Pizza Express

Ahhh Pizza Express, you purveyor of tasty pizzas you, part of me is glad you exist for I know of your qualities, another wishes you didn’t so local business would prosper.
Regardless, we needed some food and after a couple of unsuccessful attempts (YOU try finding some where to eat during the Fringe Festival!) we ‘gave up’ and headed to Pizza Express.
It was a little later in the evening, but they confirmed they were still serving food for another hour or so, and we were soon seated and our order was placed.
And then we waited.
This review will now focus on the amount of time we waited as the food was — as it usually is — tasty fare.
But we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. We asked the waiter to check and he said the ‘food was coming’ and we waited some more. We eyed up the food that was brought out for the guy sitting next to us and debated mugging him for it but, because we are nice people we didn’t do that, we just waited some more.
Did I mention there was a bit of a wait? Like an hour? Should we have complained and left? Perhaps. But it was late and the fear was the only other options would be a bag of chips or a McDs, so we stayed (plus they were serving us alcohol).
Anyway, we waited for a while (did I mention that? I should really mention that, that we waited for QUITE A LONG TIME!) our food arrived and it was good. I do like the Padana (that’s goats cheese and caramelised red onion to you), and I’ve never had a bad food experience in a Pizza Express before but as there was a bit of a wait, for no good reason that we could see — remember, they did say they were still serving, and it wasn’t massively busy, plenty of empty tables — I left confused.
Happy that I’d had beer and a tasty pizza. Grumpy because there wasn’t really much of an apology for the wait.
I will eat in Pizza Express again no doubt, I just hope that I leave Happy/​Happy next time, not Happy/​Grumpy (although, to be fair, there was a little bit «Tipsy» in there too).

Dropped by for lunch. It was a nice quite place and not too busy. Enjoyed the relaxing soft music while watching the hustling traffic pass. Our waiter was not the best, but his coworker seen and bent over backwards to help us.
I had a salad here. Pretty darn tasty. It had squash, beets, and other odd things you normally don’t find in a salad.

We’re not huge fans of Pizza Express, but with the current Tesco Clubcard Boost deal (where you can exchange Tesco Clubcard points for restaurant vouchers) we decided to pay them a visit.
It appears that during the Festival they’re running a reduced menu (kind of a pre-​theatre deal) which makes sense as they were pretty busy, even at 3pm. It was a little disappointing, but they still had most of the classic dishes on there and it did say you could ask for items from the normal menu.
Overall, the food was fairly average and the general service didn’t seem great — we watched a couple of tables have to get up and ask for the bill as they were being ignored. The saving grace was our amazing waitress who not only gave us great service throughout, but also went out of her way to make sure we got the most out of our vouchers by offering us a dessert to takeaway (and even adding a mini brownie to the slice of chocolate fudge brownie when she spotted we still had a couple of pounds of voucher left).
As with most chain restaurants, Pizza Express is nothing spectacular but it is a solid pick for reasonably priced food. Just don’t expect a table after 6pm during the festival!

Thin dough, fresh ingredients, quick service. Pizza Express is a delicious establishment with lots of options. The chain keep the same quality service with well trained staff and great menu throughout the world.

Five stars for the OMG AMAZING superfood salad (super is right)!!! I hope they never, ever take this off the menu… not even in a zillion years. It’s just so lovely and exactly what I have been missing at nearly every other restaurant in the UK. People often ask me what I miss about home (US) and the only thing I say without hesitation is, «the entrée salad.» Why is it so rare here to find a salad that is not only big enough to constitute an entire meal, but is also GOOD? Well here at Pizza Express, of all places, I have finally found it. This was my first time ever in a Pizza Express. There’s apparently one in George Square, but I’ve been spending all my culinary energy in that part of town at Pintos… not any more I won’t!
Three stars for the ho-​hum service. Nothing remarkably bad about the service, but certainly nothing stand-​out amazing. So four stars it is for Pizza Express — imagine my surprise!

I quite often go to this Pizza Express, with my tesco vouchers, a wonderful way to spend them. The food and service are actually top quality for the price. They have recently revamped the restaurant and it now has a great atmosphere. Everything I have eaten here has been cooked to a high standard. The only thing I do not like is the omission of a good fish dish. Please Pizza Express, you cater for vegetarian very well, and meat eaters, but can you pause and think for us fish eaters and I may come even more often. My favourite dish is the spinach canelloni but as I do not eat pizzas there is not a great deal of choice. A nice clam pasta would go down well! My favourite dessert is the coffee and figs in marsala wine and cream with a dash of Irish baileys in the coffee. I do like the way they give you lots of extra parmesan. The wine is very expensive however, I cannot grumble as we usually do not pay anything for the food. Well done staff. You are very friendly, polite and efficient.

I am a massive fan of Pizza Express. I adore their pizzas and when they have deals on I’m there in a flash. Not a fan of the name, in Ireland the chain uses the name ‘Milanos’ which I think suits the food a bit more (and is a lot less like Pizza Hut).
Went here with my friends on a Saturday evening at around 6:30pm and were given a table straight away (no booking). We had a coupon code for 3 courses £13 which was pretty awesome, there was a slight restriction on what we could order but it didn’t bother me. I had the dough balls, a margarita and a (generous) slice of cheesecake. All lovely. Like I said, I love their pizzas, their sauce is one of the best.
The staff were very attentive. Our waitress had a strong accent that I had some trouble with but i’d put that down to the noise. Also, there was a slight delay with starters but the place was just getting busy. I was pretty happy with the place and all set to add it to my list of regulars…
However, I’m also a fan of clean bathrooms… I was pretty shocked when I saw the loo in this particular establishment. It wasn’t late in the evening but 2 of the stalls were missing toilet paper, apart from what had been clearly thrown about on the ground. Not only that, but the precarious walk down the metal ‘factory’ steps had me worried (true I’m not the best in my high heels though!) and the floor at the bottom of the steps was manky.
It’s such a pity but as much as I like the food and the service the bathrooms made feel all icky so I came away from the place with a negative view. I much prefer the branch on George IV bridge.

Great as a Sloppy Giuseppe is, it’s telling that in the countless years I’ve enjoyed Pizza Express’s products, it’s almost always been takeaway or their supermarket versions I’ve went for.
There’s something about it that just doesn’t feel right, and I think it’s the name. «Pizza Express» just sounds like a grubby late-​night takeaway, and thus is the only reason I can think of for not dining here.
At risk of sounding stuck-​up, it’s not a conscious decision, rather Pizza Express just never really comes to mind when I want to eat out. I don’t know why, as the food is actually pretty excellent.

To be honest, while there’s nothing wrong with this particular restaurant chain, there’s nothing spectacular about it either. T
he actual best thing about this one is that you can sit in and get a meal even after the clubs have emptied.
Yas!

This is a really nice restaurant. So nice, that it feels of a higher standard than the usual pizza expresses out there. I’ve been here a couple of times and I’ve always been impressed with the friendly staff, great service and the nice interiors. The open kitchen is great too so you can watch your pizza/​pasta/​dough balls in the making. And all reasonably priced too! Me likey.

I am usually a fan of Pizza Express, however this is one of their restaurants that I shall be steering clear of in future.
I had a voucher where myself and a friend could get two courses and a glass of wine for a £10, so I didn’t take much convincing to pop in here for what I thought would be a nice little evening.
When we walked in, we were left standing around until we had to approach a waiter to ask if we could be seated, to which we received a rude response of «in a minute!», even though there were plenty of tables available. When we were finally seated with menus, we sat for 15 without service, and weren’t even asked if we would like a drink. After 20 minutes of desperately trying to make eye contact with the waiters and waitresses, who paid us no attention at all, we got up and left.
I found the service here to be appalling and I was amazed at the lack of customer service from the staff and what appeared to be the manageress, who gave a half hearted apology when she finally noticed we were leaving the restaurant. Definitely not the treatment I would expect from such an established restaurant chain.

I am for sure a fan of this place. Don’t be fooled by the name. This is actually a very trendy place. The food is absolutely delicious! I recommend getting the Bosco Salad, Campo de’fiori Pizza, and Banoffee Pie. They’re pretty darn good!
This place gets quite busy at night. I would call them and make a reservation. Oh yeah, you should also tell them when you have to leave, just so the waiter is aware of your time constraints.
The staff is friendly and attending. –1 for making me wait 20 minutes for the food. Overall, I had a great experience here. Just a great place to enjoy some good Italian food and relax.

As a chain, Pizza Express can usually be relied upon to provide a consistent quality of slightly above average pizza at a reasonable price.
I’ve been to this particular branch twice & won’t be going back. The service the first time was mediocre & the second time was appalling.
Having dropped my pizza and been seen picking it up, they tried to serve it to me, then eventually offered to put my partner’s under a heat lamp while mine was made fresh.
Staff were surly and slow, despite the place being quiet.
All in all, a real let down to what is otherwise a reliable, if not special, chain of restaurants.
If you fancy a Pizza Express, my advice would be to head to the one in Stockbridge: nicer building, nicer atmosphere & much better service.

I wish we had Pizza Express here in the US.
Then I could have my beloved Siciliana with Italian artichoke heart, anchovies, prosciutto cotto ham, olives and garlic. And hubby could have a Sloppy Giuseppe (spicy peppers, beef and onion).
Or we could buy them in Sainsburys!
This branch is always fairly busy being so close to Princes’ St but the service is usually good and the wait is worth it!

Pizza express is a good place to have a quick bite to eat. The menu is very reasonable and they are currently offering a 2 for 1 voucher too if you register your emaill address for their newsletter.
They offer a very efficent, friendly and competitive service. Catering for children too.
The restaurant itself is never overly busy (can be when they have offers on though) the atmosphere is very nice too with little spotlights highlighting each table induvidualy.
I would highly recommend the ‘pollo pancetta’ a lovely chicken pizza with peppers and pancetta, the normal tomato based sauce is substituted for a red and yellow pepper version which is subtly sweet. mmm! if pizzas not your thing they also do some lovely pasta and salad dishes.

This was absolutely packed the night I was in, but the service was still pretty reasonable. The food is good. Far more traditional than pizza hut, but not as good as some italian restaurants. The pizza bases can be extremely difficult to cut and sharper knifes would help alot!

Service a bit disappointing, and our pizza when it arrived was burnt. Given how many great little italian places there are dotted around the city, I would give it a miss!

Edinburgh has quite the selection of Pizza Expresses.
The general rules of Pizza Express as thus:
Delicious simple italian style pizzas that all taste fairly similar.
Salads that are actually filling and fresh.
Good value but less so these days — a Veneziana used to be about £5.50, it’s now over £6 and the most expensive pizzas cost nearly £10.
You can usually see the chefs getting everything prepared and cooked.
Simple décor and clean, airy ambience.
This particular branch is hotly located on North Bridge and as a result gets very busy during the festival. However, it does have quite a few covers so can usually fit in a table for 2 quite swiftly. The service here has always been pretty good and you can often see festival celebs (i.e. not real ones) in here.

Very classy for a pizza place, and i like the fact you can see the pizzas being freshly prepared (and it kept my kids amused). The food is lovely, if not a bit pricey for what it actually is though. The service was fast and efficient and the waitress kept making sure the kids were ok too. I had the best wine ever in there, it was the house white, Isola Talia i think it was called. It was so fruity and went down a little to well :) The food was piping hot and portions were of a good size. Kids were given an activity pack, so that kept them amused too. I like this place, and i will most certainly be back :)

A very stylish place for a pizza, with a modern style and glass front looking onto north bridge. You get to see the pizzas being tossed as their made in the open kitchen. Although this is a great central restaurant, I would say that it is worth visiting the other branch of pizza express, at Deanhaugh street, for a better view and more unique setting looking over the water.
Service has always been friendly and efficient, and the menu is varied with non-​pizza options as well. Any pizza with an egg on top comes recommended, as does the tagliatelle dish!