctuous crust—thick enough to sink your teeth into, but still thin enough to eat with your hand”. 

Well, the pizza posse was in force and we headed on over the other night for some dinner. But the true test would come later during the blind tasting. How would Mellow’s pizza fare when the taster couldn’t be swayed by their gnarly decor and the intoxicating smell of patchouli?

First, you may notice that we ordered a different pizza. We went for toppings because hey, toppings are good, but we left the other side with just cheese and basil, as this was the side to be judged. We wanted to be sure the cheese and sauce was not masked by the salami goodness. 

Above: pizza, plus me trying to figure out how to use my new camera in low light. 

The server I’m sure thought it was interesting to see two guys with cameras and spreadsheets in the booth, but then again, this particular location is a Georgia Tech haunt, so maybe they’re used to it. The results are below!

Dough (average score – 2.75/5)

• “soft not doughy, inconsistent, good under toppings but bland endcrust”
• “greasy, parmesan sprinkled, not the flavor I’m looking for, too soft/gummy, not a fan of cornmeal”
• Blind Taste - “softer than I like, wheat crust?”
• Blind Taste - “not too thick but also not too crunchy”

Sauce (average score – 2.25/5)

• “light, couldn’t taste much”
• “hardly any, not noticeable, plain pizza sauce”
• Blind Taste - “can’t taste in most part because of cheese; bland”
• Blind Taste - “plain old pizza sauce and it was all at the endcrust, poor sauce distribution” 

Cheese (average score – 2.75/5)

• “a bit salty, not too stringy, little flavor”
• “lots of it, grainy, no flavor”
• Blind Taste - “parm, lots of mozz, very cheesy, overpowering”
• Blind Taste - “good but nothing real special, parm was good”

Overall (average score – 2.75/5)

• “better than most MM pizzas I’ve had, hot but easily eaten”
• “OK flop, poor cheese and terrible dough result in an bad pizza”
• Blind Taste - “normal, thin crust”
• Blind Taste - “would be a 5 if the sauce had a little more flavor and more of it”

Hard at work at a blind tasting

My Final Thoughts: Well, the scores show consistency! There was one blind taster who liked this pizza a good bit, but everyone else thought that it was below par. I personally gave this the lowest score as the dough is not anything like what I’m looking for in a pizza. Also, the sauce was non-existent and tasted like it was out of a can. The cheese had a gross texture that was sandy/grainy, obviously inexpensive mozzarella. Perhaps I’m looking for the wrong thing when I got to a place like Mellow Mushroom. I can see going here with some friends, having a few beers, and stuffing my face, but that wouldn’t be a pizza dining experience…it’s something different entirely. It’s comparable to someone saying “let’s go for Mexican” and pulling up at Taco Bell. NEXT!

The salami was actually decent