PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

We arrived promptly for our 8pm booking but had to wait over 10 minutes to be greeted and an additional 5 minutes to be seated, to which we saw a number of staff members pushing tables together to accommodate us, leading us to believe they weren’t prepared for our large group booking made over a week prior.

We waited between 20 and 30 minutes before one member of our group left the table and had to seek out a staff member to take our drinks order. The member of our group noted that the waiting staff appeared to be stood together talking at the other end of the restaurant.

To speed up time, we ordered drinks, starters and mains at the same time. The drinks arrived in an acceptable time, however I believe we waited 45 minutes before enquiring as to where our starters were. By this point we were only one of two tables left at the restaurant.

We were told that the kitchen had lost the ticket for our starters, so we asked if we could cancel them and just have the mains. The waitress stated she would ask her manager, however we didn’t receive a response and our main courses were brought to us 10 minutes later. Having arrived at the restaurant at 8pm, we ate at 9:30pm.

Positively, the main courses were pleasant and tasty, however we did not have another opportunity to order more drinks, no one came to check on us after the mains were brought out and we felt pressured to eat up and leave the restaurant as quickly as possible.

In general, we feel incredibly let down by this experience and extremely unvalued and unwelcome as customers. There was little to no communication from the staff or management, no acknowledgement or an apology for the poor service, let alone a discount offered.

On a separate note, we had two party members who were running late, therefore we asked if we could order ahead for them, around 15 minutes after placing our initial food order, before our starters had even arrived. We were told by the staff member that they were not accepting any additional restaurant orders. This was despite those party members being part of the original booking numbers.

As mentioned by a previous review, it appears the restaurant prioritises takeaway orders over customers in the restaurant which is frankly unacceptable when it results in an hour and a half...

The food was reliable, just as in other Pizza Express restaurants but the service was just shocking. From the moment we walked in, the initial staff member we met was blunt and cold as if he did not want us to be at the restaurant and showed us to our table with no word despite us trying to be kind and jovial. Order time was slow but we appreciate sometimes that cannot be helped, however it continued to go downhill even as the restaurant emptied out. The waiter who served us whilst polite and helpful with the drinks came across a bit belittling, referring to us as “girls” (bearing in mind we are in a our mid 20s) which made us feel very uncomfortable. We were sat upstairs with two other occupied tables and the service for everyone was incredibly slow from the time to wait to order drinks, to then ordering mains. We indicated to the waiter that we wanted to utilise the set menu (who did not seem very aware of it despite it being all over the menu) and started by ordering starters and mains. The food was great as always with Pizza Express (pizza a little overdone but sometimes cannot be helped in the ovens!). Once we were served our mains, not a single member of staff came back upstairs again. We were sat with empty plates waiting for assistance for an hour and a half. The other table that was still occupied at the time ended up going downstairs to get their bill, and we were wanting to order desserts from the set menu as previously discussed with the waiter. But absolutely nothing. Ultimately we gave up on trying to order dessert and more drinks and was able to use the app to pay (which in itself was difficult). Fortunately we utilised a buy one get one for £2.95 deal otherwise the bill would have been extortionate as we couldn’t use the set menu. We had thought that maybe the waiter who was serving us had finished his shift, but as we were leaving we saw him stood at the till chatting to another of his colleagues. Honestly it was the strangest experience and not one we hope to repeat...

Ordered here multiple times now and the order always comes wrong.

I understand mistakes happen but this is a regular occurrence.

Today was the final straw for me. We spent £41 on pizza and pasta and ordered through deliveroo , the food came stone cold..... When my wife opened her so called chicken pasta , there was no chicken at all , and the past was half swimming in green grease.

I rang back multiple times to complain and ask for the food to be made again and delivery in good time as we had already waited a fair while. The phone got answered twice , the first time nobody spoke and just left me a while so i rang back again to nobody speaking again to finally somebody say bare with me and then hang up. I then rang a few more times and nobody answered.

At this point i ended up driving into town to speak to the actual restaurant it self and their staff to see a number of staff free to take a call and only a couple of tables filled for dining non of which needed help.

While in the restaurant waiting for our re order i noticed the chef eating while cooking and the " manager " blow his nose and continue to do jobs without washing his hands.

Upon taking our second order home after driving into town for a delivery collection to collect myself my wife began eating her food and bit into some chicken which was pink which resulted in her leaving her meal once again and £17 plus for a pasta dish that was twice uneatable and a whole lot of messing around.

This will be the last time we will order or dine from pizza express and this will be reported...