PizzaExpress — Restaurant in St. Helier

A real let down here. The place seemed to be operated by minors, who had zero customer service skills and zero knowledge of the menu. Wrong drinks served after an agonisingly long wait for the school boy to find Aperol Spritz on his device and then had to come back to ask what I ordered to drink. When wrong bottle of water was pointed out to him, there was no apology, and even an “uh” sound when we told him it was wrong. This same lad was then moaning to his “colleagues” that he couldn’t seem to acquire any tips. Wrong food order was then delivered to the table, which left two out of our party of three with no food for 10 minutes, whilst the other one had to start eating before their food got cold.

Manager was summonsed over and she explained that there are Year 10 students on work experience. I get that young people have to gain experience, we were all there once, but when I am paying a considerable price for the food here, I don’t expect the type of service experienced here tonight. They weren’t being supervised, had clearly not been given any advice on basic customer service, or given any chance to learn the menus. Poor management really.

The manager then presented us with the bill - which had duplicate items on which we had to then request her to remove. She presented us with a revised bill and also this time included a 20% discount for the problems we had. Cheeky though - when she handed the card machine over, she still left the gratuity option there.

Overall, food was of a usual standard for Pizza Express (yummy) but the service was dismal and it felt like a playground at times with the “work experience” kids messing around when not working.

Also I noted all the staff had sports trousers on, and one even had sports shorts. Surely that’s not the usual standard (even the employed waiting staff!)

I would not return to...

We went to the branch in St. Helier, Jersey for a girls' evening on a Monday. It was quite full downstairs for a Monday. We sat by the bar at a tall table. I like it in there. Staff members are more pleasant than the St. Brelades. (Sorry, just from my experience). Anyway, I had Leggera Pomodoro which is my new favourite from Pizza Express. It was delicious and didn't feel too full afterwards.

Nduja Calzone used to be my favourite but the last time we were there, it was undercooked, so undercooked it was still cold in the middle part of it and underbaked doug at the bottom. I couldn't continue eating after I noticed that half way so I had to ask a staff member to take it away and cook it for longer which he kindly did and apologised. I didn't have a go with him because it wasn't really his fault. Whoever baked it, should know how long it should take. I was a bit suspicious because the colour was a lot paler than how I was served before. Credit to the St Brelades team for serving me a properly cooked Nduja Calzone when I was there last time 😊.

In summary, pizza can be unhealthy for you but not if you go for Leggera 🍕options 😉....

(Christmas 2023) Two of our dough balls didn’t come (dough balls in blankets did come though) so we had to ask about that and were told we could delay our pizzas or have them come with the meal so they came with the pizzas. Ordered coffees and asked for decaf on all of them to make it easier as they were all the same rather than one decaf and two normal, they came as normal coffees so had to send one back to be decaf. As the coffees had also been put through on top of desserts, we weren’t able to use a Gold reward for them and had to ask for them to be removed and added on again to be able to use the rewards.

One of us also spotted one of the staff drop a pizza cutter on the floor and look around before placing it back on the plate for a customer’s pizza. Just glad it wasn’t my table!

Was a bit of a shame as I’ve been many times before and never had an issue.

(Christmas 2022) Outstanding service and great food every time I've been. My friend has some extra requirements if we eat out and they've always been accommodating which is brilliant to see! Never a bad experience and come...