PizzaExpress (Tsim Sha Tsui) — Restaurant in Kowloon

Great meal and nice ambience all spoilt by terrible customer service! Had a lovely lunch, starters were great and cooked to perfection - we had the garlic bread with the cheese extra and dough balls Al forno. Drinks were served after the starters, but that was due to limited staff as it was a public holiday. Our main courses were perfect and served in a timely manner. I tried the omnipork pizza which in all honesty is a great plant based alternative. The issue with the service came at the time of paying the bill. When we sat down we asked if there were any promotions/set lunches and we were told there none as it was a public holiday except for what was in the menu given to us. Pizza Express have kindly created a vegan menu which says 10% off on Mondays (nowhere does it say public holidays are an exception) and as these were given to us we assumed as one would that the 10% was still applicable. When we got the bill, it wasn't applied and we raised this with our waitress. Her answer was "public holiday no promotion", so we told her what she said and she just shrugged us off. We asked to speak to the manager, Mr Benjamin, who came to us and before he was even in front of us or discussed the issue with us from a far shouted "no promotion available" several times as he came closer to us. Given the irrational behaviour, we explained again what had happened and told him that it was unacceptable. Rather than apologize for the miscommunication as a manager should, he just said he could take our details and refer it to PE Global Customer Service. At this point, we told him it was fine and we would just leave it as he was being unreasonable. At that point the matter was not about the 10% discount but about dealing with customers in a respectful way. I do hope this detailed excerpt helps PE bring up their customer service standards as the essence of hospitality is always in...

Upon coming in around 5pm, the restaurant had around 20% occupancy. Despite 80% of the restaurant being empty, they had sat most people on the same side of the restaurant, and annoyingly sat me and my two children there as well.

We ordered a pizza (pepperoni) and a pasta (penne alla carbonara). Also ordered two orange juices for the children (they had a two-for-one promo) and a bottle of sparkling water for myself. We ate everything but I would say it was very unsatisfying. Even my kids thought the food was “meh”. For the prices, the pizza has extremely forgettable texture (the dough and baking technique makes it feel and taste like a pizza made with pita bread), and the pasta did not taste at all like carbonara (kind of like an American Alfredo, I could not taste the guanciale, or the beaten eggs and Parmesan (though this is what's advertised on the menu).

Overall, the main issue of this place is they use subpar ingredients and technique. Cannot make Italian food at this prices with bad ingredients and no love. There is a plethora of both small cafes and eateries in Hong Kong that will use the real-deal high quality ingredients imported from Italy and take the time to cook it in a way that’s not easily recreated at home. Finally, as I was about to leave, I was stopped by the manager who blamed their staff for under-charging me HK$9. I paid by card and the bill was automatic and it was not missing any items so I am not sure how this happened but I just gave him a HK$10 and left thinking to myself how absurd it is to discomfort the customer and make your staff look...

Should have read the reviews! The price for what you get is not just slightly, but extremely overpriced!!!! Pizza should not be this expensive and the quality was horrendous! Awful pizza! First pizza was served 33 minutes after arriving, I was the only customer in the shop when I arrived. The pizza came uncooked with raw dough... They offered to exchange it and recommended I take the thin crust, from the pictures all pizzas looked thin crust, so that was what I was expecting in the first place. Anyhow, second pizza came after only 7 min. (Don't know why the first one took an eternity) and I don't know how they manage to do it with such a thin crust but the dough was still white and raw, only a few places were fully cooked. The taste was bland at best - cheap ingredients, under proofed dough. The price for the pizza alone was 188 HKD, that is robbery... Back home I can get two better quality pizzas for that price and that is with a sales tax of 25% included! I also ordered a salad that came drenched in dressing with half the ingredients missing. No one offered me more water during my 55 min. stay, did not offer parmesan or Tabasco even though they were clearly available - I had to raise my hand repeatedly. The restaurant was basically empty, max three more parties came in after me, and I was alone for the first 10 min., and there was plenty personel. So despite the name no express, and for the pizza - go somewhere else, Alice pizza is good. Total price for this horrible meal was almost 294!! HKD for a soggy salad and a port, raw pizza......