PizzaExpress — Restaurant in South Kesteven

This is a regular branch of Pizza Express set alongside the bank of the River Welland in the upmarket town of Stamford. It has a good number of tables as usual set around an open view kitchen area. There are also about three tables set on a balcony over the river but I have never seen these open for use and the chances of staff remembering you are out there are very slim. The food was average Pizza Express fare although I am always surprised how the same pizzas look different every time you visit or between different branches. I thought, especially for nutritional information purposes, they would all be made exactly the same rather than allowing them to be open to interpretation or maybe some chefs are lazier than others in the way they prepare things. Also the chilli oil was incredibly mild to the point it wasn't worth bothering with which is a shame as I particularly enjoy it. Staff were friendly enough but were very slow and didn't pay enough attention to what was going on. This led to our children getting bored and restless for what should have been a simple lunchtime meal. We ended up being there two hours when we expected to be there one hour. The toilets were clean and respectable enough although we were there not long after opening so there shouldn't have been a problem. The gentleman's toilet needs to be better signposted. A number of men accidentally use the ladies as it isn't clear where the gent's is. In places the restaurant is looking rather tired and could do with a bit of TLC but in the current climate I doubt that will happen. On the whole it is ok and perfectly acceptable but it just backs up my idea that going out to a restaurant no longer has any wow factor and you are just as well eating at home and...

Had a very poor experience this evening that has put me off ordering from Pizza Express in the future. Ordered through their website and it said it would be delivered by Uber Eats. About 10 minutes after the food should have arrived, with a child getting hungry, I thought I'd better check the tracking only to find that my order had been cancelled! Apparently Uber didn't have any drivers to deliver the order so they just cancelled it. We ended up driving to the restaurant to find out what had happened, re-ordering and waiting for the food to be cooked, then driving it home again.

Now, I realise it's not ENTIRELY Pizza Express's fault as Uber cancelled the order, and PE was out of pocket because they'd already cooked the food and had to bin it. HOWEVER... 1) PE could have just phoned me up to say Uber couldn't deliver and we could have offered to come collect it; 2) They have chosen to work with Uber Eats when they are clearly unreliable; 3) The text message said to contact the restaurant for more information but they don't answer the phone- they just have an answerphone; and 4) They didn't even offer us any sort of discount!!! They were apologetic and sorted our order out quickly, but offering a discount is the least of what they should have done after the massive inconvenience and late dinner we had and I was pretty shocked that they didn't do this. So while it is completely unconscionable that Uber can take an order and then cancel it half an hour later, once it's already been cooked, there are an awful lot of things Pizza Express could have done to rectify the situation but didn't. Just a small effort at communication would have easily resolved...

It was supposed to be a nice lunch out with a guest that we were entertaining. We got in the restaurant, we were sat at a table, we were not offered a choice or even politely asked if we like the table. We sat down my arm got sickly from ketchup or a sauce as the table was not cleaned, had to ask the server to come and clean which he did and said sorry. We then ordered our food and drink. The drink and starters were quick, not so for the main course. We waited for over 30 min ( the kitchen was prioritising the takeaway food as many boxes left the kitchen before our food came out) and then we saw the pizzas and thought 'ok after all this wait they must be good'. We got very disappointed. I know everyone makes mistakes and perhaps burns a pizza by accident. What makes me very angry still now is that they tried to cut the burnt crust to hide the fact that it was burnt ( by the way this pizza should also have pepperoni it did to be fair had three or four in the whole pizza) . The chef that thought that was a good idea was very wrong, it only added insult to injury. They should not have served that Pizza when they saw the state of it, this was removed from the bill but it spoiled our lunch and afternoon'! I was offered another Pizza but I said 'what to wait another half an hour! We will never visit this place again. Paid £50 for the privilege of...