text: Having come from the East where Mellow Mushroom started, I'm pretty well-acquainted with the food from this place. Interesting thing is that Mellow Mushroom's franchising availability used to be hush-hush, so there weren't so many of them and those wishing to start one apparently had to jump through hoops just to inquire about it. Semi-interesting stories aside, since they've blown-up and made it so far as Phoenix the quality of the business has gone down. \n\nCase-in-point: The Tempe location.\n\nThis is the biggest Mellow Mushroom I've ever seen, and it's got a nice, inviting atmosphere. That is, until your waitress is at your table immediately upselling things before she even asks your drink order. My wife and I were so baffled what she said didn't even register until a few moments went by (something about having some very specific beers or something; not \"Would you like a beer to start things off?\" More like \"Would you like to start of with A Kirin Ichiban which is renowned in Japan for its malted deliciousness or how about a *more garbled over-the-top mess*?\") so we were just looking at her in awkward confusion. I get it's part of being a waitress and she's probably told to do it, but have some tact about it eh? \n\nNext bit of fun, the menu: Most of the Mellow offerings I'm used to, with a few Phoenix originals (one pie having chorizo, stuff like that), but wow: The prices are ridiculous. $10 for a *cheese* calzone? And it's not even organic or anything? $6 for a pint? ONE PINT? I haven't even hit 30 yet, and I feel like I'm talkin' about the good ol' days where a pint might cost $3 or maybe even $4, but nah; this pricing's just robbery.\n\nAnyway, I quit my mental griping about prices and ordered the pie. If you've never had Mellow before, the best way to describe it is \"bread-like with a touch of molasses, with that freshly-baked taste.\" Toppings are good, but really the crust does it for me and today was no exception. \n\nStill, the constant and ridiculous upsells from our waitress coupled with her pretty much rushing us (continually looking at our table from afar, at one point dropping the check on the table with a very non-subtle and possibly ironic \"Here's your check; no rush or anything!\") because we weren't ordering a ton of crap (do they get commission or something?) and ignoring our simple requests (asked for napkins twice, got none- but hey, we did get an offer to get some sort of cake put in the oven now so it could be ready when we were done eating. I love upsells!) makes me definitely not want to come to this place again. Given the new and improved pricing of Mellow Mushroom, I probably won't be going to any one of these places again.\n\nWhat a ripoff.