Pizza Express (High Holborn)

I really cant stand pizza express. Each time I go in there (not my choosing but the people i am with), the service gets slower and the food gets worse. The first time i went in this branch my chicken salad I ordered was a real let down. There was sooooo much balsamic vineger dressing the salad leaves were wilted. I could barely see the chicken! I was about to call the waitress and inform her I got the wrong order. And they charge almost £8 for a bowl of salad leaves and balsamic dressing! I was glad that I was not paying for it. Had to get something to eat on the way back home.

On another occasion, at another branch near tottenham court road, we waited forever for our pizzas. Bearing in mind it was a busy friday lunch time, still, 1 hour for 6 pizzas??? I almost gave up and was about to leave. The Man and his son next to us came 10 mins after us, ordered thier pizzas, ate, paid and left and we was still waitin for ours. It seemed the waiter did not inform the kitchen/cook that we were waiting once our starters were finished.
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sonik
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Saturday, September 27, 2008

Last week my girlfriend and I decided we should meet up after a hard day’s work and spend our evening dining in central London together. Our choice of restaurant? It had to be Pizza Express on High Holborn.

Neither of us had ever eaten at Pizza Express before. The decision to dine there however was an easy one. We were always impressed by its chic external décor at each and every branch we’ve passed by in Romford, Gants Hill and the City of London.

The branch at High Holborn is no exception. It looks exceptionally pretty and inviting on the outside. “Good we must try it” I thought. So we stepped inside and even though it wasn’t particularly late (9pm) there was no one at the door to ‘meet, greet and seat’ us. This was a bit of mystery as the restaurant looked distinctly, well…vacant. So its not like the all the staff were occupied. Anyway after a short period (which seemed like forever) of waiting around, franticly looking for a reception counter of some sorts, a member of staff came by and that small boob was quickly rectified.

We were shown to our lovely round table, complete with an equally lovely plastic flower sitting there in a quaint vase. While we waited for our menus I took in the atmosphere (cosy and quite romantic) as well as the internal décor which was very stylish. This is one of the poshest looking, ‘everyman’ Italian restaurants you could go to. The subtle art deco lighting, the zinc topped work surfaces, the polished wooden tables and the marble floor gave off a distinct air of what Germans would call “ker-vol-itee.”

Our waitress then appeared and gave us our menus, now this isn’t strictly relevant but boy was she pretty, as were the other three that I could see swooning about. She was an excellent waitress: attentive, polite, patient, helpful and knowledgeable.

She came back shortly with our starters- mixed olives in a herb sauce and our drinks. The service was sublime, she brought all our meals out quickly, efficiently and topped up our glassess when she could see they were empty. “Truly remarkable this place” I thought, not only does it have the best waitressing staff, but it has the best service of any everyman restaurant I’d ever been to.

Doubtless if you’re an Italian food fanatic, there are several small reasons why you’re probably thinking that you too should dine here if you haven’t already. But don’t. Because almost everything else about this place is rubbish.

We’ll start with the interior décor, the whole point of a posh “pizza-pasta” restaurant is that inherent Italianess. Yes the interior design is lovely, be in no doubt about that, but its more of a Mayfair yuppie affair than Milan. The actual size of the starters portion was woeful, even Scrooge himself would say its miserly. To add insult to injury it’s nearly one and half times the price of what Nandos would charge you for a larger portion which tastes exactly the same…and I haven’t finished mauling this place yet.

My main course consisted of a 14” stone baked margherita pizza with a prawn and avacado green leaf salad, drizzled with a sweet honey mustard dressing. The salad wasn’t so much as drizzled- as was drowned in the bloody thing, overpowering all the delicate flavours of its main ingredients with an artificial tasting, sickly sweet dressing.

But the worst thing was the pizza. Yes it’s light and fluffy, but my god when I ordered it I wanted it to be stone baked, not stone-bloody cold. It was dreadful. To cap off this night of culinary misery we were served the most unoriginal portion of cheesecake. Ever. My girlfriend stated openly that it’s like they ran out of the stuff and raided Wetherspoon’s freezer- which just so happens to be a couple of doors away. The dessert tasted like cheap pub grub.

Sure, they tried to hide its apparently humble origins by sprinkling strawberry sauce all over it as well as adding a token cherry and some savory dusting. But that’s like being wanted by the police and deciding you can evade capture by simply wearing a disguise consisting of nothing more than a clip on moustache. Its not going to fool anyone.

The only saving grace was the fact that the service was great and the bill presented great value for money, coming in under £20.00. Such a shame…it looked so good on the outside.

Rating: 2/5
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Shahzad Ayub - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, February 06, 2008