Pizza Express Haymarket in City of London, Westminster

Pizza Express is always our ‘go to’ place to eat when out with my friends. We have eaten in many of their restaurants around the country. I had booked a table in advance as we were coming to London on a coach trip from Essex to see a show. However the traffic was bad and we were running late. I phoned in advance to worn them that we were running late and was told they were happy to keep the table for us. We arrived fifteen minutes late and after a quick apology from me we were shown to our table. We were greeting by a lovely waitress Amy and explained that we had a theatre booking and had to be finished within the hour. Amy said that was ok and took our drinks order and food order together. Our food and drinks arrived in really good timing. All delicious as usual. Nice and hot and very tasty. The drinks were also really good two. The service as so speedy and we even managed to have time for some desserts. Overall a lovely experience as always. The restaurant was clean and tidy. The staff very smiley and helpful. Thank you Amy for your great services. The restaurant setting is really ideal for those wanting food before or after shows or just visiting the sights of Piccadilly.

Definitely think the restaurant needs to better consider its layout for larger/smaller parties. Despite booking well in advance, our table for two was sandwiched between two large groups. Considering our table booking was for 5:15 (and appreciate this was a Saturday) ridiculous that the restaurant didn’t say something about the screaming and banging on the tables from both. Nothing is that funny that you have to bang on a table in a restaurant. Given two floor layout surely a better option would be for big groups to be lit on one floor and couples/smaller groups on another. Food perfectly good but suspect Pizza Express have hiked the prices up with this being in the west end. £69 for one dough balls, two pasta dishes and two tiramisu is very very steep.

Came here to eat food, we ordered our food and whilst we were waiting for it my friend and I needed to leave for a minute to do something urgent. The waitress said this was okay and we went for a minute (2mins max) and came back. We saw our drinks had disappeared and all of the waiters were ignoring us. When i called for someone the waiter rudely said he threw away our drinks and cancelled our order because he didn’t think we were coming back. I then explained that we told his colleague (the waitress) that we would only be a couple of minutes. He rudely responded that he didn’t know this with no further solution. I then suggested that we order our food again? He then said ‘The kitchen is closing but okay.’ Very bluntly. Due to the cold nature of his behaviour we didn’t feel like staying. I then complained to the waitress as we were walking out that she did not inform the other waiters that we were leaving and they told us the kitchen was closed for ordering. She sarcastically remarked ‘okay’ and said we could sit up here rudely. I left feeling disappointed with the very poor customer service.

Fabulous service!! I attend this pizza express regularly. Whilst I don’t think of this restaurant as having good customer service on this occasion it was fantastic! Fun, friendly and attentive. We laughed with the staff, our order was correct and the food was great. Only negatives were that the tables are very close together making it awkward and very close and subsequently very noisy. We struggled to hear friends say next to us. This however is unlikely to be the store employees fault.

I rarely write negative reviews – but Pizza Express in Haymarket, London must be an exception. Our order was taken within 5 mins but it went steeply downhill after with a dramatically over-capacity restaurant and hassled staff trying their best but flagging. As a result at 6pm+, mid week in November we had a 45 minute wait for a simple pizza – luke-warm when it arrived as was my partners equally slow cannelloni, in a (very) noisy, overcrowded basement room. Our pre-theatre meal ended up being rushed (is this what the 'express' in Pizza Express refers to) and capped by the requested card payment machine never arriving (we had to leave cash). The staff were too rushed off their feet for us to even find someone to receive a constructive complaint!