To think pizza express has officially lost its charm and is not the same place it once was.

[SonnyHoney]

I cashed in my Tesco Clubcard points for a nice meal out this evening.
We had:

• shit pizzas
• shit chicken wings
• a crappy Caesar salad

I used to love PizzaExpress. It was family-friendly dining with nice lighting, Fun kids colouring that didn’t feel really cheap.

Is it just me, or has it really gone downhill over the last few years? I was genuinely disappointed, as it was always a reliable treat.

There are obviously fantastic little local pizzerias we frequent, but PizzaExpress was always that easy option.

We popped into franco manca new years eve with the kids and that was much better and cheaper.

They used to do loads of offers and we would go but once those stopped there was no incentive to pay £50 for a couple of pizzas and a couple of drinks and sides.

For a chain pizza restaurant I think Pizza Express is fine. Its not a super hot sourdough place but it does reliably edible and not horribly expensive pizza. The service is fine and it’s family friendly.

Its never pretended to be fine dining though.

I’m not sure what its niche is nowadays. It was popular in the 80s and 90s because it was good and there was far less choice. Not the case any more. I guess it probably needs an overhaul.

Was it good, or is this just nostalgia talking? Because I hear the same thing for every single place, that it’s going down hill and isn’t the same. Can someone confirm???

like most casual dining restaurants flipped from private equity investor to the next, the original idea has been overinflated and diluted and entirely lost in their determination to squeeze every last penny out for its investors. I still go there (we have a local one with the most delightful staff plus I have mastered the complicated system of stamps and freebies) — but it bears no relation to the upscale place I visited as a big treat in the 90s.

Like a lot of these chain restaurants the golden age was in the 90s. Pizza Express, Pizza Hut etc running costs used to be reasonable so prices were affordable. People, including teens, were out and about more as it was pre-internet and phones and once again, affordable. As a result the food and service was much better. The financial crisis of 2008 was the real nail in coffin and we’ve never really recovered. The business model simply isn’t sustainable any more. Those hanging on have ridiculous prices and cut costs to the bare bone, so quality and service suffer and they perpetuate their own death.

Yes it was good.
Chicer (navy and marble) than its competitors Pizza Hut (red) and Pizzaland (bright green) and more refined offerings.

I would say that lots of places have gone downhill.
Pizza Express back in the 90s absolutely was one of the better chains. There was Pizza Hut, another one whose name I forget, Domino's didn't exist. I haven't been recently so can't compare.

However, I have been to other restaurants recently (since Covid) which used to be reliably decent and have been shocked - restaurants cold, food cold, menu items unavailable, not cooked well, shoddy service. The list of places I won't go to now is getting rather long.

Pizzaland - that's the one. Thank you @FourForksSake !

No. I don’t need to define my opinions to you.

Opinion stated as fact is a common rhetorical device.

I’m sorry I upset you by not liking Pizza Express any more, though.

I rather like pizza express and don’t think it’s on a par with Pizza Hut. it’s a much better chain. Less ‘fast foody’
I go a few times a year and always have a good meal. It’s good for families. Nice variety. I like the modified dough balls like pigs in blankets style.
it’s not fine dining and doesn’t advertise itself as such.

I disagree…who the hell proposes in a Pizza Express?!

Pizzaland was my student job. I still hanker after their calzone. I don’t miss the hideous green skirts we had to wear. Pizza was served in the pans with a little spatula, and it had a salad bar with crescent shaped plates. Customers would create a wide frill with lettuce leaves to pile on as much salad as possible. And cover it with bacon bits.

It was good 20 years ago. It’s awful now. The last time we went, my 2 children wouldn’t eat more than a few bites and I struggled to eat mine. It was quite horrible. Haven’t been back since.

Maybe they need to address that with some kind of offer perhaps?

’pizza so good it’ll make you sweat’ then half price pizza plus free ice cream to cool down 🤩

The one in my town is great, service is really good. Went there just before Christmas and had a really good seasonal pizza. I was surprised by how expensive the pizzas are now, over £20 for some of them. And I think the leggera is an absolute rip off.

I’ve never liked pizza express much anyway

Prefer Bella Italia or Zizzi for a chain Italian restaurant

It’s just snobby people who have more money to burn. Or highly likely they don’t and it’s all lies! 😂

people like to pretend they live in upmarket places with all these bougie independent places. One poster said they have zero chains. Whoopie for them.

maybe they do, maybe they don’t

but don’t look down at and start chastising people for liking pizza express for F sakes.

This is why we go. DH has several anaphylactic allergies and I’m coeliac. So if we’re away, we know it’s a safe choice with decent options on the menu for both of us. Bill’s is another example. We tend to stick to chains that we know because it’s easier than researching restaurants, downloading the allergy menus, and scrolling through to find that the only gluten free thing is a steak, which I don’t like, or that there’s nothing for DH.
We’re not labouring under the impression that it’s fine dining. But we’re not big foodies and it gets us fed.

I love a bit of Pizza Express- definitely not a cheap option without vouchers but my friend and l go twice a year for old times' sake and we always have a nice meal

I go to some amazing restaurants but I have a fondness for Pizza Express and their wine is always good. A trip to the cinema then a chat about the film over pizzas and red wine is a perfect night out.

I think a lot of these places is down to the management of the individual restaurant. Local pizza express isn’t too bad. Go quite a lot to the local one. Local Ask on the other hand is awful. Long wait, floors are really slippy and it’s just meh.

Sums it up perfectly!

It was both better during this period and not competing with superior sourdough pizza places. When the main high street pizza brand was Pizza Hut, it was the fancy option. The only way to compete now is with deals and gimmicks, which to be fair I think it has been successful at. Although it’s not somewhere I’d choose above other options it has outlasted many chains from that period (which was The Age of the Chain in my mind).

I haven’t been for a long time but my view is everything has got worse so there’s no reason to think PizzaExpress has dodged the inferior to what it used to be opinion either.

I think it's good for a time in your life, I.e kids under 10

Always found it over priced and over rated.

nicer environment than Pizza Hut and feels more of a ‘restaurant’ but find the pizza very mediocre.

all style and no substance and the prices are just ott.

does nothing for me - even when they did the 2 for 1 vouchers that they used to do with car insurance( think it was compare the meerkats) always left feeling ripped off as just so expensive for what you get.