Pizza perfect (Pizza Express)

Member Name: roversjenny

Product:	Pizza Express
Date:	12/05/09 (80 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Extensive menu

Disadvantages: Service can be a bit hit and miss in busier restaurants

Until I started working for my current employers 4 years ago I had never visited a Pizza Express, however, that was soon to change, as it is the closest restaurant to the office.

Pizza Express offer a wide variety of pizzas, pastas and salads, their menu is quite extensive and has enough to suit all tastes, including a few vegetarian choices.

The full menu can be found at:

http://www.pizzaexpress.com/our-food/mains.aspx

Pizza Express do 3 different types of Pizza, their standard pizza which has a thin crust, the Romana, which has a thinner base, and is larger than the standard pizza meaning you get more topping, and then their new base, the Leggara.

The Leggara is aimed at those who are trying to make healthier choices, it is the same size as a standard pizza, but a circle is cut out in the middle and this is filled with salad, meaning that you still get the great taste of Pizza Express pizzas, but with less calories as there isn't as much. Personally I think it is a great concept and I am looking forward to trying one!

The pasta's include lasagne and cannelloni and then there are half a dozen salads to chose from. One word of note re the salads at Pizza Express, people automatically assume that by having a salad they are having the healthier choice, however, due to the dressings, many of the salads are actually higher in calories and fat than the pizzas and therefore when I go, I always ask for the dressing on the side so that I can control how much I would like to use.

I cannot possibly do a review of Pizza Express without mentioning their fantastic starters, which include dough balls and garlic bread. The dough balls are simply divine, each portion is 8 dough balls, and they come warm, with a pot of garlic butter which you can melt onto them, they are little bites of heaven. The mozzarella garlic bread is just as nice.

In all the times I have visited Pizza Express, I have never had room for a dessert, so cannot comment on the quality, however, their menu shows that they do have a large choice.

The drinks menu is pretty standard, they sell soft drinks such as diet coke, fanta, old style lemonade, bottled water, and they have a selection of wine available along with Peroni, they also have a choice of spirits.

With regards to price, they are pretty much middle of the road for the type of restaurant they are, when we go with work it tends to work out at around £10 a head depending on what promotions are on.

They do tend to have a lot of promotions, there is nearly always some kind of 2 for 1 promotion running, and recently they had an offer on where you could get a starter, main and drink for just £10. It is always worth checking sites such as moneysavingexpert.com before you go to see if you can save yourself some pennies.

The general ambience of the restaurants is always nice, however, the one closest to the office is always quite busy as it is in the middle of the financial district so you can sometimes feel like you are being rushed, and other times, they take so long over getting your food to you that you are fed up by the time it arrives, if you are going on a lunch hour in a bigger city, I would ways recommend giving yourself over an hour if you are planning on having 2 courses.

Summary: Great middle of the road pizza chain.