Pizza Express has become one of my go-to chains in the UK, mainly due to their gluten-free pizzas, loyalty scheme and being a reliable choice when trying to find a bite to eat in a new city in a hurry.
This location is inside the Princes Quay Shopping Centre, in the city centre of Hull, the mall has so much potential being along the river, but it's a dire and run-down mess and this is one of the few places left.
You enter the restaurant through the steps within the mall, there is also a lift, but it looks in rough condition like it hadn't been used in a long time. While the mall officially shuts at 5:30 p.m., the restaurant does stay open later for dinner service closing at 9 p.m. Sunday to Thursday and opening an hour later on Friday and Saturday evenings. These opening hours are reasonable for a mall location, but obviously, they do close earlier than most Pizza Express across the country, so plan ahead.
PRO TIP: Be sure to take advantage of their Pizza Express Club loyalty scheme on their app, after just a couple of visits you can get a bunch of freebies to make your trip more affordable. Without these offers, it can be a little pricey however once you unlock the gold tier you're able to get bonuses such as a free soft drink, bottled water, dough balls, coffee and Dolcetti and the list continues.
The overall interior is large, and I really liked how they had views of the river, I was given a window seat, so the view was really pretty, and it almost felt like I'd left England and was in a much more exotic country. Other than the windows, the interior was definitely in need of a refurb compared to the newer Pizza Express stores, and the seats were so uncomfortable.
For my food, I decided to try the gluten-free Pollo Fiesta pizza, which had recently launched on the menu. I originally tried to order one of my favourite pizzas, the Pollo Forza, but as this was recently removed from the menu, I had to opt for something else. I was a little annoyed that the waitress wouldn't let me order it anyway, as they had everything to make the pizza other than the peppers which could have been substituted (Other Pizza Express stores have offered to do this for me).
The waitress was friendly enough and had decent menu knowledge apart from this.
My pizza looked great but the taste was so-so, the sour cream might look aesthetically pleasing drizzled on the pizza, but I just didn't like the flavour combination, and in parts, it was way too thick and I had to scrape it off. The chicken was tasty though. The mixed peppers were way too long and thick, again, not great for a pizza... so I had to take them off as well.
I also ordered some gluten-free dough balls to go alongside the mains, these were fine, but the portion of garlic butter was stingy, and part of the garlic hadn't been crushed correctly.
Not the best Pizza Express, pretty bog standard chain Italian, again this place has so much potential if they can work on sprucing up the interior with comfier chairs, and actually promoting the view more. 3* read more