Date: June 6th & July 2nd, 2016
Location: Mellow Mushroom; Salt Lake City, UT
Contender: Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Mellow Mushroom has become a recent fave of ours since it opened up in the Sugar House neighborhood. I’d had some pizza at a location somewhere in Florida before, and remembered enjoying it, so why not try it here? The other thing I like about it is that even though it’s a chain, they have some local flair. There is a lot of skiing and mountain-biking paraphernalia hanging around this place in SLC. Also, whenever we’ve been there, the service has been really awesome.
So, of course I had to add their buffalo chicken pizza to my repertoire. The menu says “Mozzarella cheese, grilled Buffalo chicken, caramelized onions, Applewood smoked bacon with a swirl of Buffalo sauce. Served with your choice of bleu cheese or ranch dressing.” I debated about the bacon for a minute, because to be honest I’m not a huge bacon lover, and I especially don’t love it if it’s all soggy and fatty. But I decided to trust MM’s judgment, and I’m glad I did.
This pizza was simply divine. Putting aside the buffalo chicken considerations for a minute, let’s talk about their pizza dough. The dough is an exercise in delicious contradictions. Somehow it is both crispy and chewy, salty yet sweet, and thick but airy. That alone would make any pizza enjoyable, regardless of the toppings. Of course in this case, the pizza happened to be topped with some of my favorite ingredients, so let’s carry on.
The chicken was fine. I hardly noticed it, to be honest – which is not a criticism. I’ve said before that chicken is merely a vehicle for buffalo sauce and blue cheese to make its way into my mouth. Anyway, it was soft and not chewy or mealy, and not burnt or raw but cooked just right. Thumbs up for the chicken. The bacon was crunchy and not overwhelming, and I thought it added some pizzazz. The onions were hardly noticeable, but they blended in nicely with everything else, adding maybe a touch of sweetness here and there. The buffalo sauce was good but not really spicy at all. This pizza actually didn’t need the blue cheese (which is crazy to hear me say), but adding it on top gave a little extra somethin’ somethin’.
Really, there was no one overwhelming flavor, and everything pulled together quite nicely. My favorite part has to be the crust, which I really can’t rave about enough. Some of my dining companions were gluten intolerant and actually quite enjoyed the gluten free crust too. So it’s great that they had some yummy options too. But as my wise dad always says, I’ll get mine with extra gluten please!
Buffalo Chicken, Beagles, & Beyond 