PizzaExpress — Restaurant in London

One of the worst experiences I have had the misfortune to endure at any branch of Pizza Express in all the many years of dining there.

Where to begin?

Service: non-existent and hostile to say the least. Grabbed a take-away, for the second time in a week (as had been obliged to eat out during a kitchen renovation) and was served by the self-same young woman (possibly a manager) who asked, impolitely and abrasively, without so much as a please or thank-you, for 'some space' despite the fact that neither my wife nor I were standing that close to her but trying to give sufficient room behind us and to our sides for enabling customers to walk past, unhindered.

If that wasn't enough, a second server insisted, after we had sat down to wait for our food, to move to a different table; again, this instruction was made without an ounce of warmth, kindness, politeness or anything approaching decency or respect.

Food: Falling way below standard and this seems to be the case across the board with the chain: two pizzas for £30 with a soggy and inedible base each; inadequate portions of ingredients where quality was dreadful; our rocket leaves were wilting and stale; artichokes were tasteless and red onion rings were two to three at most on both pizzas.

All in all, PE need to raise their game if they are to remain in what is an already over-crowed market and if this branch does not improve its appalling treatment of customers I am sure they will soon slide into disappearance.

Judging by the paltry number of people dining in when we were there, this could be coming sooner than they think.

Their attitude needs to be adjusted urgently and some fundamental customer service manners re-instated.

Do yourselves a favour and eat at Bob's in N10 where they know how to treat customers properly and food is infinitely better than what I have experienced - certainly at this poor example of...

We arrived at 18:45 as booked, and as is the case with this - our local Pizza Express - stood just inside the door to await someone to greet us and show us to our table. The restaurant was very busy, indeed the only empty table was ours. We stood while watching at least four members of the team go too and forth to and from tables. We waited to be greeted. Two members of the team served a table right by where we were standing. We had to actually move slightly to let them get to the table. They returned to this table three times while we stood. Not once did either of them acknowledge us, greet us or even make eye contact. No other member of staff came to greet us. We stood and waited for approx ten minutes. On a fourth passing by one of the team we stopped her and asked her if anyone was going to actually acknowledge our presence. I didn’t hear her reply. My wife walked to the serving counter to ask for the manager. We had decided to leave but felt it important to explain why. The manager was behind the counter working with the chefs. She came out after a further short delay, and my wife explained what had ensued since our arrival. The manager said all the right things by way of apology, adding that the father of one of the chefs had died that morning so they were short staffed, hence why she was cooking and not working front of house. She agreed that it was totally unacceptable that no member of her team had made any effort to acknowledge us, greet us, apologise for keeping us waiting, let alone show us to our table. The manager asked us to please sit at the table and reassured my wife we would be served and fed courteously and efficiently. We felt in no doubt this would NOT be the case based on our experience so far. We left and had an enjoyable meal at the local...

I visited Pizza Hut Muswell Hill last week around 9 pm to do a last-minute celebration with my partner and young baby. We frequent that particular branch because it's close to my house. Waitress Katie looked so unhappy that we were there even though there was an hour before closing time. We rushed to order and eat our meal so we could leave as soon as possible. Every time we asked for service, katie kept giving us an unhappy face or would pretend as if she didn't see us when we tried to get her attention. Katie finally told us, "You need to leave the restaurant it is 10 pm." I asked why she was speaking to us rudly, and if she can give me her name and ID number, she told me to JUST GET OUT its 10pm and walked away. Katie had to be told to get inside and stop talking by other members of staff as she kept on defending herself that she hadn't done anything. Katie clearly must have felt very confident that there were no consequences to her actions to be speaking to customers like this. It was a very annoying evening that spoiled our celebratory mood. Customer service was ZERO. I complained to pizza express and they offered to look in to the case and gave a £30 voucher towards our next meal however I do not know if attention was paid to the particular member of staff to fix her attitude towards customer service. I really don't know if I would visit that branch agai. I don't want to be boxed out of the restaurant next time if the same person...