PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Arun

Warning do not go to pizza express Arundel! We made the mistake of booking a table at this place for 17:30 01/09/2024. I wouldn't normally post negatively about a restaurant, but I need to warn others who may be thinking of taking their family as this place was not only bad but disgustingly unhygienic! And yes, this was all brought up with staff at the time but they didn't seem bothered.

Everything that could have gone wrong, did. Our table was wrong - they tried to seat 5 of us on a table of 4. There were used plates and glasses left on over half the tables which the staff never bothered to clear the entire 2 hours we were there. At one point, staff actually added more detritus to the table behind us instead of taking it away to the kitchen. The staff were not rushed off their feet as the place was damn near empty! It took over an hour to receive mains. They forgot to put cheese on the pizzas??? (But after waiting over an hour we didn't even bother complaining as it would have been another hour). I think the most shocking part of this story is that I noticed (halfway through the meal) there was a used tampax applicator on chair right at the front of house - for anyone who doesn't understand what that's means, that means the tampon applicator had been inside a womans vjayjay and then left on a chair right next to the booking in computer - surely to God someone should have noticed that! Most likely it was there for hours, as nothing was cleared and staff weren't properly manning front of house! After terrible service, a terrible meal, they even managed to get the bill wrong.

During this awful meal we saw multiple people get up and walk out. I don't blame them. As I say, staff seemed unbothered about the feedback. I feel it's important to warn others. During the 2 hours we were there, there was about 3 deliveroo pick ups, so I can't even say it was deliveroo orders to blame for the slack services and lack of cleanliness. Pictures of the state of...

I have been going to the Arundel branch of PE for 10+ years, it's usually a family favourite. This month we had booked a table of 10 to go for celebrations, after waiting 15 minutes to order drinks we then had to wait another 45 minutes for the drinks to arrive after asking the waitress if our drinks were coming. That's 1 hour after sitting down to receive a drink.

There was 3 tables in the whole restaurant and a large table upstairs with 5 waiters floating around talking and shuffling around at a snails pace so there really is no excuse. One of the waitresses looked like she was born on a different planet or had smoked something that was grown on a different planet.

As someone who has worked in hospitality I am appalled. They had two staff doing the desserts for the upstairs table, one boy was standing by the other waitress just chatting and waiting for her to finish serving up desserts & then carrying the desserts up 2 at a time spaced out by about 4 minutes for each trip, I can only how frustrated the table upstairs must have been feeling.

We decided not to stay for food paid for our drinks and left. This would have easily been a £300+ bill but we went elsewhere. We will be lodging a formal direct complaint with Pizza Express and won't be returning until the staff situation has been changed, it's a massive shame to see what's happened to pizza express Arundel there was zero leadership, professionalism or care.

Avoid until...

Either this branch is extremely racist or extremely bad at their job, and honestly, I’m not sure which would be worse. My friend and I (visibly people of colour, and she wears a hijab) went to the Pizza Express near Arundel Castle after a long day, really looking forward to a proper meal. We were seated promptly and given menus, and we decided what to order within five minutes.

We waited patiently, knowing it was busy, but 20 minutes went by without anyone checking in. I eventually approached a waitress to ask, very politely, if we could order. She said she’d get to us soon, but didn’t. Ten more minutes passed, and she continued serving other customers and ignoring our table completely.

At a certain point, it felt less like being overlooked and more like being deliberately excluded. Whether it was understaffing, poor service, or something more insidious, we felt extremely uncomfortable and unwelcome. We ended up leaving without ordering, feeling hungry, dismissed, and genuinely disheartened.

This kind of treatment is unacceptable. I hope this branch reflects seriously on the experience they’re providing, especially to customers who don’t fit a...