Pizza Express

I was very impressed with the service I received! I'm coeliac so was concerned about ordering through Deliveroo. The manager went above and beyond for me, even offering me changes that weren't possible through the app. She was kind and patient and the food was spot on. Its actually rare you get service like this, especially from a chain restaurant. Its the people that make a business.

Absolutely shocked with the service tonight. Me and my partner usually go to the Lexicon but decided after coming back from the airport that we would pop into our local pizza express (1 minute walk) to end our holiday. On arrival, we weren’t greeted by the hostess/manager instead, we were shouted at across the restaurant to follow her. Basically had no interaction or pleasantries but we decided that we would ignore that and hope it can only get better. When our server came over, the greeting wasn’t warming at all and was quite abrupt, ordered our drinks and a jug of tap water (which we never received) we ordered and specifically asked for starters to come out with mains (repeated twice) and also specified my allergy which I wanted to apply to both starters (so they both became gluten free). The waitress did not seem interested in us at all and that didn’t make us feel great but again we moved on. To be fair, it looked like she was the only one working - So maybe she was quite busy but at the end of the day the manager should’ve been helping/supporting her. Our starters finally came out and was incorrect, so one was sent back to be remade (to be gluten free). No apology, instead tried to argue that I said something else and didn’t ask for this to be gluten free. We finished one starter and then the remake came over to which my partner asked the lady how long our pizzas were going to be, as we asked for everything to come out together. She just looked and said she will check and then a couple of minutes later came back and said will be two minutes. Again no apology. About 10 minutes later, our pizzas arrived, our waitress who dropped them at our table seemed like she couldn’t get away quick enough. Again no service, no asking would we like anything else? My partner wanted chilli oil and tried to look for the lady but ended up giving up because she didn’t return. Instead he went to get a bottle from the side as we clearly realised we weren’t going to be served. Then a member of staff started shouting at him. Then our waitress said to him, that she was going to come over and ask if we want anything else. But was a bit late by then. He felt so embarrassed and quite furious, that he was shouted at by a member of staff because he grabbed some chilli oil, due to lack of service. He returned to the table and expressed that he wanted to leave. So I got up to find the waitress and get 2 takeaway boxes and told her we were going to leave (paying the bill online). She came over and only then started to apologise for shouting at my partner and for all the other things but I made her aware that we appreciate she seems like the only one working but this just wasn’t acceptable and the service was extremely poor. She got the bill and apologised again, but no sign of manager or anyone acting as manager - which I think is pretty awful. The waitress added a discount for our poor experience which I did appreciate but at the end of the day i didn’t complain for this to be the outcome. My complaint was made because I have never been out to dinner with my partner and him being made so upset and furious by the treatment that we have wanted to leave. The fact that no manager came over is not great and we tried to look for her on the way out and was nowhere to be seen. Just extremely shocked with tonight’s experience, no check ins with our food, no apologies for mistakes/issues along the way and no manager to come and address the issue when my partner was shouted at.