Pizza Express

I was a bit worried about going here after mixed reviews but was glad we did. The service was excellent, can not fault it at all. The pizza’s are great, will be back soon for them. My husband is a pizza fanatic but had never been to a pizza express and my only visit to one was at least 10 years ago. The only issue is the drinks are expensive and that was even for soft drinks which don’t come in draft only bottles. I would also love of they did standard fries but they only do pallenta fries, which are nice but wouldn’t get them again. The starter of dough balls with a trio of dips was spot on too, the drops are lovely and fill you up. I would recommend going here and will be back soon especially as you get a 2−4−1 voucher with your receipt.

To start, I ordered Bruschetta Originale (as predicable as ever!) and instead of my usual Sloppy Giuseppe or American Hot, I opted for the Romana base Rustichella pizza (Crispy pancetta, roasted tomatoes, rocket, Gran Moravia cheese, Caesar dressing). My boyfriend, Ross, ordered the «Speciale» Dough balls and then the Sweet Potato base Vesuvio pizza from the limited edition menu.
There isn’t anything bad I could ever say about the Bruschetta Originale, except, I wish there was more pesto. I haven’t bothered asking for more pesto before but I’m sure it wouldn’t be that big a problem. Hopefully. The combination of tomatoes, red onions, garlic, fresh basil and pesto is wonderful on top of a freshly baked piece of bread. If you’ve never tried it, I recommend that you do.
The «Speciale» Dough balls were rather confusing for me. When we read the description on the menu «our famous dough balls rolled and baked with Gran Moravia cheese», we thought that the dough balls may be stuffed with cheese. Instead, the dough just had cheese in the mixture. The dough balls were also supposed to be presented with a dip of garlic butter and you could pay extra for either hot n’duja sausage softened with olive oil, or pesto. We asked for an extra dip of pesto but were never given the garlic butter. I do really think that if the dough balls were to be truly «speciale», cheese should have been oozing from the inside. Don’t get me wrong, they did taste good but something was missing.
When I first saw my Rustichella pizza, I couldn’t believe how big it was. A normal dinner plate could barely handle the size of what was before me. I love Romana base pizzas as they are very thin and crispy, I’m not a fan of thick crust pizzas because there is too much dough for my liking. On my pizza, roasted tomatoes and Gran Moravia cheese were complimented with a rocket and caesar dressing salad topped with crispy pancetta. I loved the pizza. The pancetta was cooked just the way I liked it and loved the rocket salad on top. The next time I go to Pizza Express, I will definitely order this again. One problem I did face was the pizza was just too big for me alone. In the end, I got the half of the pizza boxed up to take home (cold pizza for breakfast anyone?)
The Seasonal Special Vesuvio pizza was full of rich flavours with the pepperoni and n’duja sausage and the rocket salad was once again a welcome addition, however, upon first bite, you couldn’t really tell that the base was sweet potato. I like rich tomato bases on my pizzas and my boyfriend loves sweet potato but I think the base was overwhelmed by the toppings. When we picked some of the toppings off one slice and tasted just the base, the sweet potato was more evident. The overall flavours worked well and if you’re looking for something different than your average pizza, this would be it. My boyfriend being my boyfriend ate all of his pizza as well as some of mine. A good sign if ever there was one.
I didn’t think I could possibly eat anything further but after a good 20 minute break, we decided to try the Rhubarb & Apple Crumble along with the Banoffee Pie. I was really looking forward to the crumble as it has been a favourite of mine since childhood. Unfortunately, I was let down. To me, a classic crumble topping is just butter, flour and sugar crumbled up. However, on this crumble, oatmeal was incorporated and I dislike oatmeal with a passion. It’s a shame really because if I liked oatmeal, I would have really liked the dessert. A novelty with crumble is always pouring the custard (or crème Anglaise) on top, in this dessert, the crème Anglaise was encased inside. I would have preferred a small jug of crème Anglaise on the side so I could pour as much or as little as I liked. Due to the crème Anglaise being below the crumble, the fruit compote became rather soft and more purée like.
To end our evening, the Banoffee Pie was surprisingly light. The biscuit base was buttery and nicely crumbled. The banana’s were caramelised with a toffee sauce and then topped with a rather large quantity of fresh cream. I wish that there was more bananas in Banoffee Pie in general. The pie is just screaming for an equal ratio of banana: cream.
Overall, I enjoyed Pizza Express and found some new favourites that I will be ordering again. The staff were very attentive (only the manager knew I was there for a review) and friendly. It was very quiet when we arrived, only three other tables were occupied, but as we were leaving, the restaurant was near full with the staff coping well. Certain items on the menu are rather pricey, but the quality of ingredients used make up for this.

We usually find Pizza Express a bit expensive for eating out as a family of four and on our last visit to another branch of this chain (Queen St, Glasgow) we were a bit disappointed. However, as this is a brand new restaurant we thought we’d give it a go.
It was reasonably quiet, being a Wednesday evening, but there were plenty of staff available. They were very friendly and attentive (without being pushy) and all the staff seemed to work together, removing empty glasses and plates when necessary rather than only one waitress being left to look after us. Clean cutlery was provided when necessary, without having to be requested.
We had a lovely, relaxed meal yet were back out again fairly quickly.
The food was very tasty and nicely presented (as far as Pizza can be.)
We certainly enjoyed our visit and look forward to going back. In fact, we were so well looked after by Colette and her manager it almost seems disloyal to think about going anywhere else.