Pizza Express

Pizza Express is the only pizza chain I regularly return to and the only restaurant where I tend to eat the same thing almost every time — I just love the Veneziana pizza and the idea of 25p going towards saving Venice from sinking. Second best to actually going to Italy …
I hadn’t actually been to this particular branch before and was quite happy to be taken to the downstairs dining area — here you can pretend to be anywhere, not on a busy road in Central London.
Nothing special to report, pizza was predictable, staff friendly and efficient — and they’ve added Malbec to their wine list. Perfect quick fix before heading to a gig around the corner.

One of the worst pizza I ever had. It was soggy and felt really heavy. I had better pizza from Pizza Hut.
The service was quite slow and unkind.

Pizza Express is a well-​known brand and there are lots of them in the area. This one is quite spacious, with a big dining room downstairs in addition to the big area upstairs. We had a team dinner here one evening, with 16 of our staff. They served us well, and fast, and with good food. I think you know what to expect with a Pizza Express. (I think the name is terrible because it implies bottom-​tier takeaway, but Pizza Express is actually a mid-​market restaurant that serves quite good food). This branch was efficient in getting us seated, effective in getting our food onto the table, and we enjoyed ourselves. I think that’s all one can ask for, really.

Food was good — it was classic pizza express. I always forget how delicious their salads are! also got the dough balls for starter, of course! Although they have a new version of the dough balls now (which come with cheese!) not sure how I feel about that, wasn’t brave enough to try them. I stuck to the old classic for fear of being disappointed. Service was good here!
I ordered a glass of the merlot wine and didnt like it so asked to change it and they did no problem! really friendly staff!

The «express» part of Pizza Express isn’t really as quick as you’d expect, but the pizza selection here is decent and it’s across from the Hotel where I usually stay when in London. Unfortunately it’s in the middle of Tourist Hell so beware of strollers and frenetic children running around. The service isn’t very attentive either, I sat at my table staring out the window for several minutes before someone stopped by to take my drink order. I opted for the thin crust pepperoni pizza with rocket salad on top, I get the salad topping whenever I can because I think it adds a great texture and freshness to the pizza.

As always Pizza Express is what you expect. Great quality for a casual dining experience.
Both me and my fiancée had the Super Food Salad… which was huge! And very filling :-)
Even though the service was great. The understand of our requests were very limited.
Firstly, Pizza Express HAS an app… and I adore using mobile app for everything. When I asked the waiter if I could use the Pizza Express app to pay for my meal, he wasn’t too sure then told me that I had to go to the Pizza Express website, and download a code to be able to do that… very strange. I later found out that I could, and the code was at the bottom of the receipt. Still, it’s annoying having to wait for the receipt when I just want to pay and go.
Secondly, we actually decided to go to Pizza Express because we were told that during the Tube Strikes, Pizza Express was offering 40% discount if you mentioned the offer. We checked before we sat down, and was told it was true. Nevertheless, when we asked the waiter about it, he said that we needed a voucher for it… this created a bit of confusion. The restaurant manager was brought over and everything was sorted. A great and very consumer oriented manager :-)
Don’t believe me? ;-)…well, over dinner, I was actually practicing a talk I was doing with my fiancée, and I like to record myself so I can go back over it later. As a result, I actually captured the our discussion with the waiter.
You can here it here

Um yes. London + gluten free pizza. Sold.
My husband and I had dinner here one night of our vacay in London town and loved it. It was affordable and fun and quite tasty. The gluten free pizza was on a delightfully thin crust and was enough to feed both of us, even after a full day of walking around town.
My husband ordered the Dough Balls as an appy and about died because they were so buttery and delicious. I was absolutely jealous I couldn’t try them. (Gluten free version coming any time soon??) Anyway, I can’t remember for the life of me what pizza toppings we got… probably American, knowing us… but we both raved. And to top it off, hubby got some English cider too.
Not bad, not bad at all. (We definitely visited again during our trip!)

Disappointing experience tonight, as a lover of pizza express and someone who visits one most weeks and always considered this branch a good one, tonight I was completely let down.
Dough balls served luke warm/​cold and had to wait a further five minutes to get the butter thats supposed to come with it, pizza not cooked fully and very doughy.
Before we even finished our starters they were serving the main course.
Staff not on the ball and far too Blasé
Complained and given a meal for two on my next return.

This was just around the corner from our hotel (as were a number of other restaurants). There was no waiting around 7:15 p.m. on a Sunday when we arrived. We split two pizzas between 3 people. I think we got a Calabrese and a Giardiniera The pizzas were thin crust and tasty. The wine selection was not vast, but it was acceptable. Prices were decent by (what I take for) London standards. There also appeared to be many locations around the city. If I visit London again, i would definitely go back.

Since I was born in Italy — I really like all kinds of pizza. I tried to cook it by myself but I work long hours so I really don’t have the time to make pizzas regularly. That’s why I go to Pizza Express and enjoy my favourite meal every week.
There is one particular pizza that could challenge even the Mexicans haha lol
Pizza Diavolo is made of such products as hot spiced beef, Tabasco, hot green, jalapeño or roquito peppers and you have to really, really BRAVE to try eat!
If you are looking for something hardcore I would definitely recommend Diavolo :)

I ordered a glass of wine and a salad.
Here is the description
«Warm Vegetable & Goat’s Cheese Salad £10.25
Chargrilled Italian vegetable salad of warm aubergine, red & yellow peppers, santos tomatoes and marinated artichoke with soft goat’s cheese, roasted tomatoes, cucumber, Italian lentils, seasonal mixed leaves, basil and mint. Extra virgin olive oil & red wine vinegar dressing, warm dough stick»
Pretty much everything came out of a tin can (and tasted like it), there were probably no more than ten italian lentils on my plate (I had to look for hem), I had trouble finding the mint, and this entire culinary disaster was drenched in a terrible vinaigrette with too much vinegar in it.
The wine was okay put surely not worth £4.5
Not recommended unless you have some kind of coupon/​or massive discount.

I admit I’m not a huge chain fan and even less so of heavy pizzas but the lower calorie option of essentially a salad on top of a thin crust pizza all under 500 calories has converted me.
The pizza especially with the salad was light and delicious. Husband had the American leggera and I had the pollo leggera. Yes I am coming back!

Stopped in to pick up a pizza on the way back to the hotel. Being an American, I was intrigued by all the varieties of pizza they had on the menu. I had the da moirerie pizza and it was very good. It was made with Gorgonzola cheese, artichokes, pancetta and had a super thin, crispy crust. This was one of the yummiest pizzas I have ever had. It was so good that another member of my group ordered a pizza from there the very next night. The lemonade was also very good.
Service was excellent and the hostess seemed generally thrilled that our group visited their restaurant while on holiday.

The pizza was great and I really liked the ultra thin crust. I had the Romano Pomodoro Pesto pizza with lots of fresh basil and tomatoes. It was quite a large pizza which suited my hunger at the time.
However, my low rating was based soley on the terrible service. We have four different servers throughout our meal. It took 15 minutes to even have our order taken and the place wasn’t even packed, maybe half full. There were several servers standing around, chatting with nothing to do. The food came out fairly promptly yet they never came by to check on us or refill our water pitcher. I spent 15 minutes to track down someone to bring us our check. One server looked me in the eye when I asked for her to bring us the check and she blatantly ignored us, TWICE.
I’m fairly certain this place is full of tourists like us all the time but we really didn’t ask for much. Service was pathetic even for a hotbed of tourists. I rarely get so frustrated that I don’t leave gratuity and these was one of those rare times.

As you already know, I’m not a fan of the old chain restaurants but I feel this branch of P.Ex. as we endearingly call it, deserves a mention & grand old 4 stars.
Now, probably like most people these days I refuse to eat in Pizza Express without a Taste card or a voucher (& I do like a voucher!) but I have to admit if you don’t know where to go or have no other option or just fancy a decent meal; some wine and a place to chat, then this is the place to be. I can’t visit P.Ex. without partaking in a ‘Padana’, it’s simply delish! Everytime I’ve had something else, I’ve missed my favourite pizza and felt like I was almost being unfaithful to my first love in pizza. You can also have (believe it or not) tasty and filling salads (recommend the Pollo); delightful little doughballs and scrumptious desserts too — and then feel like you need to be rolled out! Ah well, the diet (always) starts tomorrow.
This branch is always busy and I’ve always been seated downstairs, which I prefer as it looks /​feels nicer, and the service has always been alright.
Located on The Strand; opposite Charing Cross and extremely close to Trafalgar Square, what more could you ask for?!

Just one look and I knew
You would make everything clear
Make all the clouds disappear
You’re better than all the rest
Who do I love the best
Don’t you know, don’t you know*
Pizza Express, truly «you got it all».
Delirious from lack of sleep, exhausted but nowhere to lay my head as my room wasn’t ready, I stumbled down the Strand at lunch time, fresh off the plane from the States.
My stomach, seemingly mocking my fragile and disoriented state, was pushing me towards the McDonald’s across the street. «There must be something less objectionable», I thought to myself.
Then, like a ray of light, I came upon Pizza Express. I was greeted quickly and seated right away. Joey my server was friendly, attentive and informative. Sensing that hot peppers would keep me aware a bit longer, I ordered the diavolo pizza.
It arrived shortly thereafter, a crisp thin crust, with just the right amount of «done-​ness». The toppings… peppers, spicy pepperoni and onions, were generous but not overwhelming. Voracious, I consumed the pie with the frenzy of a madman, much to the dismay of the Frenchmen next to me. However, when they say the tomato sauce dripping down my chin and the insane gleam in my eye, they discreetly turned away from the scene I presented.
Sated, I felt somewhat human again and was able to soldier on until my hotel room was ready. Pizza Express, you got it all over the other fast food places.
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* here’s everyone’s favorite group from Minneapolis (after Prince and the Revolution), the Jets!

Let me start by saying that I rarely eat pizza at Pizza Express because I make it way better. Modest? No. Just the truth. But after last night’s Unilocal event I had to eat something substantial NOW and the rain helped me decide quickly: Pizza Express it was.
The service was pretty darn good. The server gave up water glasses and a pitcher of water! Score. I do heart my tap water and hate having to ask for re-​fills.
The Mister and I just shared some doughballs and chicken/​pepper/​onion pizza and they all came out fast and piping hot. Since we were sharing they had already split the pizza onto two separate plates. No awkward cutting and trying to decide who gets the bigger piece. It was all decided for us. Thanks, Pizza Express!
So yeah, I can say with confidence that I will definitely drunkingly stumble into this place next time.

Be aware — Unilocal maps this location incorrectly, but the listed address is correct. Follow the numbers on the north side of the Strand, not the map.
It was worth finding this out the hard way on an empty stomach, though!

Yummy pollo pesto pasta!
My only complaint is the table service. The restaurant was completely empty while we were there and it still took our waitress forever to do anything (drink order, food order, refills, check, change etc).

Thank God for Pizza Express.
No really, I’m not kidding. Thank God for Pizza Express.
After wandering around London for a couple days, looking for appropriate places to eat with my 17 month old son, we wandered into Pizza Express — hot, hungry, and dirty (well him… I wasn’t so much dirty ;-)). Many places had already given us the side-​eye, apparently bringing a toddler into a few establishments in the area is like dropping a stink bomb. But not so Pizza Express! We were welcomed with open arms, by a very sweet and accommodating waitress.
Due to who knows what, my son hadn’t eaten much over the course of the previous few days, and I will admit that I went to Pizza Express hoping to find something that he’d eat… and oh boy, I did! Their children’s menu deserves two huge thumbs up — from the super cute miniature salad, to the tiny portion of dough balls, to the main course (Christopher happily ate almost the entire bowl of pasta), finishing with a mini sundae? Perfection. Very little hit the floor, and that is a huge accomplishment.
And for mum? Well, the salad was great, the wine list had a decent selection, and the pizza was incomparable to any chain in the States (really — someone open a Pizza Express in the US!). Yum.
Yeah. We ate there twice. And a third time at a different location. Don’t judge… we’re big fans.
Pizza Express, we heart you.