PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Basingstoke and Deane

We had pre booked a table for 13 people and were told this wouldn't be a problem as long as we pre ordered, which we did. We arrived for our food and encountered many problems.

1. a meal which was pre ordered had been sold out the day before! It was pre-order so surely you keep a portion aside? Also... From 24 hours previous. So the meal served would have been old!? Certainly not fresh food you are paying for.
2. the server offered no apologies or other options and became very defensive.
3. asked for a plate of chips or fries instead... They don't do chips!!
4. asked for an orange juice... They don't do orange juice.

All that happened to ONE person!

5. when asking if we can use blue light discount we were declined multiple times and our server said she would get the manager. The manager came over and didn't address the people with the blue light card just quietly said "no, it's on our website it can't be used for parties more then 6". I can guarantee it wasn't on their website or on the blue light T&C, or written anywhere in the restaurant.

6. my pasta was hot in some places, cold in others... Someone call chef mike!

7. the hygiene was TERRIBLE! I saw a server sneeze into her hand...not hand gel or wash them then proceed to touch trays and tea towels and plates! Other servers were using their fingers to plate up dessert (from Tupperware!) and not washing their hands.

8. when paying we once again repeated our comments about the blue light card and how they can't decline it as their terms and conditions don't state anything about booking size. Our server said she would talk to the manager again. This time the manager didn't speak to us, stopped over to the till and huffed to the server "fine I've done it".

On top of this we had to pay a "mandatory" service charge of £35 for a large booking! I can't believe we paid it when they certainly didn't earn it.

At no point were apologies offered, the team acted like we were being too much trouble when they weren't even trying leading to a lot of frustration. I work in a service industry and would never treat clients in such a way.

TLDR; Poor service and poor attitude, food poor to average, terrible hygiene. 0/10...

If I could have given a 0 star I would have. I have eaten here for the last 4 years, Firstly we called pizza express festival place to book a table of 8 to which Brett said they had no space for 8 people tonight, we decided to go online and book a table as there was one available, when we got there, they only had two tables occupied out of the 20-25 that are downstairs so plenty of room for 8, it was almost like they were turning away the business as they wanted to go home early, Brett the manager working on 20/06/23 was full of lies and fed false information, we went for my brother in laws 19th birthday, me being 25 was asked for ID I was quite flattered, we were also with his mum and dad, which when you have a meal with your parents if you are over the age of 16 you can have a drink with a meal, apparently according to Brett, pizza express don’t do that, which is a law which every restaurant has to abide by, we offered to give Brett either a photo of his ID or passport to prove his age, or even the gov uk identification app, to which Brett also said he has to have an actual copy, he was an absolute jobs worth and this will be my last time eating at pizza express festival place, as the meal wasn’t great we then asked for the service charge to be taken off the bill, to which the lady who was working stormed off to the kitchen to tell him, and then had the face of a slapped a**se, overall, Brett the manager shouldn’t be a manager, I think the power has got to his head, also he did not smile once. It should be a happy environment when you go out for dinner, but that completely ruined our whole dinner Overall my experience would be that I would...

Basingstoke Town Centre Restaurant

I always enjoy visiting Pizza Express do decided to take my teenage son for a surprise visit this evening. I ordered a starter that was not on the menu that the staff happily made for us - great!

But one thing that really niggles me - and niggles me like crazy is staff chew gum while serving customers! Not just chew but CHOMPING! What made it worse that this member of staff was also . part of the management team - as he was not wearing the regular uniform. I also asked our very kind waitress who he was.

On the way out i spoke with the duty manager and pointed out how unacceptable it is for this to happen, also it is completely unacceptable in from of customers and also when serving food.

If this young man is serving me in the future I will ask to be served by someone else. You were really let down as a business and a chain of restaurants today Pizza Express.

This is really serious and I do hope someone accepts responsibility to ensure your customers get the best possible service and top notch food hygiene in the future.

Description : Young male, short hair - shaved at the sides and obviously likes...