PizzaExpress — Restaurant in Trafford

A bad start and an evening we had to work hard at enjoying. We arrived 10 minutes early, having booked a table and were informed that our table wasn't ready. People were still sat at it and weren't ready to leave because they still had their coffee and hadn't yet paid the bill (one man sat nursing his coffee whilst his young child stood up and used the padded bench as a bouncy castle, lovely). The manager tried to hurry them up as they had been told the table was required by 6 pm (why they didn't just arrange to have the table back by quarter to and so avoid all of this I don't know). In the interim we were told we could sit at the table next to them as they would be putting the two lots of tables together for our larger party once they had left. That felt uncomfortable as we would be almost sat on top of them plus I knew we had a hungry 3 year old arriving soon and was wondering how we were going to work this out. My hesitancy showed and the manager snapped at me that I could choose to just stand here or go sit down, it came across pretty aggressive but I thought he might just have been a bit harassed so I ignored it. Once we got the tables together we were ordering drinks and asking about using a voucher code and Tesco vouchers. The waiter explained we couldn't use both. We said that this was confusing as we had just done the same thing 3 weeks ago in a different pizza express and were told it was fine as the Tesco vouchers were treated as cash. The waiter got the manager. The manager told us that was incorrect information but that he was willing to honour it this time. He then told my brother he could check the T's&C's. Everyone was a little confused and het up but ultimately accepted what he'd said. My brother went online to check the T's&C's as he'd been advised. It all got a little strange from there, the manager sees him checking them on his phone, gets visibly annoyed and comes over to again, impress upon us that the two in conjunction are never accepted and why. Cue baffled faces. We weren't very sure why he was over at the table again to have a go at us but we all largely ignored it hoping the lecture would end soon as we had thought this had all been resolved with the previous conversation. He eventually goes away and we carry on our conversation (it's my dad's 70th so we're determined to enjoy the night). Suddenly, the manager appesrs again, this time with a binder. He plops it down next to my brother and starts the same lecture again. For the third time. But this time with props! By this point I've largely lost the will to live. My brother looks genuinely amazed that the man is back yet again, with the same lecture, that hasn't been disputed at all since conversation number one. I'm starting to wonder whether we've all died and found ourselves in our own personal hell together, where we've had a relentless Sisiphyan punishment imposed on us of listening to the same lecture again and again for all eternity. Luckily it does eventually end and we eventually get to the point of ordering food (hurrah!!). Unfortunately for us some of the food is unavailable. My husband is told that he cannot have the prawn starter because the kitchen won't have it ready for another hour and a half (at this point I'm wondering whether the kitchen staff have been enduring a similar fate to us in terms of the never ending lecture, I imagine that could put them 1.5 hours behind). In the end I beg my husband to make a different choice quickly so that we can all eat (hungry three year old most of all, nobody wants a hangry toddler on their hands) which, thankfully, he does. Regardless, we then endure a long wait for the starters to arrive, but nobody dares say anything for fear of another lecture. Best to keep quiet. Once the starters arrived, things finally went pretty well to be honest, the food was great, the waiter was great and the manager largely left us alone except to be quite nice in brief bursts. So the second part of the evening was actually pretty enjoyable. Still, I'm not sure I'd be going...

We had an absolutely fantastic time for the Pizza Making party this week - we're still talking about it, and made some really precious family memories. Every single person in the team made a big effort for the event, which was my sister's 30th birthday. We actually did the pizza making parties when we were children 20 years ago, so coming back to do this was very special (and just as fun as we remembered!). We were greeted with a glass of prosecco, olives and sun-dried tomatoes, and fresh hot doughballs on arrival, then shown to our private lesson - making our own chef hats with our names on them was a really nice touch! We learnt about the history of pizza, had some fun being shown how to make and toss the pizza, experimented with our own toppings (and had the pizzeria debating about pineapple on pizza...), and finally sitting down to enjoy our own cooked pizzas. There were even certificates handed out with various awards (e.g. Best Pizza voted by the team, as well as some more humorous ones...). This was a brilliant evening, with plenty of entertainment and a delicious meal at the end, all for a very decent price. I would wholeheartedly recommend booking for one of these for your celebrations - Massimo and the Hale team went out of their way to make this really special, and we are looking forward to the next big birthday when we will be back to make our own...

We visited Pizza Express, Hale, Ashley Rd last Saturday (1st). There were 4 of us and 3 of our party, including my daughter are coeliac, I have allergies too- nuts, tomatoes and milk we are also a mixture of vegetarian and vegan. I hope I have the names correct- Our server Max is outstanding at his job, the service is fantastic here, he went through the menu with us and explained the app to us. Brilliant waiter! The manager, who has recently been promoted, Reser, is an asset to your management team, he went above and beyond ensuring all our food was perfect and all our allergies and intolerances were taken very seriously, he too helped us with the pizza express app, which we appreciated greatly, we had a lovely talk with him about his journey with Pizza Express and how much he enjoys working with his team and for the company, as a customer I felt his love for his job, his care and passion and that shone through to all of us. Thank you. Thank you to the chef, Jee, food outstanding and everything perfectly cooked- nothing was any trouble, it truly is delicious food! Thank you to Freya too, who also looked after us, her menu knowledge and care is phenomenal. We all appreciate how much you all as a team looked after us thank you, we will definitely...