Pizza Express in Braintree

My son had his 6th birthday here as his pizza making party, Good value at 14.99 per child. They got doughballs and veg for starter, then made their own pizzas for main and then ice cream for dessert with unlimited squash. The kids loved it and the lady showing the kids how to make the pizzas was great I think her name was Nok ? She was so good at keeping them engaged and making sure they all joined in and had all the toppings they needed. Parties are mon to Thurs which I think was a great thing as the kids were going in and out of the garden area while waiting for pizzas to cook and think other diners would have been getting annoyed if this had been a busy day fri/weekend. So happy we chose there And contemplating booking the adult pizza making lol!

Went to Pizza Express for a date night. Everything was lovely, I had the Bruno pizza. Delicious. Pizza Express gives a discount for blue light card holders.

Amazing meal with my family the manager Robbie was great

Was the best pizza I’ve had in soooo long!

Cannot complain. We had a lovely meal here. Good service. Hot & tasty pizza. What more could you want!! Recommend of course.

Absolutely disappointing, very pathetic services. It took more than 1 hour to serve the complete order , drinks was served 30 mins before the starters and pizza served after 1 hr of drink. All food are cold and tasteless, no spices(oregano, chilli )was served separately so that customer can enjoy as per their own taste buds. Not provided even after requesting. Overall failed to make an impact as dining .too many staff but no one seems genuinely concern towards the customer. Seems totally unorganised, a total big no for this place .

Went in with my 2 year old daughter and waitress that looked after us was amazing, she even showed us where the changing rooms were not just pointed us out in the right direction, she done a check back and asked us if there was anything else we wanted, my daughter enjoyed her pizza and gave a clap. I had the lasagna which was lovely so well done 👏

Pizza Express always has good quality pizzas, but the service normally lets it down. At the time of dining, there was a ‘Classic Pizza and add another for £1 offer’ Our server seemed agitated when asked about how to apply this offer. The Wi-Fi connection was weak and the server was impatient while we waited for the app to load and show us how to do it. She also kept repeatedly asking my partner if she had the app as well. We found this VERY strange considering there was only one other table at the time, meaning that the restaurant wasn’t busy at all. Later on, our drinks were forgotten until we made eye contact with the server while she was preparing the drinks from the next table over. We also didn’t get a pizza cutter while other tables did. The server was slightly pushy on us giving ‘good feedback’ considering she had made a couple mistakes. Overall, the food was nice but the service lets the experience down.

"I am extremely disappointed with the service at Pizza Express. We waited far too long just to place our order, and the staff were unresponsive and ignored us when we asked for assistance. After waiting 1.5 hours, our pizza finally arrived cold. This is unacceptable, and I would rate the service zero if I could. This experience has completely put me off returning, and I would not recommend this location to anyone."

The pizza was very greasy and did not have much taste

Having been someone who dined at Pizza Express since the mid 1970s we have, since lockdown, been much less often than pre-Covid. So it was a real disappointment that our exerience at Pizza Express Braintree last night was so unsatifactory. We arrived at 6:45 and was pleased to get a table immediately. Although busy when we arrived by 7:30 it was only about half full so there was little reason to have to wait an hour and a half from arrival to finally being served our main course. We started with drinks and these came promptly. Our order of olives arrived some time after and garlic bread some time later still. Then our wait for our pizzas really started. From ordering just after 7:00 our order only arrived at 8:22, and then only after asking twice how much longer and latterly threatening to leave in 5 minutes if they did not appear. The pizzas were so different to the standard of pizzas we have know and expected from Pizza Express. Both pizzas bases were undercooked and doughy. They clearly had not been hand stretched just prior to firing. My wife's topping also tasted and looked underdone. She only ate about a third of hers and I left some of mine. Our waitress was very apologetic and our billed was reduced. She did at least compensate for some of the otherwise very unsatisfactory experience. Finally we were not alone in being frustrated by the hour waits - adjacent to us there was a table of three and one of four who were constantly looking towards the kitchen and showing signs of agitation.

Absolutely disappointed. Customer service is awful. I went to celebrate my birthday here and the service was so bad. I asked about an offer that was displayed outside and the lady responded with an angry face to use the app. I then ordered and asked how to redeem and again she huffed and puffed to direct me. I am sorry but this is not acceptable. We are paying for the service and it was just awful. Food also took an hour to come to us and we were rushed to order our food within 5min of sitting down. No one came over to us and asked if everything was ok or if we needed anything else. I would not recommend this place! This is the second time this has happened and needs to be resolved with more staff if you can not handle the busyness.

The best pizza chain with many choices and very friendly service and also great discount and free food with the free app!

Food was cold, really disappointed and dissatisfied, I hope you can do something about this Thanks

Decided to bring family (7 people) here for my son’s birthday. The food was nice but the service as awful. We had to wait 2.5 hrs for a main meal ONLY and watched others come and go. In addition to this the waitress was very poor. I would not recommend or eat at this restaurant again. Very disappointed.

Always lovely popping into Pizza Express Braintree! Always welcomed by a beautiful smiling face and nothing is ever an issue, quick meal on a busy Saturday, Great food from the chefs and a lovely cold Peroni! Thank you!

The restaurant was very clean with lots of architectural design ,I loved the speed delivery.My husband was trying to pour out some chilly oil but he wasn’t quite able to but the chef who was all the way from us saw this and prompted the waitress to help us..We felt so included

Unfortunately we couldn't have our lunch in there. Started serving other tables which arrived later than ours and no communication given to us. I went to speak to the manager and some kind of printing error, but offered us to leave if not happy. Rubbish customer service.

Just had a lovely meal for my Dads 74th birthday with my mother and son. Food was quick and delicious. Maisie delivered amazing service today a credit to Pizza Express! I would highly recommend Pizza Express Freeport

Amazing service and fabulous food! I can highly recommend the melanzane parmigiana! Will definitely be returning!

Was very disappointed with the service from the waitress was very moody. We got told when we got to our table to download the pizza express app we would get free dough balls when I did it, it said the table is not valid. Our food took a very long time to come the restaurant was very quiet. Our starters came out with our mains which was not good. We told the waitress that the app said the table is not valid she said I know there is problems with this table. She did not take the dough balls off our meal.

I Came with my family to eat. No customer service skills. Staff member was not bothered to take my order. Waitied 15 minutes only for me to call the staff member and ask her if she was ready to which she replied 'are you ready!' In a very abrupt way. This is not customer service.

Nice atmosphere. The food was brilliant. Our server was lovely and brang every thing we needed. Overall, lovely experience

Last minute plans for dinner. Both had starters (bruschetta/dough balls) and a main ( pizza) along with soft drinks. Seared straight away and our waitress was brilliant from the start, informing us of offers on the pizza express app! Food was served promptly but not too quickly between courses. Good food and service! Saved around £12 with the offers.

This is our go to with the kids! Food is always great! The staff have always been super friendly and exceptionally patient with our 3 young children! Was served today by Adam and nothing was too much trouble really made our meal enjoyable! Highly recommend!

Our waiter Adam was fantastic, food delicious, restaurant in a great location and the Father's Day couluring cards for the children were a lovely touch

Good food fast service served by robbie who was a great host. Will definitely be returning

Had a fantastic meal here on Friday, four of us popped in for something to eat, and although it was busy I cannot say how friendly and professional the manager Robbie was. He really made our experience that bit more enjoyable, a really lovely guy and great asset to the restaurant. We will absolutely be returning. Also, the Pollo pesto was amazing!

I have never experienced such poor customer service in my life. We booked a table for 7:30. We stood at the entrance for over 10 minutes and were not acknowledged all. A waitress marched in front of us countless times in a dismissive manner. I saw another person talk to a delivery driver in an appalling manner. The kitchen staff showed a horrible attitude to each other. We waited a little longer. Even my partner, who is the most patient person I have ever met, said let's go. So we ended up turning around and eating dinner somewhere else. Pizza express did not deserve the business. If someone had said hi, or “we will be with you” we would have understood. But to behave as though we were not there was unacceptable. If you want to have a dinner at Pizza Express go to the Bisboos Stortford one.

Lovely pizza but music a little loud

Love this restaurant. Dough balls al forno are amazing..

Fantastic service was delicious all I can say is wasn’t that warm xx

Delicious food delivered on time with friendliness.

Food was still good however It was half hour late

Me and my partner love coming here now and again. The food is always delicious and service is always great. Plenty of parking as it’s in Freeport. You also can’t beat the signature dough balls it’s a must.

We had a positive experience in this Pizza Express. The restaurant itself was nicely decorated. The service was friendly, efficient and our food came quickly. We enjoyed our pizzas, finding them very tasty.

Came super late and was stone cold on arrival

Great pizza, helpful attentive staff, empty restaurant.

Had to wait more than half hour for our main course another table got their starter and main together after waiting nearly an hour!

Absymal. The experience was absymal. This was the first Pizza Express I experienced more due the familiarity of hear the name of the chain rather than actually hearing good things about the restaurant. When we go for a dine in there are 3 things that ticks the box 1. Service 2. Atmosphere 2. Food So, this is a step by step procedure. If the service is bad then as usual the rest of the things are pretty much downhill from there. This is the first time I am seeing teams avoiding eye contact with the patrons who are about to order. So the first 20 mins we just sat patiently following which I had to chase someone to get the order in. And I forgot the table we were directed to was not set. No tissues, no knives, no forks...all that were present were 3 glasses situated haphazardly which led me to question whether the table was cleared before we sat in. And now after the cat and mouse chase with the order, the pizza arrived with the starter. Voila. Here comes the moment when you curse your idea of coming to this particular restaurant. It was no better than the takeaways from the groceries. I could have got the same amount of pizza from any one of the grocery chains and heat it in the oven. Luckily for us, towards the time we ended our ordeal I think the shift changed and we had different waitresses running around. The bill was settled pretty quickly and we ran away from the place. I know this is a chain establishment and all that, but people are coming in to eat good food. Not to stare at the walls and regret throwing money down the drain. I really hope this will be a one time experience. Right now, I am not planning to step in on another Pizza express in the near future. To the people who plan to, I hope you have better luck than me.

The most gorgeous salad on earth.

Food was cold unfortunately. As we were working today we decided to treat ourselves. Pity it was cold.

Food was really good and service too. It is a little bit expensive for pizza …

very good food and service and atmosphere do go there grate pizza and beer to

Lisa our waitress was great at Colchester. Always great food and atmosphere. Thank you.

Did not have any garlic butter with dough balls

Forgot my drink and pizza is tiny

Waited so long for my order and when it came it was freezing cold. I will want my money back as wasn’t even able to eat it

Lovely PX better than others which are nice anyway. Tried the Burnt Ends Romano delish!!! Staff very friendly too, all in all great lunch whilst at Freeport :)

No service. 15 to 20 mins wait for someone to take your order. Staff complaining to customers at there's no staff. Waste of time

Really good Romana pizza and bubbling hot Lasagna. Fresh clean salad and super tasty dough balls in spicy nduja sauce. Crisp refreshing sparkling drinks too. A special mention to Joanna,who single handedly served the lunch crowd,even reading virtually the entire menu to a partially sighted lady whilst keeping everyone served. I hope she is appreciated! Good food all round!!

One item was incorrect not what was ordered which was disappointing

Good pizza place , very busy but still delivered good tasty food and staff very helpful

Lovely hot food, arrived on time

Excellent friendly service and excellent food the pizza's were all delicious and wouldn't hesitate to go back can highly recommend looking forward to the next time

Pizza Express… perfect as always and delivered in record time!

I came in for lunch yesterday and had a lovely young lady serve us called Mia. She was very happy and friendly and made sure we was happy during our meal even when it was busy. Food was amazing and quick service.

Great service , excellent pizza

Visited yesterday with 3 friends and my guide dog in training The staff were wonderful the food was good and we left having had a good time and with full stomachs we will be revisiting soon

Requested for certain time and was half hour late. Also almost cold

Me and mum came in for dinner tonight and couldn’t fault the food or the service. Lovely atmosphere would definitely come again

Good food & great service. Atmosphere was good too. It's definitely one of the better pizza expresses! Food came quickly and was tasty. Mia was an exceptional waitress, who was attentive and is a credit to the staff :)

Had a lovely lunch here this afternoon for my daughter’s birthday, the food was excellent and our waitress Mia was wonderful. They catered excellently to my husbands dietary requirements, hope to come back again soon, can’t recommend them enough.

Food was incredible, service was outstanding 👏 👌

Great restaurant. Thank you Toni for the great service!

So before I start this is a chain so that has to be taken into consideration when I start the review and as somebody who is very picky over pizza I'm bound to be slightly more critical over pizza then other dishes. Firstly the resteraunt is nice inside comfy seating and as with all Pizza Express you can see your pizza being made. The service in this branch was the real winner over everything the lady who was looking after us was friendly great and gave attention to my nephew so they went far and beyond your normal expectations. For starters we shared the classic dough balls which to be honest are great for me and the garlic butter is always a winner simple dishes like this are always a winner, alongside this we also had calamari which I was worried about but for what it was it was great, it reminds me of frozen calamari but with a nice coating and a bit more care so is it my favourite no, is it good for what it is well yes it is. Then on to the main event once upon a time I used to love pizza express before we saw the pizza world explode in England and everything became sough dough or neopolitan. We had the calabria which was nice flavour tasty toppings but the dough for me hasn't quite kept up with the levels of other places available now. It's tasty but is it at the top level, for me no it's not bit it's a good option. We also had a nduja calzone which was probably the only real lacking pizza. It needs more, I mean more filling and more tomatoe sauce it's tasty and nice smoked chilli flavour what is there is really nice but it just needs a little more. But yes I enjoyed my meal had brilliant service in a really nice resteraunt so it's a great option to have and alongside every specialist pizza places is the good safe option available with plenty of options at a great price.

Food arrived hot. Delivery was on time. Didn't have to wait long

Spent £47 on two pizzas two halloumi bits and some dough balls. Everything was cold, stone cold not even a little warmth. The halloumi bits were in a big box like there would be something in there and it was a small sprinkling of tiny little halloumi bites so not worth the money. Out of the two pizzas they forgot the chicken on the first pizza and the second was pointless, asked for extra jalapeños and it was all they bothered to put on the pizza with the cheese and tomato! They’re already overcharging why try and save money by robbing unsuspecting customers??? Terrible, absolutely horrific wouldn’t order from these people again ever under any circumstances!!!! All Deliveroo would let me do was get the chicken refunded! Nothing for ruining our meal and robbing us!

This restaurant visit was by far my most disappointing dining experience. My party and I were seated and then inexplicably forgotten. After nearly 40 minutes of waiting, I had to contact the restaurant by phone to inform them that our order hadn't been taken. It was only after the manager's intervention that we could finally place our order. Regrettably, the two Italian servers assigned to our table consistently disregarded us, even engaging in personal conversations with other nearby customers instead of attending to our needs. When our pizza was eventually served, we were already considering leaving. Getting our receipt was yet another prolonged ordeal, taking an additional 30-40 minutes. The overall attitude and service from the two Italian servers were utterly unacceptable. This experience has left us with no intention of returning, and we plan to file an official complaint regarding this incident.

Went in there today was sat on a unlayed table that was dirty and floor and chairs where covered in food, sat there for 10 min waiting to ask if we could move or just get some drinks. As we left walked past all the staff who didn’t even care that we where leaving already.

Food is fine but the service is terrible, waited ages for a table in an empty restaurant and once finally seated was ignored for 30mins before we just got up and left. The server was also just rude and unwelcoming

It was a miserable wet day when my daughter, granddaughter and I came into Pizza Express. We were welcomed by Carl who looked after us so well and nothing was too much trouble. We really enjoyed our visit.

Unfortunate Google asked if we wanted to update our review after the meal we just had, our old review was 5 star and we had a great time previously, this experience this evening couldnt be further from it! We were a table of five, the restaurant didnt even look half full and we have been there for THREE HOURS we only had two courses! Starters took half an hour from ordering which wasnt too bad but an hour and 45 minutes between that and the main was ridiculous! We had been regulars but this isnt the first time its taken a while to get the food so we wont be going back for a while if at all

20 mins late delivery - I called 10 minutes after the estimated delivery time and when I called that’s when they said the driver had just left with my food, when I spoke to the driver, he said he heard the staff telling me on the phone that he left but he was still there waiting to collect my food - terrible service!

Food was cold and pizzas were tiny and lacked toppings. Garlic butter had melted and was oily

Drank a whole bottle of wine whilst waiting for our mains. Never did get it so left without paying. Staff offered no explanation for delay. Manager was more interested in arranging the take outs. When confronted his words 'I have just walked into this'. My granddaughters 8th birthday treat as well. Had to go home as school in the morning. We were not the only ones either. Just awful. Wine not bad though especially when on the house.

We waited for 2hrs+ for 3 (!) Pizzas and left without any food at all because it was taking wayy too long DO NOT EVER COME HERE THE WORKERS DON'T LIKE THEIR CUSTOMERS

Worst Pizza Express I’ve ever been to. We were sat at a table right in the centre of the restaurant so you’d think we wouldn’t be forgotten about but sadly that wasn’t the case! Waited an age for our order to be taken and starters came pretty quickly once we had finally ordered but it really went south from there. We waited over an hour and a half for our pizzas to be cooked, it was a Sunday evening and was not busy at all so I cannot understand how it took THAT long? To make things worse, when we did finally get our pizzas, 2 out of 3 had been made incorrectly and had to be remade and there was not urgency to do this either! Pitiful customer service, in the time we were waiting nobody bothered to come over and let us know why we had to wait so long, and when we got our food nobody apologised for the wait. None of the waiting staff were clearing any tables, the place looked horrific when we left at 8pm (having been there since 5!) - watched them seat a family on a dirty table and they didn’t even bother to wipe it. Cannot stress enough how much you shouldn’t eat here! I watched at least 6 tables complain in the time we were there, and anywhere that receives that many complaints in a 3 hour period on a quiet Sunday should really rethink how they are running things

I usually enjoy pizza express. Like all chains, you know what you’re getting. But this review is about the terrible service as I didn’t even get to eat. A friend and I popped in while we had a 50 minutes to wait for a train. When we arrived we waited at the usual place to be seated. Lots of staff milling around all in one area, all had seen us, but none made the effort to come over. After about 5 minutes a member of staff came from the back and walked over to us. As she seated us we explained we had a train to catch and would (by this time) 45 minutes be enough. She said yes. We sat at a table which had some dirty glasses form another customer (not their fault we chose it because it was in the shade outside) but the lady that sat us didn’t even attempt to take the dirty stuff away. We then sat there for 15 minutes trying to get the rather disorganised staff around us to take our order. They never did. Nor did they ever clean the table. We stood up and left and popped to a sand which shop around the corner instead. As we walked back past Pizza Express 20 minutes later, the table still hadn’t been cleared and our menus were still sitting there. This comes down to terrible people management. Clearly the staff have had Xero training in how to manage there section to ensure all customers get served and attended to. Or, the management is so poor, they don’t care. So disappointing as I’ve never had any issues with the food I had at any pizza express, but if this is their attitude towards service, it’s going to die in its feet not matter what the food’s like.

Good service and all members were polite and respectful

Overpriced, tasteless pizza with, sparse toppings and no condiments. Like eating overcooked cardboard pizza wraps. Rude waitress, do not recommend as definitely not a good experience or even remotely average for food.

This was a lovely visit! The friendliness of the waitress Toni made it even better!! She was so kind and professional and gave us all options available. The food was really nice and I had a lovely catch up with family. Chicken wings were delicious and the salad was really good!!

We went about 4 in afternoon so not very busy only 3 other tables. Took 20 mins to order a drink and another 10 to get. Food was OK mine was hot wife's warm. Asked for bill at end and waited another 20 mins to pay staff where no where to be seen even though hardly anyone in restaurant

First visit. Very impressed. Catered for gluten free. Essential for me. Great experience

Food was ok. Toppings on the pizza were very limited. Margarita was crispy in the centre due to the lack of toppings. Kids meal was good and good value. Service was very slow considering the place was half empty. Had to ask for the bill twice and in the end just got up to pay at the door.

Popped in this eve and wow what a great restaurant food was fresh and really well cooked and presented our waitress Toni was fabulous. had a couple of not great meals in PE (not this one) lately. But hey pizza express. These guys done great. Well done team.

Pizza Express Freeport Braintree..... As usual the food (when it came) was as you expect with no issue and lovely. My complaint is with the service. We arrived and was shown to our table at 5.30. By 6 I felt it necessary to summon a waitress to take our order. The starters came another half an hour later. Again another 20 minutes after finishing our starters and had to ask a waitress for more drinks and to clear the plates. This lackluster service continued throughout. Didn't order a desert (which my children wanted) because we wanted to get home before midnight! The restaurant was not even a third full, so I cannot understand the very poor service. I witnessed one customer who arrived an hour later than us and had sat at there table for 30 minutes and in the end had to get out of his seat to ask a waitress for some service. Hate to think what it would have been like if the restaurant was full!!!

Highly recommended. Great selection of vegan and vegetarian options now.

Food was good, service was slow but don't think I really blame the staff because they looked massively understaffed. The staff that were there were nice and polite. Think we were in the restaurant for at least 1½ hours that first hour was waiting for the food. Table was sticky and covered gunk is the only word I could think of. Overall it was at most a very average experience. Probably wouldn't go back

Fantastic relaxed atmosphere and excellent service, Sylvia was superb, thank you

The food was great. Service was hard to get hold of whilst sitting outside. Staff is very friendly.

Arrived ~1 hour before closing (it wasn't busy), initially ignored by the first person who walked past and made eye contact as I said hello, they then twigged that they hadn't greeted us and said they'd be with us shortly but wandered off with a chair. One of the other members of staff who wasn't busy then offered to take us to a table. No drinks were offered upon seating and it took ~10 minutes to have our order taken. Food came out in an acceptable time and was very nice. We only had starters however weren't asked how the food was at any point. It then took 10 minutes of trying to get someone's attention once we'd finished so we could pay the bill. Lots of staff were in the kitchen chatting and those who weren't didn't seem to be paying any attention to diners. Someone kindly brought the bill over however didn't bring the card machine (despite me having my bright orange card out and saying we wanted to pay by card). They plopped the receipt down and walked off. We sat and waited and eventually decided to just get up and walk to the door. The staff member didn't seem to take any notice of us (she saw us but ignored us, busying herself with something) and another colleague had to ask if we needed help. We did then manage to pay with the other colleague's assistance. Overall a fairly rubbish mundane experience. Most staff seemed unenthused and like they didn't want to be there / like they just wanted to go home / like we were all an inconvenience. Wouldn't choose to visit this branch again. Felt unwelcome and sensed a somewhat awkward atmosphere from the staff. Wouldn't recommend this location to others. Seems like our experience isn't dissimilar to that of other reviewers. There were only two of us dining, not a huge table. Just glad they didn't try to get us to pay a gratuity!

This is the second abysmal experience we had. Tried to eat at this which used to be a favourite of ours and were turned away with the restaurant full of customers with the lady telling us we have to close as all our toilets are out of order including the disabled toilet so it's illegal for us to stay open. We therefore , like the previous time visited Zizzis , where once again the service , ambience and food was amazing . After finished we saw the pizza express far from being closed was still open ! Go figure

I’ve been eating at Pizza Express for over 50 years, since they first opened in Bloomsbury. So sad to see how cost cutting has ruined their pizza. New pizza Express, half the cheese, half the ham, half the mushrooms, half the olives, triple the passata!!! End of an era… Time to move on… Good bye Wilko, good bye Pizza Express! You will be missed…..

Delicious pizza and dough balls 😋

Seated and served promptly, and food came faster than expected.

Their pizzas have become quite pricey and there are too many chilli ones on offer with some weird flavour combinations. I didn't choose particularly well on this occasion but my wife loved her pizza. I will give them another try but will be a little more careful with my food selection.

Adam served us! We were a big party but that was no drama for him, really helpful and knowledgeable, really friendly 5* service !!

Adam was really nice and helpful!

A flying lunchtime visit, the food was fab and fresh and the service by Jo was wonderful