OK, this is it. I REALLY have had enough of substandard service and poorly behaved staff. Pizza express demonstrated both of these annoyances.
Firstly, we were seated right near the open kitchen. Great, you might think, we can watch as our pizzas are flamed to perfection. Wrong, we had to put up with staff members sniping at each other about who's responsibility a certain job was, then having a minor tiff. Our position also allowed us to see that none of the long haired staff had made any attempt to keep their hair back - very offputting.
The food was nothing amazing, average for a chain, service is where places like this can turn an OK meal into an experience. Pizza Express, didn't seize this opportunity. Our server was nice enough, but made no attempt to engage or be friendly, it was service without a smile.
The one point where I was willing the restaurant to impress me was when a female server asked me if I wanted any black pepper. Great, I thought, the oversized "making up for ego shortcomings" pepper mill...no, I was provided with small dish, of pre-ground pepper. At this point we gave up.
Service for the rest of the meal was painfully slow considering how quiet the restaurant was. We were considering walking to the bar at the front when we were offer the desert menus?!?! After declining and asking for the bill a further 5-10 minute delay really ended the meal on a sour note.
A note to any restaurant who cares: Service is everything, the food was well presented at this restaurant, and had it been better seasoned might have scored "good" but the shoddy and embarrassingly bad service made this an experience memorable for all the wrong reasons.
UPDATE:
Following an email to Customer Services, I was contacted by the assistant manager who explained that neither she, nor the restaurant manager were working due to the snow. Also the reason for the lack of black pepper was due to no delivery, again, due to the snow. Had this been explained, nothing more would have been thought of it.
The young manager was extremely apologetic, and insisted that this was not representative of the restaurant and that she would speak to the team who had served us to ensure no repeat of the failures read more
