PizzaExpress — Restaurant in England

Went back on 24 January 2022. Seated without waiting though busy, consistently good service and good food to award 5th ⭐. My original review of 22 January 2022 follows in this post........... Original review "I genuinely want to give the Brighton Marina outlet of Pizza Express an immediate 5 star rating; but the missing 5 star (due to this being my very first time at this restaurant) is caveated as explained below.

I decided to spend a Saturday 22January afternoon and evening by the coast in Brighton to enjoy the coastline. I unintendedly ended up walking from the city coastline up to the marina and; wanting a bite, came upon Pizza Express. It was extremely busy there, and unfortunately I wasn't immediately able to get a table; a combination of rush hour and the fact many of the shops on the marina are either shut or just gone (Bella Italia and Zizzi's). Apologetically; but most helpfully, the manager recommended reserving a table for later so if I couldn't find anywhere I could always come back. I did and returned at 7.20pm discovered after walking around that even Prezzo couldn't find a window before 8pm, on which the manager happily welcomed me: quickly finding a nice corner table and seating me.

The service. -- Amidst a very busy restaurant, was fast, helpful and very welcoming. The food was extremely good; I like to order the same thing at each restaurant as a good way to directly compare each outlet and on this the Marina outlet really held the high standard here.

I wish to emphasise this was a worthy 5 star rated meal ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The missing fifth star for the overall experience is for no other reason than that it was my first time there (and no adverse indictment of any part of the great hospitality i received) so I look forward to returning to confirm this welcoming atmosphere and great dining experience is consistent to deservedly award them their fifth star. To the manager, and his team; acknowledging a lady who wasn't my waiter but really warm and helpful too, sincere thanks for a very great meal and warm inclusive dining experience. The Pizza Express at the lanes in Brighton can learn a lot from benchmarking the way you and other Pizza Express restaurants in London and beyond operate (see my review written on their lanes site in September 2021 -a regrettably genuinely honest review). To anyone seeking a place to dine on the Brighton Marina; I can definitely recommend a great meal and welcoming inclusive experience at this Brighton Marina outlet, if you are able to weather/navigate the peak...

We attended your marina pizza express on Monday 29th July and felt so unhappy with the level of service I needed to flag it.

We were a table of 4 with one child and were offered any table as it was so quiet. There were a number of waiting staff and ours took our order. The starters came quickly and were fine. We then waited for our mains with our used plates in front of us. We waited a significant amount of time (30mins) until we started looking around and noticed no chefs were visible, nor cooking anything. We eventually got the attention of another waitress and asked when our mains would be ready. It was obvious they hadn’t put our order through as there was a flurry of activity at the till and the looks on their faces said it all. They didn’t acknowledge or apologise for the delay, nor did they explain what had happened. They informed us the pizzas would be with us in 3 minutes when it took a further 10. It took a couple of minutes for the chefs to reappear. Waiting 40 mins for a pizza is ridiculous, especially it being so quiet, with a hungry child and when there were 2 chefs and 3-4 waiting staff. The pizzas came and they were nice, but the customer service let the whole experience down. We asked for the bill which we received and our waitress disappeared again. We then saw her chatting to her colleague. We had to ask a blond waitress from another area to help us to pay. Our waitress returned but without the payment machine, so she left again. Tbh, we couldn’t leave fast enough. There was no excuse for such awful and inattentive service. No checks to see if we were happy with the food, no smile from our waitress and a complete disregard to good customer service. In the current climate, great customer service pulls you back in. I assure you, I will be avoiding your restaurant from now on.

N.B. Should you read their response below, I did email them and they didn’t reply. Obviously good customer service doesn’t apply here...

We went to Pizza Express in Brighton Marina to celebrate our son's A' Level results and the only reason I didn't walk out was due to not wanting to ruin his day! Firstly after having ordered drinks and on ordering our starters, we were told that two of our choices were not available and then came the staggering news that NO PASTA dishes were available WHATSOEVER, which both of our younger children were going to order!! It is absolutely outrageous that this was not pointed out to us on entering the restaurant because had we known we would have undoubtedly gone elsewhere! To add insult to injury, and despite the restaurant being very quiet as only 4.30pm on a Tuesday, our empty plates sat in front of us until our next course arrived! When this was gently pointed out to the waiter he chirped "Oh yes, lets do swapsies!".....I had to stifle a reply of "What a good idea, lets swap this restaurant for another one!" There wasn't even a hint of an apology!! During all this fiasco the manager stood around looking vacant and although right next to our table failed to notice the terrible service! Having paid nearly £200 for the pleasure I couldn't help but quietly ask the gentleman seeing us out, if he was the manager (his skill set certainly didn't imply this so I was left with only his floral shirt rather than regulation uniform as a hint to his status). The final slap in the face came when having explained the unfortunate experience he retorted that the problem lay in him not being the one to see us to our table because he would have told us about the lack of culinary options! He had no word of an apology regarding the lack of basic table service and the only thing he confirmed was our steadfast opinion that we will never be...