Pizza Pilgrims London Bridge — Restaurant in London

TLDR: mediocre pizza, dirty tap water, overcharged bill, dishonest staff —

Food: I have been to several branches of Pizza Pilgrims, including Soho, Covent Garden and Queensway. The food at London Bridge was the least pleasing of the branches for the following reasons: The Pizza I have always gotten the 8 cheese pizza (I’m a creature of habit) especially because I enjoy the chilli jam that is included. However, it seems there was a shortage of chilli jam today because my pizza barely had anything. I have a good reference idea of the normal amount of jam and this was subpar. Nevertheless, it was not so bad that it required me to make a fuss/ complain.

The water/ refreshments Today, I opted for tap water which was served in a bottled glass jar. I had several glasses of water before realising that there was bits of debris floating in the water. I was absolutely disgusted as I have never been to any restaurant where tap water was filthy - let alone one with a 5 star hygiene rating on the door. I investigated further to ensure it wasn’t just from my food and checked the glass jar itself; as I suspected, it had debris in it, too. At this point, it seemed necessary to raise my concerns with the waiter who I asked to inspect the glass bottle himself. He also confirmed there was debris in it. Upon investigation, he determined that the most likely cause was that the bottle was taken from the dishwasher prior to it actually being cleaned. He proceeded to replace the bottle and glasses of water. He assured me that he had spoken to his manager to ensure that it doesn’t happen again with any other customers.

I understand that mistakes happen, though this was a very big error. As such, I didn’t feel the need to take my concerns further - especially with the assurance that it had been raised with the manager.

Service: Despite the obvious issues with the food and refreshments, the overall was okay when we were dinning. However, things certainly took a turn for the worse when it was time to pay. The waiter brought the card machine and I paid. Upon leaving the restaurant, I inspected the receipt and noticed that my card had been charged circa. £100 when the receipt was for a meal around £40. So, I was mistakingly charged over double the price. I turned back to the restaurant and explained the error, which turned out to be because I had paid for another table’s meal (lucky them). After a good 20 minutes of waiting around, etc., I was refunded, which was much longer than I ought to have waited.

Interestingly, I explained to the manager that my overall experience was disappointing due to this charging error and the water issue mentioned earlier. The manager was confused about the water issue and asked me to clarify as he did not know about this. I was also confused because I was assured by the waiter earlier that the manager has been informed. I proceeded to explain further and get the waiter to corroborate my explanation. However, by this point, I was absolutely disappointed that the waiter had perhaps been dishonest about telling his manager. I won’t speculate, though it would appear that he was trying to avoid owning up to the earlier error.

Needless to say, after all that, there was no gratuity offered.

All in all, I would not go back to London Bridge branch. I would suggest people go to Soho, Covent Garden and Queensway instead where the service is A+ and the water won’t give...

As I often noticed long queues outside Pizza Pilgrim, and with my usual dining spot closed on Easter Friday, I decided to give this place a try. Upon arrival, I saw a few people waiting outside, so I parked my bike and entered. I had hoped for a lively and welcoming atmosphere, but instead, as soon as I went in, the woman at the front finished something she was doing and said hi? I said table for one and asked how long the wait would be? She paused and said 20 minutes. I looked around at the half-empty tables and asked if those were reserved. She said yes and pointed outside for me to wait. I was shocked. I thought to myself, is she really pointing instead of simply asking me to wait? Are they unaware of mystery diners and food critics who could come in dressed in average clothes to assess their service? At that point, I decided to have lunch and watch this woman. I agreed to wait. As soon as I was about to turn away, she seated other customers at those supposedly reserved tables. I thought to myself, so she lied? Those tables were not reserved after all.

I was asked to come in and given a table where I sat and waited for someone to take my order. It's definitely a busy place. The pizzas are very much similar to a Tandoori Naan with cheese and olives on top. Throughout my time there, the woman seemed to be speaking with customers as if they were dining in for free and she was doing them a favor. I'm unsure why no one has ever noticed her attitude before, but I'm glad I did. My order was taken by a male staff member who was quick and delivered my Margherita pizza promptly. Overall, this place doesn't seem to welcome solo diners as they prioritize making money and prefer groups of people since one person won't order as much, resulting in less profit. And this isn't just a guess; I actually witnessed it. After me, another solo diner arrived, and once again, the male staff member at the front hesitated. I was expecting a delicious pizza with a welcoming and energetic vibe, but unfortunately, this place truly disappointed. I hope the organization takes note of my review and provides training to their staff to welcome customers with enthusiasm rather than pointing fingers towards customers to wait outside.

By the way, the female host...

We booked a table for 4 Sunday with our kids (7 and 10). Ushered upstairs despite there being at least two tables free downstairs. Upstairs was completely empty apart from people coming up to use the bathroom. No atmosphere at all. Menus came quickly but we realized we didn't have kid menus soon after. From there a very protracted wait, we had obviously been forgotten about. Eventually we were able to request kid menus these came but without crayons. We decided to order everything quickly due to the bad service. I wanted to try the pineapple margarita cocktail but was told not possible due to no gin. I had to explain to the waiter there is no gin in a margarita. Our waiter seemed to be on another planet entirely. Our pizzas came pretty quickly mine had an extremely burnt part in the crust and they were quite small. Our drinks did not come with the food and we were one pizza short. The pizza was OK but not great I had the nduja there were just three tiny blobs of it on there. The bathrooms were disgusting toilet paper and used tampons piled up on the floor beside the toilet. When the bill came it was incorrect and I challenged it. The waiter was rude and didn't seem to understand why I was questioning the fact that we had been charged for five pizzas despite there only being four of us. Could not get out of there soon enough. Needless to say we shall not be returning and more to the point I won't be setting foot in any branch of this shockingly awful chain ever again in my lifetime, so...