PizzaExpress — Restaurant in South Oxfordshire

We recently organised a pizza-making birthday party at Wallingford Pizza Express for our daughter's 8th birthday. We couldn't have been happier with the service we received. Alex ran the party. He was extremely welcoming from the moment we arrived, talking directly to our daughter and to her younger brother (who took a while to warm up)! Alex was patient and friendly and made a real effort to include all the children we had invited. He gave clear instructions and began by explaining the importance of food hygiene. After a brief introduction, he asked all the children to line up to wash their hands, and as if by magic, they did! He had them all eating out of the palm of his hand and they were engaged from start to finish!

The children were given clear instructions together with practical demonstrations of each of the steps. They loved being mini chefs and being the only ones in such a large space!

What's included:

a chef's hat and colouring activity sheet for every child

a dough ball starter with garlic butter dip, fresh tomatoes and cucumber sticks

ingredients for a pizza each with a topping of the child's choice (lots of choice!) Made by the children and then eaten in the restaurant

a ball of ice cream each for dessert

unlimited squash throughout (including "tropical"...a mix of orange and blackcurrant squash!)

coffee/tea/wine available for an additional cost for the adults before the party begins

all dietary requirements taken care of (if requested in advance) e.g gluten free

private hire of the restaurant for the duration of the party

For just £15 a head, when you consider the price of just buying a pizza, we considered this to be real value for money and, most importantly, our daughter and her brother and friends all loved it. A great practical party with the added bonus of the children being able to eat their creation!

Thank you so much to Alex and the team at Wallingford PIzza Express. We would...

Arrived on time for booking, stood around for a few minutes until told our table wasn't ready. Our table of 8 was seated in the main thoroughfare resulting in people and staff pushing past the back of our seats to squeeze past a pillar. Due to one of our party having some serious allergies we requested a slight change to one of the main course dishes from the menu, at first we were told that was fine, then we were told that the chef had said no changes, then we recieved the order and were told the change had been made...upon inspection the dish had the ingredient that could have caused a night in A&E. The manager upon being told this didn't seem particularly concerned. Several mix ups on our order ensued throughout the evening finally resulting in one of the party not recieveing their pudding at all and not being told until the rest of the party had finished theirs and then the coffee ordered was requested again. When asked the staff said that all of that pudding (it was listed as NEW on the menu) was out of date.... the waiting staff were clearly stressed and the manager was clearly putting pressure on them, this resulted in the staff making mistakes. This also resulted in the general atmosphere being poor. Shame really as not long ago it used to be a nice relaxing place for a meal...

Went there at about 8.30pm on a sunday night. The place was deserted except for a group of four women with a couple of toddlers. There seemed to be more staff than customers who kept themselves busy by engaging with their mobiles or chatting with each other. One of them came over to take the order after I must have looked at him a couple of times to indicate I was ready to order. The order was for a Margherita pizza. It duly arrived and I could tell just by looking at it that it was going to be tasteless. Unfortunately that was the case. It lacked seasoning and not a hint of oregano. It was BLAND, BLAND AND BLAND. I was forced to send it back and asked for another with some seasoning and at least some oregano or basil on it. It arrived after waiting for about 15 minutes. It was a definite improvement on the previous one. I ordered Tiramisu for dessert which was ok. Not sure if I was served a double portion to make up for the pizza which was returned. Staff are young and not welcoming and not customer focused. Perhaps just there to earn some money while studying. It my be harsh to say I wouldn't recommend this place based on my experience...