PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Braintree

Although I am not usually one to send my complaints/feedback to restaurants, I felt prompted to pass on the details of my family's recent outing to the Braintree (Designer Village) branch of 'Pizza Express', an experience which marked an incredibly frustrating and altogether depressing end to an otherwise pleasant Father's Day.

We had booked a table at 17:15 to treat my Dad to a Father's Day meal at Pizza Express (one of his favourite restaurants) - The issues, however, began almost as soon as we took our seats in the corner of the restaurant.

After taking our seats, we waited for almost thirty minutes before being asked for our drinks/main order. When our waitress finally came over to the table, she was very curt and offered little in the way of apologies for the long wait.

We then had to wait another thirty minutes for our drinks to arrive, all of this waiting before a further forty minutes before our food arrived. Even when it arrived, our food was sub-par at best and half of the mains were cold, especially in the case of the children's pizzas.

This was further exacerbated by the fact that every other table in the restaurant seemed to be receiving normal service; we counted at least three other groups who came in after us, but received their drinks, mains, and left all within forty minutes of sitting down (one of these, to add insult to injury, were a similarly sized group of family friends).

On our visit, we had to rise from our table to speak to the manager twice, but (similarly to our waitress) he was very short with us and offered little in the way of an apology for the slow service.

Worst of all, as someone with two brothers under the age of eight, it was particularly challenging to keep the young boys preoccupied without any colouring pencils for them to use on the menu/activity sheet. We asked our waitress for them several times and, although she apologised and offered to collect them, the boys never received any.

In the end, after waiting for a further twenty minutes for someone to clear away our mains, we spoke to the manager once more and chose to leave before receiving the children's desserts and Babycino (the two parts they had most been looking forward to).

Suffice to say, this was an experience that put a significant dampener on our otherwise pleasant Father's Day; as I mentioned, my dad usually likes going to the Braintree branch of Pizza Express, but we are now left with some second thoughts about returning anytime soon.

Whilst I do obviously understand that it can get busy in your restaurants sometimes, our table appeared to be one of the only ones receiving poor service (although I hate to say that it would not surprise me if other families had a similar experience).

Overall then, we are unsure if we will choose to return to any Pizza Express restaurant anytime soon after this...

I suppose we all know Pizza Express, as it's in most towns and cities in the UK. Been to one, been to them all...well not quite. Experiences and expectations differ depending upon various factors, such as food quality, location, management, staffing, service, date and time of visit, etc. This branch of Pizza Express is very well placed, right by Essex's Braintree Freeport Village Outlet, which attracts a lot of visitors and customers, especially in the run-up to the festive season.

We booked a table for 7 (4 adults and 3 kids - 11 years to 13 years) a few weeks ago on a Saturday early evening, and as expected, it was very busy. I'm not sure if walk-ins get sorted, but lucky for us, we booked. We were starving after spending time at the NAMCO Funscape Amusement Centre a short walk away, which helped us build up an appetite. As they were so busy, the service was slow 🐌 and the kids were not happy. Once served, it took a while for the food to appear, and when it did, it tricked in, which wasn't the best, as we all wanted to eat around the same time. Maybe being seated in the far end of the restaurant didn't help 😕. Patience was definitely a needed skill.

Also, to make matters worse, my meal (Nicoise salad) took the longest to arrive, and others at our table we almost through with their meals...I was not impressed. The waitress finally brought my salad, but it was the wrong order...she handed me a Chicken salad...I pointed it out, and had to wait another 8mins for my Nicoise to arrive. I was not a happy chappy.

The salad itself was very, very delicious 😋, which was what I expected as I usually get this salad when at Pizza Express, but everyone was watching me munch it down, as they all had finished their meals.

When we settled the bill, we were able to get a discount with the Blue Light Card...this was handy, but as we received this discount, we couldn't also get the Kids eat free discount. Both discounts worked out to about the same amount. Our friends used that.

Overall, the food was very yummy all around, but the busyness and the table service left a lot to be desired. Would I recommend this Pizza Express, yes, and no. If you go there when it's quiet, then yes...Best avoid it when it's super busy, especially during peak times and on weekends when Freeport is...

Arrived 1 hour before closing (it wasn't busy), initially ignored by the first person who walked past and made eye contact as I said hello, they then twigged that they hadn't greeted us and said they'd be with us shortly but wandered off with a chair. One of the other members of staff who wasn't busy then offered to take us to a table. No drinks were offered upon seating and it took 10 minutes to have our order taken. Food came out in an acceptable time and was very nice. We only had starters however weren't asked how the food was at any point.

It then took 10 minutes of trying to get someone's attention once we'd finished so we could pay the bill. Lots of staff were in the kitchen chatting and those who weren't didn't seem to be paying any attention to diners. Someone kindly brought the bill over however didn't bring the card machine (despite me having my bright orange card out and saying we wanted to pay by card). They plopped the receipt down and walked off. We sat and waited and eventually decided to just get up and walk to the door. The staff member didn't seem to take any notice of us (she saw us but ignored us, busying herself with something) and another colleague had to ask if we needed help. We did then manage to pay with the other colleague's assistance.

Overall a fairly rubbish mundane experience. Most staff seemed unenthused and like they didn't want to be there / like they just wanted to go home / like we were all an inconvenience. Wouldn't choose to visit this branch again. Felt unwelcome and sensed a somewhat awkward atmosphere from the staff. Wouldn't recommend this location to others. Seems like our experience isn't dissimilar to that of other reviewers. There were only two of us dining, not a huge table.

Just glad they didn't try to get us to...