PizzaExpress — Restaurant in England

I am compelled to complain today after visiting your restaurant yesterday and receiving the most disappointing meal ever for your establishment and the lack of service care we received. Your not a fast food chain and I admit that I am more than happy to wait for excellent food (normally is) but when the manageress comes over and says that your food wont be long now as it is in the oven when the restaurant only had four tables seated, I found strange and should have sounded alarms! We ordered 3 pizzas on top starter which eventually came and my wife and I looked at ours in disbelief as the topping were only to be described as baron in comparison. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures but if you look at the advertised images than there was no comparison. Example. Spicy Giuseppe - green peppers pieces 4 in total placed one piece in each quarter and a length of 12mm for 3 pieces and a whooping 30mm for the final piece. There was no red onion or sliced chilli. To be totally honest it was a margarita with a tablespoon of ground beef and 4 bits of green peppers. Their was absolutely no spice at all and was more like a sloppy Giuseppe as it was dripping oil. The other disgraceful pizza served was the Funghi Di Bosch. Again the pizza did nor resemble what was the advertised image and was a margarita with some sparsely placed NON chestnut mushrooms given a ample room to manoeuvre a child’s small toy car around the top of the pizza without cause of concern of hitting a incorrect mushroom! There definitely wasn’t any rosemary or finished off with parsley and Gran Milano cheese! The only pizza that had some similarity to the advertised image was the Polla Ad Astra but again with reserved presentation of topping ingredients but not as bad as the first two mentioned. I beckoned the waitress over and explained that the Spicey Giuseppe had no spice and was disappointing. She offered myself some ground chilli flakes but I opted for the chilli oil which I asked to be changed as this even had no chilli taste. She even admitted it hadn’t infused and brought another bottle over which unfortunately was worse. Disappointment on disappointment. Apart from me beckoning over the waitress, there was no interaction or interest in the customers experience. So I find myself writing this email with a deflated mood as we have eaten numerous times at this establishment and others Pizza Expresses without never walking away disappointed...

The waitress who seated us initially was polite and really friendly with the kids, showing them the kids menu and the colouring on the back, then it all went down hill… chairs felt like they were going to snap when you lean back and I am not a heavy person. The restaurant felt grubby like a kids soft play with sticky tables, floors and chairs.

Despite this we were hungry and have always found pizza express to serve reliable quality of food. So we sat and waited 25 mins trying to catch the eye of a waiter/waitress to order our drinks and indeed food as we had ample time to decide on that too…

However No one was coming to us, we scanned the QR code to order on line but there is no phone signal in the restaurant, so I tried to connect to the WiFi which didn’t work, so eventually with no way of ordering and no one to serve us hunger and thirst gave way and we voted with our feet. Here is the review of the restaurant we ended up going to:

After having a terrible experience with a competitor where we walked out after waiting 25mins just to try and order our initial drinks. It was a pleasure to walk in to prezzo, greeted with a warm professional welcome, served promptly but didn’t feel rushed, clean restaurant, very good food, kids enjoyed the kids menu, and the calzone was just what I needed! Mrs’s had the Tuscan chicken pizza which was blooming lovely! And the deserts were delicious and generously portioned. Fantastic experience, thanks to the staff (who were great with the kids) it was the perfect pit stop for a late lunch. We will be back in future.

Thank you Prezzo our new...

The best Pizza Express we’ve been to, & one of the nicest family friendly restaurants we’ve been to anywhere!! Your staff member Michael just made our visit amazing from start to finish, welcoming our three year old little boy with us, and when we said we were unsure what he might eat off the kids menu because he’s a really fussy toddler, Michael used his initiative and pulled out all the stops to get our little boy involved with the cooking to entice him to eat, and it worked!! They made a pizza together at the table which he was able to take to the chefs himself to cook, and then he was rewarded with the ice cream station after. If only every Pizza Express (and every restaurant for that matter) had a Michael working there who just took our casual dining experience from the usual average to absolutely excellent!! He said he used to work as a children’s entertainer before, & his mum was a pre school head teacher, hence why he’s a dab hand at entertaining the little ones, but he joined pizza express 4yrs ago and stayed ever since as he loves it there! So, Pizza Express bosses if you’re reading this, he needs to be acknowledged for his hard work please and the fantastic efforts he’s making to enhance your brand’s reputation. The food was also excellent and the other staff were lovely too....