PizzaExpress Feedback Thread - See what MNers and their DCs think of the new summer Piccolo menu at PizzaExpress! NOW CLOSED

[EmmaMumsnet]

PizzaExpress asked us to find 50 Mumsnetters with a DC aged 5-12 to go to their local PizzaExpress to try the new additions to their summer Piccolo menu and experience the new activity pack. While in restaurant, they unleashed their creativity and entered the Dough Ball Adventure story writing competition. Read the comments below to find out what they thought!

Here’s what PizzaExpress has to say: “We know how much families love spending time together in our restaurants and this summer we have a lot to offer and more reasons to get excited about your next visit to PizzaExpress. As well as enjoying new additions to our Piccolo menu and new activity packs, we are encouraging kids to unleash their creativity and be as imaginative as possible in our Dough Ball Adventure writing competition. We’ll be asking kids between the ages of 6-12 to submit an exciting Dough Ball adventure story (up to 200 words) via our website for the chance to have their stories being made into animations, as well as win weekly adventure prize. Plus one lucky winner will win an adventure holiday.”

Testers - to be in with a chance of winning free pizza for a year (£300 PizzaExpress voucher)! please post your feedback on the thread below, including answers to these questions:

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   
2. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   
3. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   
4. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   
5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

[Starfish78]

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   

DD7 had Dough balls, Margarita pizza and brownie.
Loved the pizza and the brownie but wasn't keen on the dough balls so she gave them to her teenage sisters. They both had pizzas.

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   

It has a good selection to choose from but i think there needs to be a bigger portion option too as the pizza wasn't quite big enough for my DD7 but an adults meal would've been far too big

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   

She loved it, it kept her occupied but she was hoping for a hat

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   

Yes she has written a story but i haven't put it online yet. Its about a dough ball going to space

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

Service was slow, we waited ages for our food to arrive but it was lunch time and was pretty busy. The food was very nice though. The waitress was very good with our DD7 and chatted to her. We all enjoyed it, however its not somewhere we would to go to regularly as it was very expensive for 5 of us to go for lunch

[yumyumpizza]

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
Both DCs (4 and 6) had dough balls for starters - always a hit! I like the fact they come with veg sticks to start the meal off with one of their 5 a day. For main they both had pepperoni pizza (I wanted them to try a pasta dish for comparison but there was no persuading them from pizza!). They both enjoyed it. They are decent sized, especially after the starter, and neither of them could finish it.
For pudding DC1 had chocolate cake and DC2 had ice cream, both went down well!!

2. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
Definitely! It's such great value for what you get, and a good choice. I like the addition of a chicken salad to the menu. It would be perfect if there was some veg as a side with the pizza, but that's the only thing I would change.

3. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
It kept them quiet whilst waiting for their food. The hats and stickers always go down well, and the mix of puzzles and colouring on the activity sheets suits a range of ages. Top marks!

4. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
Sadly no, not this time. Our food came quite quickly so they didn't have time during the meal, and we've been mid house renovation so couldn't take it home. DC1 did design an awesome surfer dude dough ball though with the stickers and crayons

5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
Absolutely. The staff are good with children, the menu is good and the facilities (high chairs, baby change etc) are good.

Many thanks for the change to take part!

[caprifun]

Thanks for the voucher! I visited Pizza Express in Caterham, with my 2 DC aged 4 and 6. It came to just over £40 for the 3 of us, which I think is good value considering I had 3 courses and a soft drink too.

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   

They both had dough balls, Pasta Napoletana and the sundae. They did enjoy it, and finished almost all of it. I like that there is now a choice of salad as a main even if they're unlikely to ever chose it. I (and they) would like a choice of starter other than dough balls though, I ended up sharing half of my calamari with them. So it would be good if there could be an option to have a small portion of the normal adult starters - I wouldn't even mind paying a small supplement for this option.

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   

Yes I would, its good for younger kids and has enough options to suit most kids tastes. I'm not sure if the portion sizes would be big enough for older children 10+ though. Its good value, as mentioned above I think £40 for three of us having three courses is very good.

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   

I think there was less for them to do in the new pack than in the old one. I hadn't clocked that there were meant to be girls / boys masks - we got given two girls ones, for DS and DD, but they didn't notice. my DD was very excited about the postcard format though and wants to send them in the post to her friends now.

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   

No. DD wrote a story about the dough balls being in a band, taking inspiration from the story already given as an example. But after we got home, she forgot about it and so did I, so we never submitted the entry.

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

Yes definitely. Its good value, there's good choice of food, staff are friendly to children. Other customers expect there to be children there (I think) so there's no self consciousness about dining out with children, and the ambience is reasonably relaxed.

[FireEngineGirl]

Apologies for delay as I left my original feedback on the other thread.

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   

Both DC had dough balls and margherita pizza. They loved the dough balls, my dd even picking the bowl of garlic butter up to lick out (no manners)! They both ate the cucumber and tomatoes and they were just the right amount.

The margherita pizzas were perfectly sized. Both children finished them. I think they could possibly be too small for children with heartier appetites but were just right for my two aged 8 and 11.

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   

Yes would definitely recommend. There is something for all children to choose and it feels healthy and like you are giving your children good hearty food and not processed rubbish.

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   

I believe we had the old activity pack. There was a puzzle inside and some stickers that we had had before on previous visits. The stickers were difficult to draw on with the crayola pencils provided. This was because of the shiny surface. Some of the crayons did not work.

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   

We were not given any information about this.

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

I'd say pizza express is the ultimate family restaurant. The food for children is freshly cooked, really tasty and you don't feel guilty for what the children are eating! At the same time the main menu has excellent choices for bigger children and adults. I can always find something I want to eat. Please continue doing what you are doing pizza express as it's working very well!

[FireEngineGirl]

Forgot to talk about the puddings. My daughter had ice cream and my son had the brownie. The brownie seemed very small as it came with no ice cream. My daughters ice cream did not come with the cone mentioned in the menu so I asked for it. Neither wanted the hot milk so we said no thank you. They would have taken up the offer of hot chocolate though!

[Cagliostro]

Signing in as I had totally forgotten to do this

PizzaExpress asked us to find 50 Mumsnetters with a DC aged 5-12 to go to their local PizzaExpress to try the new additions to their summer Piccolo menu and experience the new activity pack. While in restaurant, they unleashed their creativity and entered the Dough Ball Adventure story writing competition. Read the comments below to find out what they thought!

Here’s what PizzaExpress has to say: “We know how much families love spending time together in our restaurants and this summer we have a lot to offer and more reasons to get excited about your next visit to PizzaExpress. As well as enjoying new additions to our Piccolo menu and new activity packs, we are encouraging kids to unleash their creativity and be as imaginative as possible in our Dough Ball Adventure writing competition. We’ll be asking kids between the ages of 6-12 to submit an exciting Dough Ball adventure story (up to 200 words) via our website for the chance to have their stories being made into animations, as well as win weekly adventure prize. Plus one lucky winner will win an adventure holiday.”

Testers - to be in with a chance of winning free pizza for a year (£300 PizzaExpress voucher)! please post your feedback on the thread below, including answers to these questions:

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   

Dough balls, pizza (plain as always for DS but ham and mushroom for DD - she was a bit sad though that they didn't have any pineapple!) and ice cream for after. All enjoyed happily!

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   

Yes of course, it's good value and with somewhere like PE you know what to expect really so it's a good bet for families I think.

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   

Nice and varied, I really liked how there were a few different elements to it. DS always digs straight in to any activity sheets in restaurants but DD generally ignores them - but she did do a lot of this one. The puzzles felt well thought out compared to some I've seen. Stickers are always a hit too!

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   

Couldn't persuade them yet as they really struggle with creative writing but it does look great, a nice fun idea.

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

Yes absolutely! Both with the menu and the treatment we have always received from staff at the many branches we've visited over the years. Whether with babies, toddlers or older kids we have always been served by friendly staff and have never felt little guests weren't welcome.

[Cagliostro]

Ohhh sorry didn't mean to paste all the bit at the beginning. Phone being weird

[heinztomatosoup]

Apologies for late response, we went to Greek St branch with 2 kids aged 10 and 12.

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it? Both had dough balls, one margarita pizza, one American, one brownie, one plain ice cream. Both loved it. Appreciate the effort of putting the salad, even if only a tiny bit is eaten. Pizza big small for 12 year old now, used to be better when we could order the larger, thinner base as an alternative on the children's menu.
2. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?

Yes of course, it's lovely for them to feel grown up and have 3 course meal!

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?

No interest for 12 year old boy, 10 year old enjoyed colouring and puzzles until starter came, which was very quick,

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about? No sorry no interest
2. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not? Yes it is, appreciate 3 course element. Would like something for older children.

Many thanks for the voucher pizza express 😀

[nanimobars]

Thanks mumsnet and pizza express for our voucher. We used ours in Glasgow silverburn shopping mall.

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?
   

My DD aged 7 had the dough balls for starter and margarita pizza for mains and a ice cream sundae for dessert.

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?
   

It wasn't a very filling meal, so I would only recommend for a child of 8 and younger. I don't think it would fill up an 11 or 12 yr old child enough.
I really didn't like that there was only one starter for the kids. No choice for anything other than doughballs.
I really didn't like that the piccolo menu didn't even include a drink for the meal. Most other family restaurants include this. We were never offered a baby cappuccino like the others mentioned.
I feel there should have been a meal option involving chicken tenders and chips and I know quite a few kids who don't like pizza or pasta.

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
   

It was ok and did the job of entertaining my DD until her food arrived. I like that the restaurant had decent crayola pencils to colour with, not your basic three pack of red, blue, yellow crayons.

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
   

DD didn't enter this as we didn't see anything to do about this and no server mentioned it.

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?
   

I would consider it borderline family friendly. The lack of drinks and choice for the kids pizzas, would put me off returning I think. I thought the food was nice but when our bill arrived for £65 I didn't think it was worth the amount we were charged.

[MotherofaPirateKing]

1. What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?

They all had the doughballs with salad. One child was happy that the butter was no longer garlicky the other child was sad about this, the third child never uses the butter anyway. They were all eaten. I thought the salad element had improved being obviously freshly cut (on previous trips it is often a bit dried up).

Then two margaritas and a pollo pizza (requested with no cheese). The waitress sensitively asked if the no cheese was due to allergies (no, he's just fussy). The kids enjoyed the pizzas but felt they were a bit underdone. Again everything was eaten.

For pudding they had 2 brownies and 1 sundae. The sundae got the thumbs up. They loved the babychinos and the way they came with the pudding. They were less impressed with the brownie "cold and hard" one child said - "needs some ice cream and the brownie should be warmer" said the other. They both ate it though! The down side for us was the drinks - they just wanted a plain juice rather than mixed apple and pear so we had to spend and extra £2.50 each on juice pushing the bill up a lot.

2. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?

Yes it was good quality food at a reasonable price, well prepared.

3. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?
The kids really like the mask and spent a long time colouring them in. We also had really great pens and lots of them which was a real bonus. It was definitely a good distraction so my husband and I could eat our food.

4. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?
Sadly none of them were interested in doing this. I thought it was a great idea but they didn't want to do it.

5. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant
Definitely. There were lots of other families in there, the waitress was lovely to the kids (as they always are in Pizza Express I think) and we felt welcomed there.
Thank you very much for letting us test the menu. I do have lots of pictures but am having problems uploading them at the moment.

[MotherofaPirateKing]

Ooh forgot to say was the Beckenham High Street Branch.

[Queenelsarules]

What did your DC have off the new summer Piccolo menu? Did they enjoy it?

They had dough balls followed by margarita pizza.they both ate it all, and then had the ice cream sundae which they both polished off! They often don't finish things so having empty plates is a sure seal of approval.

1. Would you recommend the new Piccolo menu to a friend or family member and why?

Yes I would, the portion sizes are just right, and not too many choices, which is always a plus.

1. How did you and your DC find the new in restaurant activity pack?

The kids loved the masks, they coloured them in and then both wore them in the restaurant!

1. Did your DC enter the Dough Ball adventure story writing competition? If so, how did you find it? What was your DC’s story about?

They didn't do this, it was aimed at younger children I think, my two, 5 and 3 just wouldn't have the attention span.

1. Would you consider PizzaExpress to be a family friendly restaurant? If so why? If not, why not?

Yes definitely it's my first choice when planning a birthday treat or similar for the children. The staff are always welcoming, the service is fairly quick which is what you want with kids, especially as my 5 year old daughter is autistic so doesn't always have much patience. The kids menu is good value and well planned. They love the dessert and the baby chino! We had a really lovely family meal out and we are really grateful we were able to take part.