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“"What do you expect we are busy, it's always like this"”

written by nottinghamfella on 20/04/2012

After a very disappointing dining experience on Wednesday 21 March 2012 at at the Pizza Express Salford Quays outlet, I am writing this review.

My partner booked a table at 17.45 hours for 7 people. We had tickets to the theatre which commenced at 19.30 hours, we had 90 minutes to have dinner and some drinks before continuing out night out at the theatre.

All of the guests arrived by 17.45.

By 18.00 we asked for a second time for a drinks order to be taken and after asking for a third time a male member of staff took a drinks order. 5 minutes later half of our drinks order arrived minus one bottle of wine (we ordered two) and some water for the 7 guests.

At around 18.30 after asking two members of staff for a food order to be taken (apparently we asked people who were not responsible for our table)?

There was no sign of clear management, completely different food orders arrived at our table. we even received starters which we did not even order. I spoke to a blond hair member of staff (who was in casual clothes) replied by telling me what do you expect, its busy and the food was for the next door table. She did not even apologise for the confusion. I also asked her where the missing wine was. It still did not arrive whilst we were there.

When the food eventually arrived, there was further confusion over the size of the pizza bases. The member of staff who took our order told us he only made an order for one La Reine on a thick and crispy base and one on a small and thick base. There was no apology for the confusion or offer to replace the wrongly made orders. All of our guests were disappointed with the quality of the pizza's. Totally overdone with watery tomato sauce and lacking toppings. Both La Reine pizzas only had three very small pieces of ham and over 20 olives on them and the bases were soggy.

After partially eating our food, and waiting 15 minutes for our plates to be cleared, we ran out of time to order more drinks, desserts and coffee, we had to lave and go to the theatre next door. After approaching three members of staff to ask for the bill and to complain, our bill arrived moments before the curtain opened at the theatre.

Both myself and my partner spoke to the male member of staff mentioning that were were unhappy with the poor food and service. He replied by saying "what do you expect its orange Wednesday's, its always this busy"

After being in the restaurant 100 minutes we just managed to eat one pizza and have one drink each.

As we were leaving a female manager with dark hair approached us and asked if we enjoyed ourselves. Unfortunately we didn't and I explained briefly what went wrong. I was asked for 10 minutes to speak to her, but as we had to rush to the theatre as service was so slow.

I emailed Pizza Express where the restaurant manager emailed me offering me a free meal (later on this was confirmed as a pizza)

I emailed the restaurant manager back where my email was not replied to.

A week later I emailed the managing director where the email complaint got dealt with my their customer relations team where I offered a £30 gift card, which was accepted.