Mellow Mushroom has variety to suit nearly everybody

• By LISA TRAMONTANA
• Restaurant reviewer
• Published: Oct 16, 2009

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Mellow Mushroom is packed on weekend nights, but things were especially busy last Friday night while LSU fans gathered to talk about the Florida game the next day. Located right on the edge of campus, Mellow Mushroom has a funky, whimsical, psychedelic feel. Maybe it’s the ’60s inspired posters, or the colorful and dizzying murals painted on the wall, or the row of booths built to resemble a bus full of flower children that looks like it’s headed for Woodstock.

Whatever the case, Mellow Mushroom attracts not just college students, but families as well. And it’s probably because the menu covers everything from salads to hoagies to pizza to calzones, all at affordable prices.

Our party of four sampled two kinds of pizza, two kinds of sandwiches, and a particularly good salad.

The brutus salad ($8.50) was really tasty, especially the tart feta cheese and large slices of grilled Portobello mushrooms. It’s a Caesar salad with romaine and parmesan cheese, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers and roma tomatoes. It’s also designed for a big appetite. Add jerk or teriyaki chicken for just $2 more ($10.50). Delicious.

The sandwiches we tried were very good, and can be ordered whole or half. The half steak and cheese hoagie ($5.50), is really a Philly cheese steak. It features grilled onions and green peppers, thinly sliced grilled steak, melted provolone cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. The bun was toasted, giving the hoagie a nice crunchy texture.

The jerk chicken hoagie ($5.75) has a distinct flavor, and you will either really like (or dislike) the pineapple. If it’s not for you, just take it off the sandwich, which includes spicy chicken, grilled mushrooms, onions and green peppers, spinach, feta cheese and a pesto mayonnaise.

The small house special pizza ($11.25) is fairly traditional. The menu describes it as having ground beef, green peppers, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, tomatoes, ham, bacon and extra cheese. Sounds great, but in fact, the kitchen staff was a little stingy with the toppings. There was very little meat on the pizza and we didn’t detect any extra cheese.  

The philosopher pizza ($11.25 small) was also good, but only if you seasoned it yourself. The one that arrived at our table was very bland even though it was topped with steak, portobello mushrooms, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, provolone cheese, feta cheese and mozzarella cheese in an oil and garlic base. Once again, the actual pizza didn’t match the menu description.

Our waitress was hard to find sometimes, but in her defense, the place was packed and she never had a moment to slow down.