PizzaExpress — Restaurant in England

Wouldn’t go again, we got 2 pizzas, dough balls, garlic mushrooms, chips and 2 cokes with 2 small cartons of apple juice and a extra cocktail stick 🤦‍♀️… £58.15 I waited about 6 minutes at the door for somebody to greet me so I could ask if a table was free which there were plenty of tables free but I was just making sure, there was about 7 families in at this point, finally 6 minutes later, a women came over grabbed 2 menus and said she will be back with the 2 kids menus, we sat another 15 minutes whilst a guy cleaned tables around us as if we were invisible. Then he finally comes over to take drink orders, I told him we are ready to order food to as we had been sat there for 15 minutes up to now. Sits another 10 minutes and the women comes over with the kids menus. So 25 minutes after entering we finally have kids menus, my partner said well we have already ordered now pal. Then he said oh no they have colouring pages in for the kids so we took them. He did say sorry he was very busy, to which my and my partner looked at each other my partner stood up to see who was on the other side of the restaurant and there were another 2 tables in so 3 including us. But he was busy 🫣🫣 1 table of 4 and 1 table of 3. Another 10 minutes food arrives (Not bad waiting time I would give it a 8/10) Well just when you think it couldn’t get any better… it does. My partner tucked into his garlic mushrooms with a grunt followed by a finger in his mouth and pulled out what looked like a good 20cm of cocktail stick (I have pictures of the wood if anybody wants to contact me about this). The dough balls were good, the pizza I would say 5/10 due to them shoving sauce and cheese in the middle and leaving a big plain edge around the center they turned a 12 inch pizza into an 8 with big crusts 🫣 the chips were like hash browns with way too much herb on, they got left behind as none of us 4 liked them. I would say the best bit of this experience was walking out. The staff wernt friendly, they looked like they just wanted to be somewhere else. they were drinking monster cans and just leaving it on the bar thing near the ice cream section for anybody to see, a lady emptied a bin in the cuboard and lots of blue roll bottle lids and other things fell out on the floor which was left a good 5 minutes before we left, it could still be there now as we left when it was still there. Honestly probably the worst £60 ever, well £66 as we had to call to McDonald’s on the way home as the children were still hungry. Overall will not be going again. I am a social influencer and if I here anybody going to go I will be telling them my opinion as...

I’ll start of by saying the food was absolutely amazing, hats of to the young woman and man in the kitchen who under the circumstances really did a great job with the food.

However, i’m not sure who reads this and I have wrote a complaint to head office as I find this absolutely unacceptable. We were waiting at the door for a good 10 minutes without being acknowledged tho which I don’t blame the staff on shift as it was practically a war zone in pizza express. I didn’t get the names of anyone working but the young lady was of African descent, the manager was Spanish and the young man and woman in the kitchen were Arabic or Turkish. The young lady looked awfully stressed , when she came to take our order it had been as if she had been crying. My husband asked if she was alright in which she responded “yes i’m ok , it’s just slightly busy”. This young girl was no older than 19 and she looked as if she had been through hell and back.

On top of this the manager looked disoriented, the restaurant was so full but there wasn’t the staff to match the amount of customers in the restaurant. The manager couldn’t even get to the door while people waited in a long queue outside, there were families with disabled children waiting for about 20 minutes with no one going to the door.

As someone who has worked in hospitality this is shocking. I just wanted to get up and help, you could see the manager and the young girl hanging on by a thread just trying their best. You could also hear the chef complaining about how there was little staff in the kitchen and too many orders. We even heard him say that the young girl in the kitchen had to come in 5 hours earlier for her shift as it was that busy.

There’s only so much I can say but as a mother I was disgusted by how the staff were left in such a terrible situation and something needs to be done soon. Well done to the staff on Thursday, you well and truly deserve a break. Wont sure if we are coming back but the food...

Couldn't be more disappointed.

Waited 10 minuets to be acknowledged and seated - great start. 6 members of staff waiting on 7 tables so it wasn't busy. Once we were seen, I asked how long the current wait for food was, the reply was vague but reassuring 'a lot quicker than if you had come earlier'. My son and I ordered two pizzas, a tap water and coke. The water didn't come with a glass to drink from. Whilst waiting for our food, one of the waitresses was carrying plates from one side of the restaurant to the other, only to drop a pizza cutter on the floor. Rather than picking it up, apparently kicking the pizza cutter all the way to the wash room was a much more convenient and effective way to get it from one place to another. An hour had passed since ordering food so I asked the shift leader for the bill for the coke I had ordered and explained we were leaving because we had booked bowling the day before. I was gobsmacked to see that, whilst talking to the shift leader, no pizzas were being made or cooked. Our order had been completely forgotten about. The shift leader then continued to sort the bill for the coke, which considering I wouldn't have ordered the coke if I wasn't eating, I thought was incredibly inconsiderate.

The family next to us waiting 2 hours all in for their food whilst a table that arrived after them, got theirs much sooner. The same happened to me and my son with a table arriving after us actually getting their food.

Completely shocking to be honest. Organisation was all over the place, service was inconsiderate, no respect for the restaurant's property. I'd consider Pizza Express to be on the higher end of mainstream restaurant eating and yet, Liz Truss seems to have more of a grip on the country than the managing staff have on this...