Pizza Express

buzzing environment! .the pizza with salad in the middle good for the diet lol

Have been a fan of Pizza Express for many years, this restaurant in Manchester is one of the friendliest that i’ve come across in the chain. Staff are really friendly, turn around from order to the food coming to the table is pretty quick. I cant find any faults with Pizza Express.

I love Pizza Express pizzas. They are very consistent (in a good way) and they do a good veggie selection. For me, they are the right size without making me feel bloated full and room for a sundae!
What lets this place down in the service. on both occasions I have visited this PE, we haven’t had any quality service. For example on the most recent occasion after seeing Batman on the Imax in the Printworks on the reverse of the tickets was a voucher to come here so we did (yes, falling into a consumer trap!), after quite a long wait to order drinks then a wait for the drinks and a wait to order, the food arrived quite swiftly. When our table was being cleared the girl asked if we wanted to see a dessert menu… yes obviously. We didn’t get brought it, my sister went and got us some 10 minutes later. That is just one example.
The three stars are for the chefs. The two missing stars are caused by the waiting staff.

Most delicious Margarita I’ve ever had! I could taste every single herb that was put on it, and the tomato sauce & cheese were perfectly flavoured and portioned. Wide range of different pizzas and other food.
The staff were excellent, as they seated us straight away on arrival. They are friendly, and approach to ask if the food is okay and if you would like any more drinks (which along with the food arrives quickly). The layout of the restaurant is great, with the toilets up the steps and out of the way of the tables.
Prices of food and drink isn’t cheap, but for the quality, i’d say it’s worth it.

The essential problem with Pizza Express is that it is not, and never has been a proper restaurant. It it in fact exactly what it says it is — pizza as fast food. All of the food is largely pre prepared; tins of marinara sauce, cartons of bechamel, pre packaged pastas and ready kneaded dough. My brother worked as a ‘chef’ here for a while, and whilst I agree the food is perfectly tasty I know full well he never layered any lasagne or cooked beyond slicing salad or sprinkling toppings on some ready made dough.
Whilst the food is uniform in every restaurant, some of the franchises offer a better experience than others. Some make cosy, elegant dining and the food seems authentic and good value, others make more awkward eating and pose the question: why am I eating here?
The Triangle Pizza Express is one such place. Set inside the Triangle shopping centre, it is more of a cafeteria than a restaurant with small, bare tables, uncomfortable chairs and little atmosphere. The butter for my doughballs was even served in a disposable plastic tub as you would find in McDonalds for ketchup.
If you want real Italian food there are a plethora of authentic, cosy, delicious restaurants in Manchester, or if you are particularly fond of Pizza Express, try the one off Oxford Road which offers a better experience.

Hands down the best Pizza Express we’ve been to, service-​wise. Really attentive waiters, and much speedier than any in Leeds, which was a nice surprise.
Décor wise, it’s no different from any other P.E., however it’s at basement level so if you’re round the corner to the right, with the purple wall, it’s a little on the claustrophobic side.

Pizza Express always leaves me feeling not quite satisfied at the end of the meal, especially if I have one their pasta dishes. Sure, they’re predictably fairly tasty, but they come in small dishes and I’m a six foot tall boy. I need quantity AND quality.
The dishes in Pizza Express are pretty good, the pizzas big and tasty, and the starters and extras you can get are great. I really like garlic bread batons in particular. They’re greasy and epically garlicy. I know some other people on here don’t like that so much, but I do!
I never leave Pizza Express feeling absolutely stunned with my experience, but I guess it’s that the thing that after a few visits the whole thing gets a tiny bit predictable, even though it’s still pretty pleasant.

We all know I love pizza almost as much as I love music. I’ve gotta be honest though, I don’t dig this branch of Pizza Express half as much as the King Street branch tucked away behind Deansgate or the West Disbury branch on Lapwing Lane. It lacks the ambience and atmosphere of the other branches — where there always seems to be people laughing, talking and merrily sinking their teeth into slices of dough. The close proximity of the M.E.N. Arena means it’s often rammed to capacity and the décor makes it look like the staff canteen at John Lewis with abstract art, dark tables and red seats.
On a positive note, the food is consistently good, the service is usually efficient and they have a piano player tinkling the ivories select nights. Still, I’d rather walk to one of Pizza Express’s other branches or Chroma than go back. Maybe it’s something to do with the location and the branch being underground? Come to think of it, the only basement I’ve ever really loved is Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes!

Lovely food in great surroundings — I adore the salads and the children love their child options — especially the babyccino that is the surprise ending! Always delicious, a reliable, family friendly restaurant and fantastic salad dressing! They are now automatically putting this on the side as well which is great. Good, friendly service!

I visited pizza express at the trafford centre before visiting this one as well, so i did know what to expect. i did find this one a nicer surrounding to eat in, the food is cooked fresh and is the best italian you can find with fresh herbs. The staff are great with children i noticed even though we didnt have our children with us i noticed how child friendly it was. This pizza express has outside eating area we havent been when the weather is good enough to use it. The Drinks menu is rather expensive with a large glass of wine being between £5-£6, it is probably better value to have a bottle, but one of us was driving. There was plenty of staff to help with anything your need, the tables are cleaned quickly and ready for the next customers. although you dont feel that they rush him. The toilets were spotless.

I love this restaurant — It’s so much better than it’s competiters. We had out Christmas do there and it was great. The service was friendly and efficient and the prices are good. You didn’t feel rushed even though it was Christmad.

I really like Pizza Express. I know it’s a chain but I think it’s a good chain. Tasty pizzas, nice starters and mains. The great thing about this restaurant is they have really good deals available in the early evening. Nice atmosphere and worth a visit if you are wanting something simple and straightforward after a day shopping!

Pizza express i feel is overrated, they dont change theior menus enough either– you seen one, you seen them all.
The fantastic and much better alternative is Croma– love this place food is so clean and fresh and i LOVE the fish pie! Yum!

Pizza Express is part of a chain. They serve a nice selection of pizzas, pastas and salads. The food is always good.

Not the greatest. OK for groups of young girls just starting out on their own without mum and dad.

Hmmm not sure. Only been once after everyone raved about it. Didn’t like the dough balls — too dry and my pizza was basically a salad on bread. not bad prices though and everyone else seems to like it

as most of the pizza express’s go pretty standard service but seems much better at the traingle for some reason, probably best location too as next to adidas and easy access to selfridges/​harvey nichs. always well priced too and pizzas always taste great

As a last minute exercise in fancying a bit of city centre Manchester grub on a fairly trim budget, myself and a few family members (some of who where up on a visit) booked a table (this is Saturday evening) at Pizza Express in Exchange Square (basement of the Triangle).
I’ve been visiting the many branches of this chain for a good few years now and always had a decent meal. Recently however, I’ve not had the greatest (by any stretch of the imagination) brief period of my life sat in one of these restaurants.
Perhaps it’s the accountants chickens coming home to roost… the tautly sprung elastic band of a corporate pizzeria, tripping up on it’s own buffalo mozzarella… I’m not sure. I know it’s fairly unlikely I’ll be back to Pizza Express especially as we have some excellent local pizza restaurants doing very well in Manchester (the excellent Chroma as an example).
If I’m sat for twenty minutes after completing a course, I begin to get anxious and fidgety (amplified when you have hungry and tired kids in tow). Forty five minutes waiting is quite frankly awful. A plethora of staff mulling around discounts the busy night theory. For some inexplicable reason, half the waiters, waitresses and chefs disappeared out the restaurant for a while. Whether this was for a ‘quiet, yet strict telling off’ or a staff meeting (in which case what where they thinking of holding one at such a time!!) I don’t know.
I’ll put it down to a management-​wrong as the waitresses (once the food arrived) were polite and very helpful.
Although the dough balls looked as though they were depressed and (literally) deflated with the goings on (and these are usually top notch and supposedly ‘legendary’), the pizza’s (I’m a sucker for the sloppy Giuseppe) were as good as ever.
But I’m not sure I’d want to wish the experience back on my blood pressure again, so a return, to this location at least, is unfortunately unlikely (I’ll add that a recent trip to the South King Street branch ran like clockwork, the kids were made very welcome for what was an enjoyable evening).

Pizza Express is of course a chain and there are a few of these dotted around Manchester.
It is my favourite place for fast food! The pizzas are made fresh, the pasta’s are frozen. The menu is consistent so no matter which branch you go to, you will get the same thing. It is good, simple Italian food which is always comforting.
I go twice a month and the menu is getting very samey to me these days so I may wait til the swtich the menu around (they do about twice a year, introduce a new range).
I do have a little niggle. I took some children there and they had the kids lunch. The pasta they got with the menu was ridiculously small — I am talking about a small bowl with about 3 mouthfuls. Don’t get it for any child over 6 years old because they will be hungry — get the adult size!
Oh and the banoffe pie is really the best.

The service in here is always impeccable. The staff are extremely friendly and the food always consistant. Why not eat outside in the eating area. Great views over central manchester.