While out with my three kids after their early day out, we were hungry and looking for a casual tasty lunch to tide us over while we were running errands. We happened upon Mountain Mike's Pizza in Laguna Hills. The place was packed and it smelled great, which are always good signs for a lunch place. I was happy to see they offered a gluten-free pizza crust, so we gave it a try.
The lunch-time is packed because they offer a really good-looking all-u-can-eat pizza and salad buffet. The pizzas are refreshed on a quick basis and the salad options were fresh looking. Their regular pizzas come on a puffy, crunchy yet tender crust and have a variety of delicious options. My son was able to indulge in several options, with the BBQ Chicken being his favorite. My oldest daughter loved the sweet dessert pizza best with it's caramelized cinnamon sugar topping.
I was so happy they offered a salad bar for us to have. Salad is one of the great healthy options, especially for gluten free diners. What was not so great was the way the salad bar was arranged. There is only a sneeze guard on one side, and the customers were happily helping themselves to items from the non-guarded side. The salad bar was right next to the cash register and in front of the employee pass thru window. No employee ever asked a customer to move to the guarded side, and this was done in front of several employees. I can only assume that they are not properly trained in food safety. If they are going to allow customers on both sides, they have to have a sneeze guard. Unfortunately, my kids had already started eating their salad before I noticed this.
Our gluten free pizza was obviously not part of the buffet. I ordered a 1/2 cheese and 1/2 mushroom pizza on GF crust. It took 16 minutes to get the pizza. Almost all industrial GF crusts come pre-cooked and literally take only a few minutes to warm and melt the cheese. In contrast, a GF pizza at Pieology takes around 5 minutes.
The pizza was incredibly thin, chewy and had no flavor. The only size you can order is a small, and it was expensive - with a 10" costing over $12.00. The problem I am seeing these days with restaurants in a hurry to fill a gluten free demand is a lack of quality and a hefty price. I "get" that GF is expensive, believe me I have the grocery bills to prove it. What I do not understand is offering a clearly inferior product with a large price tag and no other customer options.
I want to be clear about their traditional pizza. Mountain Mike's has really good regular pizza! It looked good and it tasted wonderful. Their lunch buffet is plentiful, full of fresh pizza and quality ingredients. I cannot say the same about their GF pizza. It was so disappointing. Why would they cut the quality of their product and their brand just to be able to say they offer a gluten free pizza when that pizza is no good?
Listen up restaurants, Gluten free diners don't want a GF option that is just GF! We want great tasting food and we don't want it as an after thought. Basically, go for it and do it well or just don't do it.
I hope to return again to Mountain Mikes when I hope to find a more sanitary salad bar and a better quality pizza.
Here are my marks for Mountain Mike's Pizza (1-10 with 10 being highest)
- GF Menu Selection: 1
- Service: 7
- Food taste: 2
- GF safety: 2
Eat drink and stay GF!
Erica is a local mom with three young children, ages 7, 10 and 12, who lives in San Juan Capistrano. A part-time working gal and a full-time mom, you can see what her family is up to with her Slice of Orange blog. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram@SliceofOc
