Pizza Express in Central Bedfordshire

Great place to be, friendly staff

First time we visited and probably the last, first impressions and all that. I went with my two grown up sons on a Sunday early evening, it was relatively quiet. We didn't get offered drinks when we took our seats, we ordered our starters and drinks at the same time which we waited about 25 minutes for then had to wait a further 40 minutes for our mains. One pizza was so soggy in the middle it fell apart when my son picked it up, with a knife and fork I may add. Would we visit again? nearly £90 for three of us to dine with a pretty poor service probably not, would we recommend pizza express LB? definitely not... Sorry but you really need to make sure you have the staff available, we actually booked our table in advance too. Definitely needs some work and possibly more staff. A real shame as we are LB residents.

Had a wonderful evening celebrating - always well looked after by the staff

Food is pretty bad the the money, go to an independent Italian, you get better food

Best Pizza Express I've ever been to. Lovely waiting staff & the pizzas were so tasty! I'll definitely be back .

A very busy restaurant on this Valentines Day. The staff were excellent in waiting in us especially the manager Vickie and our waiter (didn’t catch his name). The food was delicious and piping hot. Thank you to the staff on this very busy night x

Last minute weekday meal. Service was quick and very attentive. The waitress very chatty and highlighted special offers to us. For me pizza express offers the best fast food

Kids party for 17, excellent value for money, fantastic host, and the team were all friendly and did everything they could to make sure it was an excellent experience

Exceptional visit! Joined locals for a birthday celebration, booked in advance, and experienced flawless service despite being short-staffed. The vibe in this old fire station-turned-restaurant is fantastic. Upstairs for larger groups, downstairs for smaller ones—a perfect layout. Don't miss the old fire engine! The price point was great, especially with the Pizza Express app—got a sweet 50% off on a Saturday. Gluten-free handled well, kids entertained with colouring, and no distracting devices on tables. Pizzas were a hit, though the BBQ Burnt Ends Pizza wasn't my taste—recommend sticking to classics. Romano not worth it unless you love thin and crispy. Full price is justified for the quality and atmosphere, but the app brings exceptional value. Even picky eaters had all requests met effortlessly. Highly recommended!

Really enjoyed my visit to Pizza express. Thin crust pizza and beautiful beetroot salad. Very yummy. Dined with my mum, still had enough for tea that evening. Put in takeaway boxes. Highly recommend.

Well done Pizza Express LB. Wonderful food and service for a big crowd... 5 young kids and 5 adults on a busy Saturday lunch.

Great service and great food, would recommend.

Had a lovely meal and the staff were nice

Food is delicious and fresh. Busy, but our waitress kept up.

Clean, delicious pizza and friendly staff

Really enjoyed the "Sloppy Vegan Pizza" and an order of dough balls for two. The tomato-based sauce with the dough balls had an odd taste, like canned spaghettios. Normally it's a sort of chunky, slightly spicy sauce. Not sure what happened there, but everything else was tasty. It's a very LOUD place, at least downstairs. Background music playing, and a few people talking and it's almost painful. Every surface is hard - granite table tops, glass front and stairway side, hard floor, and ceiling. They really need some fabric wall hangings or rugs or ceiling drapes or *something* to absorb the sound.

Fantastic evening - Masie was an absolute pleasure, the best host! 5* for service. Music could’ve been louder and lights dimmer but all round an amazing evening.

Nowadays it's hard to find a pizza that is actually good, thin and not overloaded with ingredients.. loved it

My son had his 5th birthday party here. Very well organised. Lovely team, special thanks to Ria who went out of her way to make it really great for the kids! Would recommend a kids party, lots of our friends plan to book themselves!

Always such nice food here. Although the garlic bread seems smaller and smaller each time.

I have amended my review as the owner was quick to respond, clearly cares about customers and service. Out of all the pizza places in Leighton Buzzard I would recommend grabbing pizza here. They have a really good selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes and service is good, so kudos to them. I would say the dough balls smash it out of the park every time though, it's warm, soft and doughy and goes perfectly with pizza express's signature garlic butter. The staff are great and clearly care about their customers.

Had a lovely dinner with my mum and my daughter. Very enjoyable. Food was a little slow to come out but very enjoyable.

Visited on a Friday evening as part of a medium sized group. Had pre booked but place not over busy for a warm Friday evening. Drinks and food order taken together. Drinks arrived quickly and all good. Servers were friendly and appropriate. Had starters, mains and desserts. All food was excellent, well presented and very enjoyable. Service was swift and not hurried out. Will return soon.

My family and I visited Pizza Express as a treat for Fathers Day and had an enjoyable evening. The food was lovely and fresh, the service was excellent. My only complaint was that I found the chairs quite uncomfortable, but didn't let it ruin the evening. We all had a great evening!

Friday evening, relatively quiet. Majority of tables empty. If you are hungry don't go there!! You will starve to death waiting ridiculous long time for pizza...

Went on not such a busy day so not many people in the restaurant when we were there so we made our own ambience 😊 Food good and well priced and great service

Wasn't a fan of the waiters approach, way too over familiar. Pizza had to be returned first time due to quality issues. Replacement was delicious. Halloumi pieces such small portions for the price. No discount offered for food issues

Nice location Food and drink was tasty fresh and we did enjoy! Service was very slow we had to ask a number of items for drinks, and to get the bill. Wait between courses was also very long. Certain staff members presented with a negative attitude. Improvements required

Really bad slow service with an attitude from the 2 of the guys. I will not be going back again. The drinks took about 45 minutes to turn up and the food 1 hour 15 minutes.

I have no complaints about the food. The main courses were hot and tasty, though I would have appreciated the offer of chilli oil to drizzle on my pizza. The desserts were really delicious. My only complaint was that the service was incredibly slow, we had to wait a long time for our orders to be taken and even longer for the food to arrive. The excuse that was offered was that a large party was upstairs; a large party must have been pre-booked so this was a staffing issue and not the concern of other customers. The staff were pleasant but rushed. For the prices that Pizza Express charge I would expect better service. Will not be going back in a hurry!

Ideal for a bite to eat if your into more upmarket pizza.

Food is really nice and the service is really good

Brilliant lovely food great service

We arrived at 5:45pm - group of 9 (3 adults, 6 kids ages 3-12). It took a while for our order to be taken but our starters eventually arrived just before 6:30pm. By 7pm there was still no sign of our main courses and so I asked our waitress - she said they were busy because of Mother’s Day and with their takeaway orders. But that it would be with us “very soon”. Food still hadn’t arrived by 7:30pm, now over an hour since our starters. The kids were going mad. I went downstairs to ask in the kitchen and was told our food was “in the oven, just a few more minutes”. By that time only two tables remained upstairs (us and one other table who had arrived and ordered after us), and three downstairs. It was not busy. At 7:45 the food was brought to the table next to us, and eventually our waitress sheepishly admitted that our order hadn’t gone through but they would now start preparing it. We were DONE and the kids were done and so we left and got McDonalds for them - they were SO hungry! Appalling service, especially after asking twice and being told (lied to) that all was in hand and that our food was coming next. It would genuinely have been quicker to drive to and from Milton Keynes and eat at Pizza Express there, where we have had consistently much better service. Happy Mother’s Day.

Nice food , relaxed atmosphere good staff.

This was my email to Pizza Express: I’ve been uncertain about sending this as I hate to complain but after telling friends about our visit, their concern has prompted me to get in touch. We were a group of 6, my brother and his family were visiting from France and wanted to treat us. The restaurant was almost empty apart from one couple and we heard others upstairs. We waited for quite a while for someone to come over but eventually a young man came over looking slightly put out. I smiled as he approached and said “a table for 6 please”. He asked if we had booked? We all looked a bit surprised as there were so many empty tables and asked if we really had to? He said we couldn’t have a table together as his staff were going home at 10.30pm. My brother said “But you have plenty of time, it doesn’t take long to make a pizza and we’ll definitely be out by then”. We were so hungry. The guy said sorry it wasn’t possible. My brother asked for the manager and the young man said he was. He clearly didn’t want us there and again said he couldn’t allow a table of 6. He walked to the other end of the room and was clearly agitated. As he did so, one of his employees came towards us, shrugged and rolled his eyes…was it at us, or was it about the manager…we didn’t know. I asked if 3 tables of 2 would be ok if we couldn’t have one of 6…it just seemed absolutely ridiculous! We just couldn’t understand the reasoning. My brother asked calmly why would he want to turn our business away…the bill would easily have come to around £180? At this, the manager stormed off and accused us of being rude to him. We really weren’t, we just could not understand why. He then huffed about for a while and started loudly moving chairs about. Eventually he came back and said "If you have to, I’ll give you a table"….. His manner was so aggressive that we just didn’t feel at all welcome so we left and went to a Turkish restaurant that was quiet too but they went out of their way to make us welcome. Honestly to say that we were stunned by our treatment is an understatement. Many years ago I was one of 5 people who fought a hard campaign to convince our council to allow ASK to take over the building that had been the old fire station. I am very proud of that. I know that Pizza Express has had to close their restaurants and we are very lucky to have one in LB. This situation was completely farcical…it could have been an episode of Faulty Towers. How many people has this manager turned away? I visit with my 14 evening class students during the year and especially at Christmas so I hope he doesn’t contribute to its closure because personally, I won’t be going back for a long time.

Visited as a party of 12 on Saturday night. Restaurant very quiet for a Saturday now we know why. Quick to take the orders and then…..ignored. Waited over 30 minutes for our starters and the only when we complained they delivered two cold starters and said the hot ones would be a while. Said something about the ordering process not working. Once we’d had our starters around 40 minutes for our mains. Even my 4 year old granddaughter was asking the waitress ‘where’s my pizza?’ Terrible service. Staff went out of their way to avoid us . One even walked away while I was talking to her. They knocked some money off the bill but that did not make up for a stressful and pretty much ruined evening. Will NEVER return.

Waiter was very cheerful & helpful. Food was what you would expect in a pizza restaurant. But the price of drinks were very expensive. £3.45 for a small bottle of diet coke & even more for an Apple juice ! Thought both these drinks were well over what they should be .

Amazing old building, staff are all great and the food is consistently good. Will happily return.

Great place to go for some lunch! Staff were very friendly and food was delicious :)

Order via Uber eats tonight and was missing the dough balls. Ended up requesting a refund and reordering. Then realised one of the desserts was wrong. Not only was the dessert wrong but it was the cheesecake they sent by mistake and didn't even come with the red berries as advertised! Then the second delivery arrived and they sent it wrong again! We received some sort of garlic pizza bread which we didn't end up eating. Uber refusing to refund the dessert so currently out of pocket on that, an extra garlic butter and an extra delivery and service charge. Won't be ordering from here again.

Unfortunately we waited over an hour for our food. Apparently there kitchen staff were understaffed. If we had been advised of this we would have understood why we were kept waiting so long!! When the food arrived it was lovely, and they offered a free meal and discount too. If it happens in the future tell you're customers what is happening and hopefully they will understand.

Enjoyed my lunchtime bite here. Popped in for a medium pepperoni for one. Cooked to perfection and that tomato sauce was very nice! Service wise, I had to wait by the door for a little while during a very quiet period and even when someone came over to seat me, they didn’t seem to be wearing uniform so it was a tad confusing. Nevertheless, the service once seated was very good. Food came out quick and was piping hot as expected. I love what they’ve done here converting the old fire station into a restaurant. Neutral colours, wooden floors and glass panels look great.

Staff don't awnser the phone no options online for dietary requirements had a few meals and instructions not been followed through deliveroo so had to chuck them....

Always good as far as I am concerned

The team here are great! We always bring my coeliac daughter here as a treat and the team make us feel super confident in everything they do to keep her gluten free food safe. A massive thank you.

Service was very poor from the getgo... Took 5 minutes to be greeted at the door and a few more to be seated. Waitress was nice but left us completely unattended throughout the meal (no offer of pepper or parmesan, no check in to see how we're doing, etc). Food also arrived very slowly and sporadically (one of our party didn't get his starter until we'd all finished...). Should maybe rebrand as "Pizza", since there was no "Express" going on... Probably a bad night, but the place was pretty empty and it felt like the staff were doing something upstairs and ignoring customers. Not a good look. Seemed that the majority of the staff's efforts were in keeping one particular party happy and ensuring the neverending queue of Just Eat drivers got their pizzas... Although some of those guys were clearly left waiting for ages as well Food was pretty ok... My Calzone was 70% chillies, which was too much for me, but it was advertised as hot, so fair enough.

The usual fayre and standard. It took a while for the food to get served but was fantastic. The building is old with lots of quirky signatures to its previous use a s a fire station.

Visited today 3Nov with my partner who is gluten and lactose intolerant. Normally have struggled to find a place that can accommodate her dietary requirements. This is the exception , waitress was totally understanding and explained all the dishes my partner could eat. Totally professional service and plenty of smiles 😃

Everything was fantastic, from the waitress being really good with my children, we have never had a bad meal at any pizza express, quick service, and the app makes life so much easier being able to monitor the cost of your bill and pay via the app too.

Really disappointed children this evening I promised them Pizza Express delivery having always had a great experience in the Reasturant in particular around my sons allergies. However tonight when attempting to order I was unable to make the usual changes to the foods as I would in the Reasturant on the app I called the Reasturant and was told I could only order to collect. This unfortunately was not an option for me. It’s disappointing that both the app and the Reasturant failed to be inclusive of those with allergies. Vegan/Gluten free no problem but those with an actual health issue not accommodated for! Come on Deliveroo/Pizza Express this is basic stuff you could of at least offered to take the order from the app then make the adjustments via phone !

Lovely evening meal, lovely staff

Good food. We tried some spicy pics specials this time and discovered they weren't for us. Staff good although possibly a little thinly spread for the numbers of customers.

Great customer service, friendly staff and were able to cater for my gluten and dairy allergies.

Attentive staff, nice venue. A little frustrated with the just eat orders that seemed to take over the kitchen staff and delay service on the restaurant floor. Should be the other way around I feel. It took around 45 minutes to get our mains from ordering when the restaurant was only half full.

What you’d expect of a pizza express but a lovely restaurant, friendly and welcoming staff. The building itself is pretty cool.

Service and food was good. Food was very quick on this trip which was great. Staff were very helpful it was a busy night for them. Highly recommend specially for families.

So disappointed! Nice venue great food but what the hell was wrong with the service! We waited an hour between our starter & main - when I chased one of the staff I was told 'it's in the oven'. I expected it to be burnt to a crisp as allegedly it had been in the oven for so long! I doubt I will return.

Absolutely brilliant experience, fantastic food, fantastic service. Highly recommended

For a large booking, service was quick and organised: everyone had a pleasant working lunch: The food was fresh; well presented and to a highly quality. The restaurant was clean and tidy would definitely visit again.

25th June 22. I have the privilege of eating out several times a month due to where my job takes me and I happened to be in the small market town of Leighton Buzzard. With not many restaurants in the town, I opted for the tried and tested delicacies of the Pizza Express. Knowing what I like I was keen to order. The waitress whose name I overheard to be Lydia (unsure of the spelling), was dismissive and looked disinterested in doing the job. I had a minor problem at my table and although I took it that she would be looking after me during my visit, I could not get her attention. She seemed to be happy to try to hide just out of view on her mobile telephone than to help myself and what appeared to be a nearby table. After failing to get Lydia's attention another pleasant young lady came to help me, with the matter that took no more that ten seconds to rectify. I was sorely disappointed by Lydia's attitude and rude language, that which I overheard when she wasn't hiding away. I did not feel the need to complain to whoever the manager was however how can there be such a disparity in the training and attitude of the staff. It made for quite an uncomfortable meal time.

We have visited twice in the same month and a week apart. Both times the same waiting staff were working. First visit was ok. My starter first of all came out completely black ( no exaggeration ) on the underneath ( garlic bread ) it was so bad the waiter even said “oh sh!t”. It was however replaced but first impressions count and so far it wasn’t top notch. I then ate whilst the rest of my family waited….always annoying. The rest of the food was good, including puddings. My girls did complain their pasta was a little too hard… I think it was a bit too el dente. Anyway we left relatively happy. Second visit, I knew not to expect much - service wise but we just fancied the pizza!! Again service not exceptional. Once we’d finished our dinner we asked for the bill. We sat and waited….and waited. Eventually a different girl came over…the strawberry blonde one…and was quite abrupt to be honest. Asking do we want anything else, I said no thank you, she said it and approached in way where she was clearly wanting us to bugger off and not linger. As a waiter in my late teens I totally understand how annoying it is to have tables linger for a further 30+ minutes and then not even have the decency to leave a tip. I then informed her we actually asked for our bill. She seemed almost agitated in her approach and asked who and I said the girls with the eyeliner…if you’ve visited you’ll know who that is. She then huffed and said that girl was on her break and returned with our bill. We were using club card vouchers. She scanned one code and said that didn’t work…she seemed very dismissive and unphased so my husband suggested trying again which then worked! 🙄. I said to my husband I’m just not happy to go there again. The waiting staff just really let the place down. I do think they could maybe benefit from one more staff member. Maybe a greeter/seater/first drinks order taker person? Just to relieve the pressure?? First time we visited it was pretty quiet second time there was a large booking upstairs. Short staffed or not though there’s no real customer service in practice at this restaurant so if you don’t care about that then fill your socks! However if you do expect a certain level of care then it’s really not the place to go. Sorry pizza express but I’m just being honest!

Nice pizza and the new apple juice is lush... Although it was quite busy the wait was far too long so only 3 stars ☹️

Friday Evening, went for dinner with my husband & son. We arrived to a very busy restaurant. Monica served us for the evening, nothing was too much trouble, food was lovely. The kitchen was rushed off its feet however our food arrived hot, Fresh and tasty as always. We had a lovely evening and look forward to going back again. Thank u Monica for amazing service, and thank u for the cake 😘

Really nice food and friendly staff. Only negative is they don't accept the Blue Light Card (NHS & emergency services discount card). Also not all my vouchers worked (but that might have been Tesco's fault)

Waitress was friendly BUT we got there for 5.35pm starters still hadn't arrived at 6.45pm our kids were so hungry especially as they had had an active day that we decided to leave and go to Mc Donalds. Very disappointed as we have been to many different pizza express's before and never had such bad service. Something needs to change. It would have been nice to have been warned that the wait would be so long too as we probably wouldn't have bothered to go in.

Got my pizzas delivered to Ollievees tiki cocktail bar on the Thursday evening to eat while watching the live music

Birthday meal with family, good food and friendly staff and good service

The food is always good with friendly service. There can be a bit of a wait for service however we have always been able to secure a table when we have attended without booking. The building is a converted fire station and the decoration reflects this creating a good character for the restaurant despite being a chain

Service was quick, good selection for gluten free and vegan diners and relatively inexpensive.

The venu was nice and staff helpful in serving drinks only late in the afternoon. The value for money was poor, 2 lots of doughballs for 4.50 were very small in size and only about 8 came for both lots. Also decaf coffee was very poor and defended as okay when challenged. So what is a good chain seemed to underperform in my experience.

Great pizza express. Table service and food were excellent

Have visited the restaurant tonight and food was average however the service was very poor for a Saturday night and have to say after being ignored by the waiting staff between pizza main finished and 45mins later being asked about dessert this dashed my opinion after a prior meal here in Feb 2022 which was great and the service was terrific by a young lad with ginger hair. Please improve the waiting staff skills to ask attentively if we needed more drinks or additional menu items. I used to be a waiter at your restaurant in Berkhamsted many years ago and am saddened to see waiting staff behave like this and ignore customers. I will reevaluate returning again.

Really pleasant visit to Pizza Express Leighton Buzzard this evening. The young lady who took our order - it was her first day - was charming. She batted through the electronic order system, and I am pleased to say our order was spot on! We did have a little wait - I think they are struggling to keep up with the ‘Just Eat’ delivering orders. … but we were fine - it is a nice environment to relax and chat. They have done a significant revamp of the menu since we last visited - and we were spoilt for choice. I had the new garlic prawn pizza - it was mind blowingly tasty! One of the nicest things I have ever ever eaten. Because they were busy I used the app to pay my bill - this was the icing on the cake. It was so simple and saved the hassle of getting the bill and then waiting to pay. A lovey evening out - well done to the team at Pizza Express LB!

They were short staffed and extremely busy but Monica & Jasmin remained calm, friendly and professional. The food was great. We had a lovely time.

Meal arrived before the drinks ordered.

We arrived having pre booked a table for 7:30 it wasn’t ready so we waited for it to be cleaned which wasn’t an issue. Once sat down the waiter left without taking a drinks order and we waited another 10 minutes before he came back to us to be told they didn’t have the Rose wine we wanted. There are only 2 rose wines on the menu, you would expect on a Saturday night they would be fully stocked. He disappeared again and after another 10 minutes i spoke to another staff member who said he couldnt speak as he was on the phone dealing with a complaint! Then the chef came down on the phone! Another waiter came back and said he was here about the ‘rose wine thingy’ ?!!! He had found one bottle of the other rose on the menu, the only bottle in the whole place. Poor service and ways of communication to customers all around, not the service I would expect and therefore we all left at 8pm, staff members made no attempt to apologise or keep us there. Ended up having a fantastic meal locally elsewhere. AVOID!

Had to wait for a very long time to get served. I this was all due to the fact that the focus was on delivery rather than those sitting inside. Orders should not be taken if they cannot handle both sit in customers and delivery

weve had 2 kids parties here now, The staff are great, The kids had a great time and the price was fab

My daughter had her birthday here ,table for 12 ,it was basically 2 seater tables pushed together in one row against a wall,so difficult for some to get in/out of to go to the loo etc,also meant it was impossible to interact with other people on the table at either end. Waited a long time for the food to arrive(about 90min) My pissa, a sloppy Giuseppe should have had spicy beef on it ,but there was so little on it I couldn't taste the spice,waiter agreed it wasn't good enough and offered a fresh one but by this time ,I was so hungry I ate it,they did deduct it from the bill tho. I wanted to pay the drinks part of the bill for all my daughters friends and family,but they said it couldn't be paid separately ,very disappointed by that. On the plus side ,overall the food was good,service was good,and a pleasant setting

A group of 10 of us ate there Friday evening 28th January. The service was appalling.We arrived at 7.30. Got starters at 8.30 , main meal at 9.30. The excuse was they only had 2 small ovens!! If they know they can’t cater for large groups they should say so .

The food was good as usual... Except for the tiramisu. It was the last time I might have some in a long long time ago I was looking forward to it... But it was dry as a bone

Service was good. Setting is nice. Food is ok but not amazing, like for all Pizza Express. I choose the spicy calzone and it was good. To be honest, there are much better restaurants than Pizza Express but that one was OK.

Arrived for 6pm booking, given not very clean menus and shown to table. Waitress arrived for drinks order and left, quite a while later returned as she had lost order. After a long wait returned for meal order went off after a while she returned...

It took over hour and 15 minutes to get our food.

Very good pizza and pasta dish.Friendly staff.Highly recommend

Nice meal with dedicated waiters and waitresses in a chilled venue. Perfect way to start the weekend.

Always a great place for a quick lunch. Food is always good quality if a little slow sometimes. Overall a nice atmosphere

Had a lovely evening out with my partner with a very kind waitress remembered my balsamic vinegar and had a good laugh with us. Everyone was very friendly. Sadly didn’t grab her name but will definitely come back!

It's a chain restaurant, that does what it does ok. What more can I say? Staff are good but it's really noisy inside - school canteen stylee. Not likely to go again.

Always nice pizza and some peronis

wine wasn’t good didn’t have the most popular pizza my pasta was too much over cooked. BUT THE HALOUMI FRIES CHANGED MY LIFE AND THE SAUCE THAT CAME WITH IT

Good surroundings....light an airy. Lovely food and service. Best Lasagne ever!

Good food, quite slow service but it was a busy night

Great vegan options (I'm dairy free) and lovely and friendly staff

It was so lovely to have our meal outside and the waiters were very friendly and helpful.

So missed Pizza Express, you cannot beat fresh dough balls, staff were great and service was on point.

We visited here at lunchtime on Thursday 20th May. We were greeted by a lovely waitress called Rachael and we were sat at a lovely table. We were the only ones in the restaurant for the main part of our meal. We were extremely well...

The pizzas we had were excellent and the service was very good. However we both had to swop our chairs for ones which didn't have crumbs on. With COVID around we didn't want to have to brush someone else's crumbs off with our hands. Everything...

We had a lovely experience. The staff were welcoming and friendly and the food was very tasty. A great meal with great service can't ask for more.