PizzaExpress — Restaurant in High Peak

A very unfortunate visit to Buxton Pizza Express leading to upset stomach.

1. The pre-booked visit started poorly with the, albeit friendly waitress telling us there were several items off the menu due to a missed delivery:

• No Fiorentina pizza • No spinach or egg toppings • No Beer (IPA)

2. The starters (various doughballs) took ages to arrive (we were almost going to leave) and when they did they were lukewarm at best. Same deal for the main course pizzas.

3. But worse the food hygiene was awful resulting in one of our party having stomach cramps and diarrhoea later that night / following day.

We were sitting facing the kitchen area and over the 2 hours we were there:

a) The waitress staff and restaurant manager were regularly plating up food with their bare hands after taking orders, clearing and wiping tables, without following any hand hygiene. On several occasions the waitresses were scooping up salad items, cheese and herbs with their unwashed hands adding them to the dishes prepared by the kitchen. Then wiping their hands down the back of their jeans / clothing.

b) No one in the kitchen area washed their hands throughout.

c) There was no evidence of food items being chilled and several pre-prepared pizza and the toppings were left un-chilled in the kitchen area.

d) Food served up was lukewarm and doubtful had reached the correct temperature to kill bacteria.

On bringing this to the attention of the manager he stated: "Yes, we are short staffed and was aware they were helping out the kitchen when busy" and "you are right to complain and he would not be happy with it".

Given his response and that he was also plating up food whilst working outside the kitchen area shows a worrying lack of management regards hygiene.

Overall, it was the worse food we have had at Pizza Express, or indeed any restaurant, and I’m surprised at the lack of hygiene training / adherence and attitude of manager. We paid and left.

I have made a complaint to High Peaks Environmental Health and hope they investigate the matter. In my opinion the restaurant should not be open and...

Thought id try a new pizza place with my young child when we got there we waited at the front desk for 10 minutes (there was only 6 tables with people on) whilst 4 staff members walked past us avoiding eye contact so we decided to find our own seat we waited another 10 minutes but still no menues so i tryed to speak to a member of staff who was walking past our table she refused to give eye contact and pretend i wasnt there after another customer started to look because of how loud i was saying exscuse me she finally spoke to me very rudely and suggested i moved tables so we did as it was a 4 person table so went to a two person she gave us our menue then within 2 minutes was back asking for our order i said we hadnt decided yet then she went to the table next to us without saying a word and then the general manager came straight over and asked again if we wanted to order she had seen the previous staff member just leave i said where still deciding and that we had just been asked she gave me a very unpleasant look and again rudely walked off with no word again very rude staff and mangment with no service skills after both them interaction my young child turned to me and said they wasnt being very nice to us and that she didnt want to eat there anymore so we left and went to local lounge where the staff where very friendly we wont be returning to pizza express again and will be telling others about this exsperiance as it was a...

Not sure whether the staff were given bad news before we came in but they were all so miserable throughout. The guy serving us, didn’t catch his name, never once so much as smiled. The majority of the food was ok, what you’d expect. Until my youngest was getting to the end of his meal and all of the mushrooms were left. It was a simple child’s, cheese sauce, pasta and mushrooms! All the mushrooms were completely raw. I’m assuming they were thrown in at the end. How is it possible to get a child’s mushroom pasta wrong where the mushroom is the main concept. We told the manager who was very uninterested and replied with “oh I heard, I’ll take it off the bill” not quite the response I expected no apology, offered him another meal, but it was too late. They took both kids meals off the bill, didn’t tell us I just saw when they brought it back over, but I would much rather have had an actual apology. My change was then literally dumped on the table, no here’s your change, no plate to put it on, just dropped in-front of me and the staff walked off.

I don’t think I’ve ever had such bad service. I understand it’s a chain and this might not be their desired career choice, but pizza express isn’t cheap! A smile and some sincerity...