PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

Wow! What can I say. In my 52 years this has to be the worst dining experience I have ever had. In fact it got so farcical that we thought Michael McIntyre was going to pop out with his TV crew as a prank! What in any world , however busy you are is an hour and 15 mins acceptable to wait for food! We had to get the attention of a waiter for drinks after 20 mins we then had to physically get up and ask to have our order taken...then 1 of the pizzas was ordered incorrectly we could see this on the app so again had to get up and bring this to their attention....then we waited and waited and waited and waited...... people arriving and getting food ... honestly...it was utterly ridiculous. In the end I called a woman over who looked like she had some savvy and told her how long we had waited! She looked horrified. The 4 pizzas then came...one being a chicken fajitas pizza...guess what no chicken so that got whisked away and the returned when the rest of us had finished. You literally could not make it up! It was so awful we ended up doing nothing but laughing! We did end up being told we would have 50% off the whole bill....but nothing was clear and so when the bill came it was higher than if we had used the offer on the app. Again we called over for help and the manager explained it was a further 50% off the offer too! Then explain that clearly...we are not stupid people! In the end it cost us £26 for 2 drinks, 4 pizzas and a calamari but also high blood pressure , stress and a waste of 2.5 hours of our lives!

Never again! Get more staff and get it together! How hard is it to make 4 pizza's ...( unfortunately for them I know how quick it takes as my daughter worked at PE for 2 years, she assured me that basically they has simply...

Dining at this establishment left me pondering who on Earth thought hiring these folks was a good idea. Honestly, everything that could go wrong, did! First off, the server seemed to have missed the memo on customer service. I had to repeat myself multiple times for simple dishes and was even asked to point at the menu like I was a toddler learning to read. How does someone working at a pizza place not know what a margarita pizza is? It’s not rocket science!

Then there was the delightful surprise of being served pizza without a cutter. When we asked for one, we were handed a dirty one—thanks for that, pal! On the bright side, the food was lovely; the chefs clearly know their way around an American pizza. It was a real treat when our competent server asked how our food was—after we’d finished—and offered us drinks like a late-night infomercial host. He even asked if we wanted dessert three times, which we politely declined each time. Thanks for the persistence, but I wasn’t looking to join a dessert support group!

Then came the grand finale: paying the bill. I would have preferred a night in a jail cell than dealing with this circus. It took 20 minutes, and the first 10 were spent watching him scan the same QR code for a discount, convinced the ninth time would be the charm. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t. I suggested typing in the code, and that seemed to rattle him—off he went to fetch the manager. Eventually, I paid, feeling like I’d just completed a marathon. I can only imagine it was how Nelson Mandela felt after 20 years—except I’m not planning to reoffend by ever returning to this delightful train wreck known as STADIUMMK...

I am absolutely appalled by the lack of hygiene practices I witnessed from the kitchen staff at the Pizza Express Milton Keynes Stadium branch.

My partner and I were seated at table 30, directly facing the kitchen, and what we saw was completely unacceptable.

One of the chefs, an older gentleman with glasses, was using his phone while preparing food. We did not see him wash his hands after using his phone either!!

And bizarrely, he even took a call on loudspeaker. I understand that personal emergencies can happen, but if that was the case, the chef should have stepped out of the kitchen to handle it instead of continuing to use his phone while touching food that would later be served to customers!

It is common knowledge, backed by science, that mobile phones are full of germs—studies say they’re dirtier than a toilet seat. We use them everywhere, picking up bacteria from all kinds of places. Touching a phone while cooking and not washing hands after is a serious health risk and should never happen in any kitchen. Even kids know this.

We saw this was happening while we were in the middle of eating our meal, and it made us absolutely disgusted.

I’m sure it won’t be long until customers start coming down with E.coli food poisoning from it, that is, if people haven’t been already.

Pizza Express needs to seriously reconsider the hygiene standards of their staff. Until then, we won’t be returning, and I urge others to think twice before...