Pizza Express

Service was terrible, waited nearly an hour for mains should’ve had a chandos instead.

With many
pizzerias from which to choose in the City Centre area, one of the best bets
for a delicious pizza or a fantastic pasta is the new Pizza Express located at
the bottom of Princes Quay. Pizza Express was founded in the 1960’s with one humble restaurant near
Museum Street, London, WC2. They aimed to offer good, wholesome, authentic
Italian-​style pizza and they have done. Plus, you only have to look on the
Pizza Express website to have a look at their extensive menu and even book a
table. Your taste
buds are primed before walking in the door, because the aroma of freshly cooked
pizza wafts up the steps to the shopping centre and throughout the outdoor
seating area. To compare Pizza Express with Pizza Hut would be like comparing
McDonald’s to a Steak House. The Express menu is traditional Italian GOURMET
Pizzas, is how it was described to me and certainly they were superb. Not that
doughy, mass produced, stodgy and heavily artificial pap you tend to get in the
’Hut?’ Originally on
my first couple of visits here there were problems with the service. Waiting an
hour for a vegetarian pizza, then having one brought to us covered in chicken
and then subsequent mix-​ups over desserts on more than one occasion had me
feeling a bit concerned. But I powered
through it and have been back a couple of times since with a much-​improved
level of service. The pizzas have wonderful charred, thin, soft, chewy crust of yum and
they are not overwhelmed by toppings! I tend to go for the Giardiniera
(Asparagus, artichokes, mushrooms, red peppers, santos tomatoes, olives, garlic
oil, tomato & pesto base) pizza, but recently had the Padana (Goats’
cheese, spinach, red & caramelised onions, garlic oil). It’s like a
party in your mouth! With goat’s cheese! And onions! And spinach. And dough.
It’s a weird party, I won’t deny that. If you can believe it, I didn’t actually plan for us to eat dessert out
after dinner until my friends suggested it. Yes, someone else had to implant
the idea into my head of mobbing a sugar-​laden eatery post-​pizza coma. They
have a selection on Dolcetti (mini-​puddings that come with a selection of
coffees) and the chocolate fudge cake is pretty scrumptious! I would highly recommend Pizza Express for someone
looking for a good pizza or pasta. The menu lists plenty of family-​pleasing
options and they take the Taste card!

I first noticed that they dont have much staff here wich is never a good thing. for starters we had bruschetta italia, the bread was too hard and it was cold, they put the tiniest sprinkle of cheese on it. our pizza was the pomodoro pesto wich had big basil leaves on it that we had to pick off, the pizza was sooo thin it was unbelievable. we could fold each slice into a roll it was that thin, but it did taste nice althought it could of been more warmer. For dessrt we had the banoffe pie that tasted so indulging, it was srved with a strawberry and some double cream.

The quality and range of pizzas served at a pizza express is always worth the visit. This restaurant is a new addition to Princes Quay and they have planned and utilised the available area very well. Unfortunately where this one fails miserably is with the quality of the staff, we visited late Saturday Lunch the place wasn’t crowded and the staff out numbered the customers. Taking this into account there was no excuse for the slow pace and attitude everything had to be asked for at least twice and to walk away from our table empty handed leaving dirty plates is the sort of thing that is usually covered on the first day of training. I’m always prepared to be patient when staff are busy but not having to wait while they finish personal conversations and then avoid eye contact with at all costs. Really do need to re train in the basics.