NOW FINISHED: Help create PizzaExpress' Service Charter and have the chance to win £250 of PizzaExpress vouchers

[Carriemumsnet]

You may recall many moons ago we asked for your thoughts on what makes the perfect restaurant/ cafe for mums (here), but we cannily didn't tell you who was asking the questions as we didn't want that information to skew your answers? Well we can now reveal that the company who wanted to garner your collective wisdom was > PizzaExpress and the reason they wanted to know is that they are in the process - in their words - of "creating the PizzaExpress of the future".

The first of their new generation restaurants will be unveiled on Oct 21st in Richmond (that's London not Yorks - sorry Yorkshire folks) and there'll be invites for Mumsnetters to road test it, with a chance to feedback and tell them what you think of the new concept before they start rolling it out elsewhere. Anyone interested in knowing more now, there'll be a blog about it live from Sept 17th here

They're introducing things that have the potential to keep children happy and occupied, like communal kids' drawing tables, and silent, interactive video screens created by the same chaps who did some of the great games at the Tate Modern. And they promise that there'll be room for buggies - one of the top things to come out of the survey It's going to be open all day, starting at 8.45, serving brunch and freshly baked daytime treats. The idea is that Richmond should feel like a bit like a 'living lab', where lots of new ideas are going to be tested out. The ones that work, they'll roll out, the ones that don't, they'll ditch.

One of the major themes that emerged from the initial survey was the difference good service makes to whether you frequent a cafe/ restaurant or not and PizzaExpress now want to create a Mumsnet Service Charter that they can use to help train their staff. Carrie is going to be videoed as part of their training, talking about what it's like to be a mum and what mumsnetters want and expect from good service. The idea being that this should help their waiters understand parents' needs and help them to help us make it through the day (or at least the bit of the day they spend in PE).

So go ahead - tell Pizza Express what three things would make your day (in terms of service). They can't guarantee to incorporate every single suggestion, but hopefully some themes will emerge that they can build into a realistic Service Charter.

We'll kick off:
Someone helping you with your buggy/ double buggy -rather than tutting when you struggle thro the door
Someone offering you something edible - even if it's just bread and water when you first sit down, and just being nice....
Sharp pencils
Good to get that off the MNHQ collective chest , now it's over to you. Everyone who offers suggestions for the Mumsnet /Pizza Express Service Charter on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will receive £250 of Pizza Express vouchers.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

It would be great if the server could bring a few nibbles over for children, especially when they know there might be a substantial wait for the order to arrive. Some grissini, for example, to keep little hands and minds occupied for a few moments.

My children love it when waiting staff talk to them, even though some of it has to go through a parent translator. Patience is greatly appreciated when we're in restaurants.

I also agree with the clearing of glasses, vases and other table clutter when a family occupies a table.

notcitrus the dough comes in pre-portioned, frozen on trays. The staff throw it about and do the stretching thing (hence all that flour everywhere).

The pizzaiola sauce comes in a tin.

The dressings are exactly the same bottled PE stuff you can buy in a supermarket.

I don't think there's anything wrong with this per se, economies of scale and all that it makes sense for a chain to centralise production. But it rather begs the question, why are they so a. Expensive and b. Slow, particularly when compared to independents who employ real chefs and prepare their own food using fresh ingredients.

is it true about the pasta, jenn? and what of the salads? i notice they didn't use fresh basil in their tricolore salad last time, it was just pesto.

sorry re the salads i meant chicken caesar etc. please tell me they are cooking the chicken.

May have all already been said but ...

• quicker service, local one takes at least an hour to have just a 'quick pizza'
• clean highchairs with straps that aren't broken
• crayons that work
• serving tables 'in turn' ... children always notice if someone else gets their colouring / drink / pizza before you even if you arrived first
• something other than ice cream for dessert
• breadsticks if wait is going to be long
• let kids pizzas / doughballs cool before bringing them over
• communal drawing area = good idea, screen = bad idea!

Yes Aitch, I would like to know that as well. If all of this is true, I would expect them to be cheaper.

I don't know about the chicken, Aitch.

A few years ago the cooking equipment consisted of a microwave (can't remember what that was for - heating puddings maybe?), a single ring electric stove (for boiling eggs) and the pizza oven. So I guess they could cook their own chicken but it would make sense if they bought it in.

Like I said, nothing wrong with any of this really. Few restaurants make everything from scratch. But I remember seeing a PE with a queue snaking outside and then passing a "proper" restaurant where it wasn't just the sauces but the actual pasta that they skillfully made themselves sit half empty and being

so they are doing the pasta in the micro? this would make sense, we got some for dd once and it was dangerously hot (for an adult, steam ripping off it) and the actual pasta tasted like shit. sauce was crap too, as i recall, i was really surprised. we guessed it was the pizza sauce, tbh.

iirc the pasta dishes and pizza dough were shipped in from Italy. And they were good enough quality.

Just not what one would describe as fresh, and not really deserving of the premium.

I'd be interested to know if things have changed in recent years.

so it was boiled on a ring, then, like i would do in the house? someone else further down said that it was all brought to the restaurants prepped in the terracotta dishes, so i was presuming that would have to be micro-ed.

I think pasta is done in oven/mircowave. We ordered plain pasta for DD and when it came it was hard and dry - they said it was because none of the pasta was boiled, it was warmed up somehow with the sauce already included.

blech.

aitch, the pasta is (was?) bought in, in dishes. Just realised i posted that under a pseudonym (namechanged for another thread).

The ring got used once a day to boil the eggs.

I suspect the pasta starts in the microwave and is finished in the pizza oven, as the pizza oven would be too hot to use for the entire cooking time.

fwiw I've worked in other places that do cook from scratch and the food was crap because the chefs were rubbish. But everything being premade does seem a bit dishonest, imo. And PE is baffling dear for what it is.

yes, and i understand economies of scale and the attraction of consistency. there is a very successful chain of relatively good indian restaurants up here that positively make a virtue out of the fact that you will get the same korma in johnstone as you will in maryhill etc etc. fine, if that's what you want, and plenty of people do, judging by their success. and they don't charge any less for it.

i don't mind, so long as i know. pasta cannot be cooked in a microwave in a terracotta dish, afaic, it will always taste like shit. so that's PE lost my business. (that and that ghastly pepper sauce and the fuckabout with the menu. i am SURE it wasn't like this a decade ago).

Yes - but they make a show of having the kitchen for all to see. Implying that they make it there - with the flour flying around.

yes they really do, actually. in fact i asked if i could take dd to see the pizzas being made and was told no, for healht and safety reasons, despite the fact that i only wanted to hold her up near the counter.

Aitch is right - real Italian restaurants (including Glasgow Italian ) already know how to do the "child friendly" approach.

Sarti's on Bath Street/West Campbell Street in Glasgow always has a genuine welcome for the kids and deson't need extra games/toys etc. Although it would fail on the accesbility criteria - neither of them are at all buggy friendly and the loos (which both resturants share) are up/down stairs and round a corner (although once ds was allowed to go on his own he thought it a great adventure!)

This thread has actually persuaded me that I NEVER want to go to PE again....

What are their management thinking of?
"If it ain't broke - don't fix it..."
The one near us is always packed, but I bet it won't be if half of this type of stuff gets implemented...

colouring sheets for the little ones

drinkable drinks for toddlers

quick delivery of pizza (Small people not the most patient)

Haven't read the whole thread, so sorry if repeating a point already made.

Pizza Express is pretty child-friendly already, but the problem for me comes with ordering. I'd like to be able to choose e.g. a small pizza and drink when you don't want the whole garlic bread, baby cappuccino blow out experience.

The staff do say smaller sizes of pizza can be ordered, but without the list of toppings and prices it's hard to make an informed choice.

so:

Children's pizza options
Two different sizes of kids menu (e.g. toddler and school age child)

plus
PLEASE bring the children's meals out first!

One wash basin and hand-dryer at child hight.

and YES to small cutlery.

Supersalstrawberry - we don't go to the PE in Hitchin for the same reason: really bad accoustics which give you a headache.

lol NotanOtter

I didn't realise they were all so different. You can see the kitchen in our local one.

I just order my two adult pizzas but smaller. I have never had that request turned down and I've eaten in at least 3 pizza expresses.

One of our local PEs (Muswell Hill) is totally excellent. Oddly the other ones nearby (Whetstone, Mill Hill and Hampstead) are lousy. Main points of difference:

1. Friendly smiley prompt service - MH PE are happy to let us order as soon as we're seated, if we want to. Even better, they will let us order for the kids first and then take the adult order 5 mins later.

1. Prompt delivery of pencils & drawing stuff to the table, and high chairs, without being asked/reminded 20 times.

1. Glasses of water and stuff come quickly :)

1. They listen and get the orders right (nothing to do with kids, admittedly) - we've had wrong orders in a number of others recently and it means one person ends up not eating or everyone else gets cold food from waiting...

1. They always make space for buggies etc by the tables, unlike the other local branches

Possible improvements:

1. Better baby changing/child friendly toilet facilities which are more accessible. If we're lucky there's a single changing station and its frequently down/up 2 flights of stairs and through a load of double doors. Try doing that with a baby on your shoulder and a toddler and 4yo in tow...

1. Smaller portions of any meal or more childrens' menu options: it would be nice to be able to add veg to pizzas without a 50p surcharge for each item; more vegetarian options; fruit or something other than ice cream for dessert

1. Disposable bibs would be a big plus!

1. PE being willing to heat baby food

We love Pizza Express and go there a lot, but what I would say is:

1. Prompt service - esp. in taking of drinks/food orders and bringing colouring things.
2. More choice for kids - another pasta dish on the kids menu would be great.
3. Don't seat a family with three children under 10 next to a young couple or group of singletons unless it's the last table in the place. The singletons will hate the kids' chatter and the parents will feel obscurely guilty for having reproduced the whole time.

By the way, re silent video screens - this is something I would actually prefer NOT to see. I think of PE as a step up from fast food, slack-jaw type restaurants, and take my kids there when we want a nice family meal. I'd be really sad to have ds1 sit there goggle-eyed at some video while I eat in silence. I realise when you have a clingy toddler and are desparate for a coffee, then a video might be a godsend, but generally TV entertainment in restaurants = naff.

We love Pizza Express and go there a lot, but what I would say is:

1. Prompt service - esp. in taking of drinks/food orders and bringing colouring things.
2. More choice for kids - another pasta dish on the kids menu would be great.
3. Don't seat a family with three children under 10 next to a young couple or group of singletons unless it's the last table in the place. The singletons will hate the kids' chatter and the parents will feel obscurely guilty for having reproduced the whole time.

By the way, re silent video screens - this is something I would actually prefer NOT to see. I think of PE as a step up from fast food, slack-jaw type restaurants, and take my kids there when we want a nice family meal. I'd be really sad to have ds1 sit there goggle-eyed at some video while I eat in silence. I realise when you have a clingy toddler and are desparate for a coffee, then a video might be a godsend, but generally TV entertainment in restaurants = naff.