PizzaExpress Feedback Thread - See what MNers and their DCs think of PizzaExpress restaurants NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

This feedback thread is for the 50 Mumsnetters who recently visited PizzaExpress restaurants with their family.

Here’s what PizzaExpress has to say: ‘Ever since 1965 when our founder, Peter Boizot, opened our first restaurant in Soho, the same PizzaExpress values of great food, evocative music, and distinctive design have remained in our DNA. This is one recipe we’ve never changed, and today we take the same pride in offering great hospitality and unforgettable experiences.’

Please post your feedback on your family experience at PizzaExpress and you will be entered into a prize draw where one Mumsnetter will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Please answer these questions below, but also feel free to add your own comments:

1. What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
   
2. What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
   
3. What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
   
4. Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
   
5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
   
   Thank you for taking part in the product test and good luck with the prize draw!
   
   MNHQ
   
   Insight T&Cs apply

[scaredofthecity]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
I don't really have much positive to say about our last visit unfortunately. We visited tonbridge branch last Friday and it was very busy and understaffed. We waited 10 minutes to be seated and then after another ten minutes with no service we left and went elsewhere as we didn't have lots of time to hang around.
2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
More staff!
3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
ds liked it but hardly any of the crayons had any lead in them.
4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Usually, I am hoping this experience was just a one off. I like the food and the variety of salads and soft drinks available. And it is affordable but still feels like a treat.
5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Definitely

[Camembertie]

Hello - visited pizza express at the weekend with 3 DCs aged 7-11

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?

We went in the evening and genuinely felt like a nice meal/evening out. Food was delicious, and was lovely to eat out a bit later and be able to choose what we wanted to eat.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?

We had to wait AGES - at one point there was only one member of staff serving the entire restaurant, three members of staff emerged from out back at once with their phones, assume had all been on a break together, but restaurant was only 2/3 full and it took us an hour from us entering to be eating our mains - this is annoying with kids the ages mine are now but with younger children would be a complete nightmare.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?

Kids did like the pack, due to the wait they got through all of it and definitely enjoyed it, they could have done it all on their own but youngest enjoyed doing it with us. As PP said the crayons were great too, much better than blunt and weedy pencils.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
I would recommend it for a nice but not too grand meal out as the staff are really friendly and there is plenty of food choice. Would have cost us 80GBP without tip though, so is quite expensive - perhaps a junior menu would help as our 11 year old is definitely too old for the piccolo menu but does get defeated by a full size pizza (and bumps cost up).

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?

yes I would, plenty of high chairs, baby changing, great food choices. Just need to work on speed of service

Thank you, though, we did enjoy it

[Imnotacelebgetmeouttahere]

We visited Dorking Pizza Express with our 4dc, 2 of whom have Autism and so a meal out as a family is a very rare occurrence!

I booked a table online for 11.30am ( earliest booking available) in an attempt to avoid too much of the lunch crowd. We arrived at 11.30 and it appeared shut..the boards and cleaning signs were still inside the entrance door so we waited outside. After almost 10mins another customer appeared and just walked in past the signs etc ...so we followed! Appears they were officially open but hadn't put the signs out etc, this was only an issue because we had to step over them to enter and had wasted 10 mins outside trying to entertain 3 toddlers and a grouchy preteen

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?

The waiter was very polite and friendly, was happy to take our order right at the start rather than just the drinks order ( we tend to need to rush though meals to minimise the chance of meltdowns!). The food was delicious - the antipasto starter for 1 is HUGE , the pollo salad was fresh and the chocolate glory was yummy!

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?

Although they had good toilet facilities, they could do with a better baby / toddler change facility - the pull down ones are better suited to you her babies not toddlers however this is likely down to individual restaurants layout.

I would like to see an alternative option for starter on the kids menu.


3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?

Despite signs advertising the Ice Age Affiliation we werengiven the original packs, which my youngest 3 didn't mind. They spent a lot of time colouring, using the stickers and pulling faces whilst wearing the hats included.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?

I would definitely recommend Pizza Express to others, esp those with children. Taking 4 children out for a meal can be a stressful experience, especially if 2 don't always follow the social norms, however we felt relaxed, the staff were friendly and as there were other kids about we felt less anxious whilst our 4yr old was being a velociraptor.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?

Defiantly - very well priced menu, something for everything on the menu and child friendly.

Thank you for the voucher, usually for our days out we have to split up to manage the children, meaning double the cost, so having the cost covered meant a lot to us, to be able to enjoy a family meal without stressing about the financial side of things

[dottyaboutstripes]

We booked a table at Mermaid Quay, Cardiff at the weekend.

1. What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
   Probably the dough balls. Nothing stood out as being especially good, which leads us to.....
   
   
2. What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
   Omg. The service was dire. We waited an age for everything. My dd even said she was no longer hungry because we waited SO BLOODY LONG. Took maybe 15mins for just a jug of water. No one asked how the food was, if we were OK etc. They didn't apologise about the wait. Didn't say goodbye when we left. So I'd like them to think about how they treat their customers!!!
   
   
3. What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
   We were a party of 8 and the two youngest (age 7 and 9) enjoyed the kids' leaflets or whatever. In fact, it was more decorating the hats which they enjoyed rather than the Ice Age sheet - there was no "activity pack"?? Just a sheet of paper.
   
   
4. Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
   I couldn't recommend this particular branch, which is a shame because I've only had good experiences before. I'd never visited this branch, so hopefully it was a one-off bad day rather than poor all the time.
   
   
5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
   I would have done from previous visits over the years. We hadn't eaten at Pizza Express for maybe 2 years or so and our kids said they didn't want to go back after this trip!!!
   
   I'm grateful to have been given this opportunity, we have 6 kids so going out like this is a real treat. It was spoilt by the bad service - the family on the next table also waited for a very long time and their children were really restless, I was just thankful that move decided to behave exceptionally well this time! It was galling that a service charge was added. I would've asked them to remove it but Dh paid and he didn't - I think he felt too embarrassed as we'd used your generous voucher. However, the server didn't know that!!

[sleepyMe12]

1. The best thing about the visit was the food!
   

1. The toilets were down a spiral staircase which was a bit tricky with a toddler and a 5 year old.
   

1. We did not receive an ice age pack only the bog standard stickers which was very quickly forgotten about and discarded.
   

1. Yes definitely, great good family friendly and good prices. They usually have vouchers for discounts which come on very handy.
   

1. Yes without a doubt plenty of space, I also like that they have children's sized cutlery which a lot of places don't carry.

[elvisthehamster]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?

We enjoyed being able to go somewhere that we new all 5 of us would be able to get something to eat and have a family friendly atmosphere.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
Nothing major, toilets weren't great as they were a couple of floors down from the restaurant. We also had to ask for a couple of things twice but staff were friendly you could see they were busy rather than being unattentive on purpose.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?

I am not sure I would call it an activity pack? It was a double sided sheet of paper, although reading other answers maybe there were supposed to be other elements to it? We did get the usual piccolo hat, stickers and sheet pack which my two youngest enjoyed.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes, Menu always had a good choice , food is good and kids are welcome. Prices are reasonably good value but would agree with others about portion sizes and the older end of the childrens menu age and portion size.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?

Yes I would however we actually had to try a couple of branches on this visit -we went to our first one , were told to come back in 30 mins as they were busy, which we did to then be seated on three 2 seater tables to make a 6 (There are 5 of us) however they sat us with 1 seat on one side of the 3 tables and the other 4 seated on a booth/banquette type seat-eg we were all apart from 1 of us basically sitting in one long row and couldn't change the seating around and there weren't any other seats around to add chairs to the 'empty' side. When we questioned this and pointed out it wasn't really a practical seating option as we couldn't speak to one another or help with the kids they just said that was all the could do as they were busy. So we then left and tried another branch in the city. The second branch were very friendly however we had a really long wait for service. Luckily as it was a Sunday evening we didn't have to rush but the slow service probably would put me off slightly recommending that restaurant to someone with toddlers/younger children who were less likely to sit for a long time.

We had lovely meal though and thanks for the chance to review it.

[dottyaboutstripes]

Reading other replies regarding portion sizes for children has reminded me that we paid an extra £1 each for our to have pizzas a little bigger than the regular kids pizzas so that option was available

[MsMarple]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
The food was great: I tried the new Hawaiian pizza which was totally deliciously different, and my DC really loved the chocolate brownies and babycino dessert. There is a really good mixture of old favourites (never, never, lose the salad nicoise and fiorentina) and new options to try. I also love the offers and student discount that you do - we wouldn't be able to visit very often without them. Also the staff were attentive, and everything came on time, even though we changed our minds about something after ordering it.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
The only tiny disappointment was that they'd run out of the new watermelon drink, but we survived! If I was going to suggest improvements I would think about greater flexibility in the kids meal - maybe with the option to pay more for a slightly larger pizza for older DC, or order the individual starter/dessert items separately to tag onto an adult main.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
They both enjoyed them and spent a while drawing a picture for the competition. We got the normal activity pack as well, and the hat with the stickers, so with all that they had enough to keep them busy for the whole meal! My 4 year old enjoyed putting stickers all over the place and the dot to dots, and my 8 year old liked the puzzles, but they both said that decorating the hat was their favourite thing. I was impressed to be given a full pot of colouring pencils that twisted up so didn't need sharpening.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why? Yes, we had lovely food that would have been reasonably priced if we hadn't had the gift card.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? Definitely. The kids activities made you feel welcome to bring your children, but the food is nice so it is also a treat for the grown-ups in the family.

Thanks very much for a lovely evening!

[SomedayMyPrinceWillCome]

1. What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
Quick service, great staff who interacted with DS. Menu clearly labelled what is gluten free (a surprising amount actually). There is something everyone will eat on the menu

2. What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
It would be good if there was some food that could arrive immediately (one other chain Italian restaurant does this): olives or breadsticks or melon (on the menu for dessert) would help to pacify hungry children
Could Pizza Express have melon as a starter (as well as a dessert)?

3. What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
At 3 my DS was a bit young for the ice age pack although it looks very good with many different activities on it.
My son LOVED the colour in stickers, I haven't seen anything like this in any other restaurant and it is a great idea, kept him occupied for a long time


4. Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
It is a good restaurant with a good variety on the menu, dough balls are always yummy!!

5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes, I think they have made a few simple tweeks that really help families - having kids drinks in cartons for example, no mess when they get knocked over.

[Poppiesway]

Dottyaboutstripes where did you see that about the extra £1 for a larger pizza? Ds2 (10) would have liked a slightly bigger pizza but not adult sized.. We would have "sized up"
As a fair few have said an older child's size would be a good thing for some children.
They do this at a local harvester type place have two types of children's menu; one for the toddlers and one for the older children up to about 11-12ish. I hope Pizza express takes this away and think about it, that would really be something we would use

[girlsyearapart]

1- best thing:
The waiter putting a candle in dd3s birthday brownie and singing along with us.
2- improvements:
The service was far from express and the waiter seemed overstretched. If I hadn't been to pizza express before I wouldn't be rushing back.dd1 ( nearly 9) wasn't full after her kids pizza but I don't think an adult one would be right so maybe an older kids menu?
3- ice age pack:
They didn't provide them just the regular packs which they had seen before so didn't really occupy them.
4-recommend?
Yes I would, we have been lots of times as it's an easy place to take allergic dd2 and somewhere they don't turn their nose up at a woman alone with four kids in tow which is our usual status quo!
5- family friendly
Yes definitely.
We went to pizza express teddington on July 25th. We went around 5pm and hadn't booked. I had dd1 almost 9, dd2 almost 8, dd3 on her 6th birthday and ds 4.
Dh was at a funeral so couldn't go and the staff were great with asking when we wanted his take away to be ready at.
Thanks very much it was a fun birthday dinner.
Any chance you could have some ice cream without egg in though please ?

[Jemimapuddleduk]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
Very child friendly, plenty of room for pram, shopping bags, toddler paraphernalia. Our little boy has been very poorly with Leukemia recently and we have had a couple of visits to the Peters street branch in Manchester on afternoon release from the hospital. We explained our son is immuno compromised and the manager went out of their way to put us in a quiet table away from others and disinfected the high chair and table for us and brought a brand new pack of crayons. Amazing customer service, going the extra mile.
2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
Maybe consider doing a 2 course, smaller baby/young toddler meal at reduced price as the normal kids meal is too much for very young ones.
3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
We didn't get this (went 2 weeks ago to Trafford centre branch). Kids were happy with the colouring, stickers and hats to decorate though.
4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Most definitely. Great pizzas and lovely wine selection too. We love the mini desserts too. Very child friendly. Plenty of money off/discount vouchers available too.
5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Absolutely. As mentioned in point one we have only had positive experiences. We probably eat with the children at pizza express on a monthly basis.

[dottyaboutstripes]

The guy serving us said they could go bigger for £1 extra - it wasn't advertised anywhere I don't think

[greathat]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
Tasty food. I really like the thinner style (romana?) pizzas, much prefer them to the ones you get as standard elsewhere. We and the kids could have 3 courses without it breaking the bank, and the kids loved their dough balls

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
At the PizzaExpress we usually go to the service is great. We were at a different one today though and it was pretty poor despite it being really quiet. My husband’s and kids food arrived and then I had to wait close to 10 minutes for mine to turn up. I wasn’t that bothered about it, but some would be. Also when we asked for the dessert menu the waiter went off and after about 15 minutes I just went and grabbed my own from the stand – too much waiting around is not great with my 3 year old. Could they also make sure the pot of pencils they give out has some sharp pencils in. Sounds very minor but it did make it a bit hard for them to fill in their activity packs when there was only one decent pencil between them 

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
DS3 had great fun putting stickers everywhere and trying to draw vegetables. DD6 was more into the word games and bought the drawing things home to do where she has a full set of colours to use! Seemed to apply nicely to different ages

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
I would recommend. The food is tasty and the children’s meal is a good price. (although on this particular occasion the service let it down and I might not have based on this one experience alone)


5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes the children’s menu and activity packs make it clear its set up to accommodate children

[finova]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
We were served really quickly. Waitress was very on the ball (Leeds, street lane).
We ate on a weeknight between 7.15 and 8.30. We didn't feel out of place with young children at this time.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
DS preferred his Dad's thin base to his child's pizza. Maybe a thin base option for children....though not sure how many would want this!

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
They had the ice age sheet and also one about gardening/fruit veg that came with stickers. This one kept them very occupied.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes, quick service and child friendly menu. They loved the pudding with a babycino.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes we didn't feel out of place eating relatively late.

[PinkSnowAndStars]

Firstly - thank you for picking us! We went to the Aylesbury branch today and really enjoyed ourselves!

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?

The bruschetta con fungi! Well that and everything! I love how the staff are so polite, whenever I've been I've never had a problem. You are clearly doing something right as the staff all seem to really enjoy their jobs.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?

The toilets were a little unclean, and there was no toilet paper in one of the cubicles. But that's just tiny things.

Perhaps maybe only put wine glasses out for the evening sittings. As family friendly as pizza express is, little hands like grabbing things like that! Perhaps only put them out at 7pm?


3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?

My little boy liked it, but preferred the other pack with the stickers. He looked at the stuff about the planets for a few minutes then lost interest (he's 4)

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?

Yes!! Freshly prepared tasty food, fantastic staff and reasonably priced!! Can't fault it all all. It's one of my favourite places to dine, I find it higher quality than Harvester etc.


5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? Yes I would. It doesn't need play equipment and the likes. Enough table based activities is enough to keep The small people entertained and still whilst they wait for their food. and I think that's where other chains go wrong.

Just want to add, never had a long wait for food ever! Never had a bad experience either. My bruschetta did get forgotten about, but that's one of those things. When it was realised I had an apology and it arrived about a minute later. (And they offered to take it off the bill) Things do go wrong from time to time and I'm not going to knock my great experience on that!

[Thebookswereherfriends]

We've just been this evening to our local Pizza Express, Exeter. Me, my partner and our 3yr old DD.

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?

The food is very tasty and the children's menu is very good value with a good choice.
2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?

We also experienced quite a bit of delay and have done on previous visits. We booked for 5pm thinking that would be a relatively quiet time and we could eat and get home again before DD's bedtime. We weren't served our last item until 6.45pm - and that had been forgotten, so had to re-order. Saying that, the manager was very attentive and apologetic and came up at the end of the meal to apologise properly and said it was a combination of unusually busy period and a few members of staff being new and still learning the ropes. I was pretty happy with that. It's when there is no apology that I get annoyed.
One other thing was the fact that 3 of the desserts had run out (my partner ended up not getting one as he got fed up with each choice having run out - this is before 7pm - which seems a bit rubbish.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
I agree with previous posters who say this is not an activity pack - it's just a sheet and really only suitable for 5yrs+ as it is mostly reading stuff. My DD did draw her own pizza and did a drawing on the back, but everything else I basically had to sit and read to her, so not great for entertaining solo.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes, I would. It is a good restaurant with pretty good service, if a little slow. The menu has a great choice and I like the fact that they change it up a bit - I had a new drink (raspberry lemonade - Yum) and a new dessert (honeycomb slice - also yum) and I wish I had tried one of the new pizzas.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes, the staff have always been very welcoming and accomodating.

[Blueboys2009]

sorry, posted too soon! Will repost!

[Blueboys2009]

We went this afternoon to the Knutsford branch. Myself, DH, DS (age 6) and his friend (age 7).

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
The food was nice. The 2 x boys ordered from the piccollo menu (good value at 6.95 for 3 courses) - both had dough balls, followed by pizza (one margherita, the other a larger american pizza as recommended by the waitress), then ice cream sundae with strawberries and a bambinoccino). DH had the mushroom bruschetta followed by the calabrese pizza (much spicier/hotter than expected!), I had dough balls (as the boys wanted more than the few that came as their starter) followed by the pianta pizza.
Plenty of choice for us and the boys.
They also liked sitting where they could watch the chefs preparing orders, and enjoyed their activity packs

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
Service was surprisingly poor. We arrived about 3:40pm, having made an online booking for a table for 3:45pm. The restaurant was quiet at that stage. When we arrived, we said we had a booking, but the waiter behind the bar didn't ask our names or the time of the booking and just said we could sit anywhere. We showed ourselves to a table. The first waitress we had was good, and brought menus over quickly. Came back and took our drinks order and then checked if we were ready to order food (we weren't - the boys were too busy with their activity packs to peruse the menu!) and then came back 5mins later. One of the boys has a big appetite and we were considering ordering from the main menu rather than the children's, but the waitress helpfully advised that the pizza could be made larger, so we stuck with the children's menu. Drinks and starters arrived quickly and were cleared up promptly after the starters. After that service went downhill, and I think our waitress ended her shift, as I didn't see her after that. The restaurant gradually got busier, and we waited longer for our mains, and then a REALLY long time for our table to be cleared after the mains were eaten. Then further wait to be asked if we wanted desert menu. And then further waiting when we wanted the bill, topped off by 2 x waiter/waitress didn't know how to deal with paying with a gift card. Clearly the shift change meant that our table fell into some kind of 'black hole' with nobody sure who was responsible for dealing with us. This was a shame as other pizza express we've been too, the staff have been really attentive and friendly.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
They didn't get one, and we didn't see any Ice Age promotions or material anywhere in the restaurant. They did get the ordinary activity pack, which they enjoyed though.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes. Family friendly (by the time we left, there were about 10 tables all with children), good choice and value for money. Would prefer if there were more options for children to have cruditees/veg/salad with their mains (actually, the same goes for adult menu too, as I though the side salad on offer was quite dear for what it was).

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes, although like in many other reviews above, this restaurant wasn't particularly accessible for either people with prams, or those with wheelchairs - toilets were down a flight of stairs, and the main part of the restaurant was also down a couple of steps

[Blueboys2009]

p.s. sorry - I forgot to say 'Thank you' to MNHQ and to Pizza Express for picking us to take part in this offer. It was a really nice treat, and was good to be able to go to a restaurant that was relaxed and family friendly.

[BookwormMummy]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
The restaurant was pleasant, quiet and there was enough room to move in and out of the tables without encroaching on anybody next to us. We visited Pizza Express in Warwick and it was nice to see the pizzas actually being made near the front of the restaurant.
2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
As nice as the pizzas are, the drinks are very pricey and when there are 6 of you to buy for at almost £3 a drink, it is really off-putting and we decided that one drink each would be enough because of this! Also, my teenage daughter noted that it would have been a good idea to give each table a jug of water as complimentary, in particular when eating hot and spicy pizzas!
3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
My youngest two didn't get a pack as such, rather a sheet each with a few crayons, but it kept them busy whilst we waited for our food.
4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
I would recommended Pizza Express because the pizzas really are worth the price and you know they are freshly made.
5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
We enjoyed Pizza Express as a family but considering my children are older (6,7,13 & 14) we were able to keep them occupied during the hour long wait for the pizza to be made. I appreciate that pizza from scratch takes its time, and my children were all aware of this beforehand, but I wouldn't have been so overly keen on it as a choice of restaurant had my children been a lot younger, as I don't feel they (nor I for that matter) would have been able to wait patiently for that hour! We visted at 11.50am in order to beat the rush and it was generally quiet, so I'm assuming this is a standard waiting time?
The childens menu though is actually really good value and both my 6 and 7 year old demolished all 3 of their courses!

[SmileAndNod]

We went to Pizza Express last night. We are a family of five - me, DH, DS (nearly 9) and DDs 6 & 3.

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
The food was lovely, and there were clear plates all round (which is unheard of for our family!). The three children ordered from the piccolo menu and had dough balls with butter and balsamic /oil, we had the mozzarella & tomato salad and garlic bread to start. All was delicious and the little side salad children was lovely fresh. Four of us had pizzas for our main course and they were happy switch things around for us - one child had pasta Bolognese again every bit was eaten. The children's ice cream sundaes with the 'grown up' babycino was a nice idea.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
Honestly? Nothing. It was great and the first family meal we've had without squabbling that everyone has enjoyed.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
The eldest finished the puzzles very quickly. The girls didn't bother with it too much.They all enjoyed the activity pack though, the twistable crayons were good and they liked decorating and wearing their hats.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes, the food was delicious, the music wasn't overbearing and staff were really accommodating with the children. It was good value at just under £60 for the five us.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Yes definitely.

I'd like to say thank you to MNHQ and to Pizza Express for picking us to take part in this test. It was a really lovely treat for the summer holidays that we wouldn't have had otherwise and as I said it was the most relaxed and successful family meal we've ever had

[ExpressPizzaReview]

Thank you mumsnet and pizza express it was a really lovely treat.

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress?
Despite being a rainy Tuesday in Uxbridge it was surprisingly busy but we were seated quickly, food was nice and arrived quickly.

2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?
I'm another toilet up the stairs complainer I'm afraid! There were no signs, and no loo roll.

I would also like to see the kids menu broken down into starter, main and pudding. I saw tonight (after we'd ordered!) you could buy just a main, so it's almost there.
My son rarely wants all three, and I do begrudge paying for it all when he doesn't want it all.
It would also be a good way of making the size bigger and pricing it up for older children.
Mine also sometimes wants to mix and match with the adult puddings (he's not an ice cream or chocolate fan), again I'm ending up paying for two puddings.
I miss the dough tables (I bet the staff don't though!) where the children could play with dough.

3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?
This got a 9 out of 10 from my son. He loved it. Completed it all, as he said "keeps the little ones quiet".
If I'm honest the ice age thing felt a bit odd, it didn't seem to fit with pizza express. It's just a leaflet, it's not In conjunction with a special menu or anything so it seemed to lack cohesion with the restaurant.
I do LOVE the piccolo packs though, they are spot on and the best of any restaurants.

4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?
Yes, it's very nice, dependable food. Whichever you go to you know it will be good food. As a visitor to different branches I've found service very hit and miss, tonight's was quite slow with no offer of another drink (I gave my son mine). This seems a running theme, sometimes your left ages just waiting.
I would as the choice of food and quality is consistent but I would warn of the service.

5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?
Absolutely, those fantastic packs, good menus and friendly staff.

[kateandme]

1.What was the best thing about your visit to PizzaExpress? the selection is fabulous and every changing.it seems to be sourced well.seems to always want to give great taste not just to churn out meals.its a chain restaurant of type but manages to keep it seeming to be personal and authentic.
2.What improvements, if any, would you make from your family experience at PizzaExpress?better availability of doggee bags to take away bits we cant manage.
3.What did your DCs think of the Ice Age: Collision Course activity pack?loved it
4.Would you recommend PizzaExpress to a friend or family member and why?always and we often suggest it when we go out.its a firm favourite and has been for decades.
5.Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant?for sure.