Mellow Mushroom (Germantown)

Mellow Mushroom
9155 Hwy 72 #26
(901) 907-0243

Last Sunday, we went to the Mellow Mushroom for Warren's birthday. We'd never managed to eat there despite being fans of the Mellow Mushrooms in Nashville and Chattanooga. Since most of my extended family lives in Germantown, it seemed like a good pick for family dinner.



They had a great patio, but it was full, so our party of eleven went inside with hopes of getting a table. Amazingly enough, it was no problem. There was a group of 40 (!) ahead of us and they too had no trouble getting seated together. How awesome is that?

It was a little wild when we sat down since the kids all sat together, but we directed them to the kids' menu activities. Everyone but Satchel (age 9) complied.



When I noticed that the walls were covered in mushroom pictures, I requested some blank paper, hoping to keep the kids occupied a little longer.



Jiro (age 7) worked on his picture the whole time we were there.



At first I thought our waitress was going to be a bit flighty because we didn't have enough menus and my brother-in-law was grousing about her not knowing what IPAs were on tap, but she was actually really awesome and on top of things despite being pretty damn busy.

Ordering was a bit challenging since everyone wanted something different, but we eventually worked it out so that most of the adults and children with adult appetites ordered 10 inch pizzas. I was going to get the monkeys the kids' meal French bread pizza, but the waitress told me it was tiny. So, I ended up getting them a 14 inch pizza to split. By the time we all ordered we realized we probably ordered too much, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Our waitress said it would take about 20-30 minutes for the food to come out, so we all settled in. The guys watched various football games on various TVs suspended from the ceilings, the kids continued to color, and the rest of us chatted and watched the guys in the kitchen.



Next time we celebrate a birthday there, we'll call ahead for the marquis. This time, we just called Warren "Randy" instead.



Those of us who ordered salads got them fairly quickly. "Randy" and I split a spinach salad with bacon. It was delish.



My mom had the Greek salad.



My nephew got some hot wings, which we all got a taste of. They had a nice spice.



Once we finished our appetizers it seemed like the pizza came out soon after. The restaurant was so lively and we had so many people in our party, things never seemed to drag.

The monkeys' pizza was way more than they needed, but that just meant that we had lots of leftovers.



Satchel was mad that he didn't get a French bread pizza. "You always order me stuff that I don't want!" he complained like a teenager.



When I explained that the pizza in front of him was all he was getting, he got over himself. Soon he and Jiro were declaring it delicious.



Satchel's pizza mutilation skills are unsurpassed.

My niece did actually get a kids' meal and I think it would have been enough food for the older monkeys.



It came with a choice of fruit or veggies, which was cool.

Back at the adult end of the table, something odd was happening. Everyone was happy! Everyone liked their food! That NEVER happens. I'm thinking of it as "Randy's Birthday Miracle Dinner."

My Kosmic Karma pizza was the shizz.



I loved the extra sprinkled parmesan on the crust. It made the crust extra enticing. Eating the crust did make it hard to eat additional slices of pizza though because it's filling. None of the adults made it through more than half of their pizzas.

Randy loved his mushroom and steak pizza with lotsa caramelized onions.



My nephew gave his BBQ chicken pizza the thumbs up. I tried convincing him that hot wing pizza was the way to go, but he didn't want to hear it.



My older sister and her husband each got a sandwich and they looked very hearty and tasty.



At the end of the meal, our waitress brought our checks out in a very timely fashion and I'm pretty sure they were all right. Despite totally over-ordering, our total was very reasonable. By the time we packed up all of the leftovers it was clear that we had several more meals worth of food.

Since things were going so well, I decided to check out the restrooms. They were large, clean, and equipped with a changing table.

I don't know why the Mellow Mushroom decided to open in the 'burbs, but clearly the suburbanites love them. I don't know how soon we'll make the trek again, but should we ever pass by when hungry it'll be hard not to stop.



p.s. I couldn't resist snapping a couple extra pics in the parking lot.





I told Randy that I ordered some of these stick people stickers for his car for his birthday but that they hadn't arrived yet. He actually believed me.